Booby trap clause

Pipval

Hello, we have recently been asked to pay a fee to an estate agent we used but did not sell our house through. Has anyone come across this situation? Thank you…

Albermarle

What does the contract you signed with them say ?

loubel

What is the fee for?

eddddy

Presumably the estate agent has told you why they believe you owe them a fee. What did they say?

(And does whatever they said match the contract you agreed to?)

400ixl

Duplicate thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6532609/estate-agents#latest

Pipval

The contract we signed was a 12 week one. What seems to be the problem is that a client introduced by AE1 later brought our property through AR2

RHemmings

You should not have to pay two lots of fees. This is against the code of conduct of the Property Ombudsman Scheme. 

First, can you check if both of the agents are registered with the Property Ombudsman Scheme, or if one or both of them are registered with the Property Redress Scheme. You should be able to find this information on their websites. 

If they are both with TPOS, then this is possibly the easiest case. TPOS should be able to mediate and decide which of the agents receives which percentage of your fee. 

There are case studies showing how this works on TPOS site. E.g. https://www.tpos.co.uk/news-media-and-press-releases/case-studies/item/dual-fee-deception-or-dilemma

If one or both are members of the PRS, then it may be more complicated, but again you should not have to pay two lots of fees. 

Pipval

Thank you for the information. Unfortunately we are now at the stage where we are waiting for a summons to the small claims court. There does seem to be a lot of information missing from both AE1 AND AE2 files 

eddddy

Pipval said:

The contract we signed was a 12 week one. What seems to be the problem is that a client introduced by AE1 later brought our property through AR2

I'm not sure why you gave such little information in your original post... but anyway...

A key question is: Are both estate agents members of The Property Ombudsman Scheme?



You'll be in a much better position if they are members, as their code of practice deals with this situation.

Also, when did you sell the property?

Pipval

Sorry for the lack of information. We sold the property in June 2021, a debt collection agency contacted me by email in February 2023. We contacted them immediately to find out what the problem was . It seems under the T&C of AE1 the client they introduced to the property bought the property through AE2 within 6 months (24 weeks) which contravened a clause, I contacted AE1 to ask for a copy of the withdrawal letter that would have the names dates and times of all clients sent to view the property and any legal liabilities we had after the contract had ended . The letter was not in the file so no copy could be sent . We have also contacted AE2 for all documents in there file , they seem very hesitant to send them and we have had to issue a subject to access request. AE2 got back within to hours of receiving the request that after weeks of asking and being ignored… 

RAS

Did AE1 provide a list of people who they introduced when you terminated the contract?
If so, did you provide that to AE2?