Estate Agent(s) Fee Clause - 'Ready Willing and Able Purchaser'

blueskies1985

Sounds more than fair to me since often estate agents work entirely for free for 6 months or more, only for the buyer or seller to take their house off the market when they change their mind. 

In the mean time the agent has spent hundreds on marketing, fuel costs for viewings, hours on the computer, hours on the phone talking to you and potential buyers, and possibly hours trying to complete on the sale too. 

You wouldn’t be able to get out of paying a kitchen fitter, if they’d designed and prepared your kitchen for a renovation and ordered the kitchen, and you wouldn’t not pay a solicitor for the time they’d spent on your sale or divorce. 

Hoenir

blueskies1985 said:

Sounds more than fair to me since often estate agents work entirely for free for 6 months or more, only for the buyer or seller to take their house off the market when they change their mind. 

In the mean time the agent has spent hundreds on marketing, fuel costs for viewings, hours on the computer, hours on the phone talking to you and potential buyers, and possibly hours trying to complete on the sale too. 

You wouldn’t be able to get out of paying a kitchen fitter, if they’d designed and prepared your kitchen for a renovation and ordered the kitchen, and you wouldn’t not pay a solicitor for the time they’d spent on your sale or divorce. 

Purple Bricks was a great concept in how to lower transacton costs. Has never gained traction though. People would prefer to pay higher fees on the basis of there being an outcome. As a result picking up the tab for all the failures as well. 

blueskies1985

Hoenir said:

blueskies1985 said:

Sounds more than fair to me since often estate agents work entirely for free for 6 months or more, only for the buyer or seller to take their house off the market when they change their mind. 

In the mean time the agent has spent hundreds on marketing, fuel costs for viewings, hours on the computer, hours on the phone talking to you and potential buyers, and possibly hours trying to complete on the sale too. 

You wouldn’t be able to get out of paying a kitchen fitter, if they’d designed and prepared your kitchen for a renovation and ordered the kitchen, and you wouldn’t not pay a solicitor for the time they’d spent on your sale or divorce. 

Purple Bricks was a great concept in how to lower transacton costs. Has never gained traction though. People would prefer to pay higher fees on the basis of there being an outcome. As a result picking up the tab for all the failures as well. 

Purple bricks never gained traction because people cottoned on very quick that they take your money and make no effort to sell your house. 

An agent asking that you agree to a clause that you pay if you as a seller pull out, has nothing to do with their ability, it’s about making sure that you as a client don’t mess them about. 

They wouldn’t put that clause in unless they’re confident of their abilities, as it will only put off the flakey clients that they don’t want anyway. 

If you’re serious about selling then you’ll agree to it. 

AskAsk

ReadingTim said:

Yes, absolutely standard and ensures that the EA covers the costs they will have incurred in finding a buyer (staff costs, marketing costs, general business overheads) if the vendor simply decides to pull out.  

A chain collapsing isn't a reason to withdraw from a sale - it just means the EA needs to start again - the "ready, willing and able buyer" they previously found is no longer "able", so the clause (and charges) ceases to apply until another is found.  

this is not standard!  i have sold many properties and I have never come across this clause.

my in-laws put their property on sale last year and this was in their contract.  i think it may be common in certain parts of the country.  they live up north, we live down south.

OP - you state that they all seem to have this clause in their contracts, do you live up north?  it would sound to be standard where you are located if you say they all seem to have it in their contracts.

timjim

If the chain breaks down then the agent will not have introduced a Ready, Willing and Able buyer, because  the buyer will not be ready or able to proceed therefore no fees are payable.

Olinda99

if your purchase fails the rwa clause means you must still sell (or pay the fees). Avoid it.

pinkshoes

theclangers7 said:

ReadingTim and FlorayG - thanks for the replies. My main concern was if the house I am buying falls through due to the upper chain collapsing or a poor survey etc  and therefore I would not want to complete the sale my own property unless I found another suitable property which is never guaranteed. 

In which case you still have a ready, willing and able buyer who will just have to be patient whilst you find another property! 

And if they're not willing to wait then they're not willing, are they?

Olinda99

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that - if they are ready willing and able to go ahead and with exchange but you refuse then if they pull out you are liable for the agent fees

A couple of other points. If you have an rwa clause in your contract then make sure you list the property as for example 'offers above' or 'guide price' rather than a fixed price because if you list it as a fixed price and someone offers that then it is sold you have no choice in the matter other than to refuse and then pay the agents fees

If it is 'offers above' then you can always say no that's not enough

The other thing is if you have a purchase in mind then accept the offer on your property 'subject to exchange on your purchase' i.e don't just accept it without conditions

RHemmings

Olinda99 said:

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that - if they are ready willing and able to go ahead and with exchange but you refuse then if they pull out you are liable for the agent fees

As per the elderly TPOS information, the problem is that the application of those clauses isn't limited to a seller just pulling out right before exchange with no wider context. As per comments above, individuals may clarify what is meant by a RWA buyer to exclude some other situations. 

Herzlos

Olinda99 said:

A couple of other points. If you have an rwa clause in your contract then make sure you list the property as for example 'offers above' or 'guide price' rather than a fixed price because if you list it as a fixed price and someone offers that then it is sold you have no choice in the matter other than to refuse and then pay the agents fees

Why would you not want to automatically accept an offer of a fixed price? That's basically how they work. If you want to hold out for more then you'd list as offers above/around.