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Estate agents
Pipval
Posts: 27 Forumite
Hello, we’ve been recently asked to pay a fee to an estate agents we used but didn’t sell our house through. There seems to be a booby trap clause in the terms and conditions. Has anyone come across this situation, thank you
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have you sold the house? or was there a "pay up even if it doesn't sell" clause?I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Debt Free Wannabe and Old Style Money Saving boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
"Never retract, never explain, never apologise; get things done and let them howl.” Nellie McClung
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Pipval said:
I think a bit more information is needed as to exactly what 'this situation' is and the reason why the estate agent is saying you should pay?Hello, we’ve been recently asked to pay a fee to an estate agents we used but didn’t sell our house through. There seems to be a booby trap clause in the terms and conditions. Has anyone come across this situation, thank you
The two most common reasons I can think of are either that it's a 'pay a fixed fee up front regardless of whether we sell it' type of deal, or that they are claiming that they originally introduced the eventual buyer.1 -
AE 1 are claiming rightly that they did introduce the eventual buyer.0
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The House Buying etc board is where EA contract queries usually live:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling
but if you moved to a new agent then the normal process is that EA1 passes on a list of everyone they have "introduced", and those are excluded from EA2 being able to claim commission. Did none of that happen?0 -
No. We got in touch by email to AE1 to send all documents including the withdrawal letter which would have names dates and times of any viewers to the property and what our legal obligation would be after the 12 week term of the contract had ended. We received an email a week later from the manager to say that there was no withdrawal letter in the file…0
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When we bought, I had to tell an agent that a property they wanted to show us (they'd emailed details over) was one we had already seen with a different agent - it was the spot we eventually bought, but I didn't want to leave our sellers on the hook for two lots of fees so I didn't view with agent 2 and was clear about why that was.Pipval said:AE 1 are claiming rightly that they did introduce the eventual buyer.
The problem partly is your buyers presumably didn't mention this to the second agent, so I think you are possibly on the hook for both fees.2 -
Then assuming the contract says you must pay them in those circumstances, you do owe them.Pipval said:AE 1 are claiming rightly that they did introduce the eventual buyer.
Why do you describe it as a "booby trap clause"? Is it unclear?1 -
To catch the unaware … both estate agents are members of the ombudsman scheme therefore they have to adhere to a code of practice, this is mandatory under the scheme.. as both agencies seem to have skipped a few obligations that are mandatory they may find that they have to explain to the property ombudsman why the code wasn’t adhered to…
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There seems to be a booby trap clause in the terms and conditions.If it is in the T&C then there should not be any unwary unless they didn’t read what they were signing up to.1
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