Signed contract with agent with a capped comission, agent says pay full comission!

seth

Hi there I signed a contract with an agent to sell our house we discussed the rate and terms. I asked if I could make variations to the standard terms as I did not agree to their standard terms and rate. The agent was also adamant they could sell the property in 2 weeks if there were sole agents.

We were with another agent at the time and so I explained that before I would engage them there were 2 preconditions

1) The rate and terms would need to reflect a reduced rate and ceiling if they were unable to sell the property during the sole agency period
2) There would be a 2 week multiple agency period followed by 2 weeks sole agency followed by a multiple agency agreement.

I was sent a standard contract by email to alter, they said I could alter it print it and they would sign it. They signed. They found a buyer well after their 2 week sole agency agreement had expired. The signed contact clear caps their fee in this case.

After the sale my solicitor got an invoice based on their standard terms uncapped. They say they never agreed to a cap, even though this is clearly in the sign contracts.

I got a letter from their solicitors asking who altered the contract, with some veiled threat that if I do not reply within 7 days I'll have to pay some costs for court action.

Not sure what to do next, can I approach the citizens advice people? Any advice welcome.

barnaby-bear

seth wrote: »

Hi there I signed a contract with an agent to sell our house we discussed the rate and terms. I asked if I could make variations to the standard terms as I did not agree to their standard terms and rate. The agent was also adamant they could sell the property in 2 weeks if there were sole agents.

We were with another agent at the time and so I explained that before I would engage them there were 2 preconditions

1) The rate and terms would need to reflect a reduced rate and ceiling if they were unable to sell the property during the sole agency period
2) There would be a 2 week multiple agency period followed by 2 weeks sole agency followed by a multiple agency agreement.

I was sent a standard contract by email to alter, they said I could alter it print it and they would sign it. They signed. They found a buyer well after their 2 week sole agency agreement had expired. The signed contact clear caps their fee in this case.

After the sale my solicitor got an invoice based on their standard terms uncapped. They say they never agreed to a cap, even though this is clearly in the sign contracts.

I got a letter from their solicitors asking who altered the contract, with some veiled threat that if I do not reply within 7 days I'll have to pay some costs for court action.

Not sure what to do next, can I approach the citizens advice people? Any advice welcome.

Give your solicitor your contract and tell him the invoice is wrong - you are paying him...

seth

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Give your solicitor your contract and tell him the invoice is wrong - you are paying him...

I did this, we even offered to send payment for the amount on the contact (Capped). The Estate Agent declined the money, my solicitor said this was "noted".
The estate agent wrote back saying we did not agree to these terms.
My solicitor read the contract and seemed to think that the contract showed they had agreed. Got 5 letters from the estate agents asking me to pay the full amount, now their solicitors have said the same. I keep being sent their standard contract to sign / review which I do not want to do.

I'm tempted to just write down what has happened and send the catalogue of events to my estate agents solicitor. I'm not sure I want or need to get into a dialogue about emails and who edited contracts etc, not sure that is relevant and it was 8 months ago, so it might end up as my word against the Estate Agents branch manager.

I wanted to think about this before replying.

I looked on the CAB page FAQ for buying a house, problems, and it said with Estate agent contact I should check the written contract, which says fees are capped, and any verbal agreements. All my terms and rates and caps are in the signed printed contact (no hand written alterations). So I'm not keen to discuss these other concerns directly with the estate agents solicitors who will not have my interests in mind.

chappers

Get your solicitor to deal with it. Get him to ask for the EA copy which states an agreement contrary to yours

Trollfever

Drag it out for as long as you can and with any luck the EA will have gone bust.

moneyman77

A contract is a contract and too bad for him

barnaby-bear

moneyman77 wrote: »

A contract is a contract and too bad for him

Signed contract.... sounds pretty clear

seth

Thanks for the advice. I'm sending my solicitor the letter from the EA Solicitors.

seth

chappers wrote: »

Get your solicitor to deal with it. Get him to ask for the EA copy which states an agreement contrary to yours

I think the EA is saying they never agreed to these new terms. Despite the signed contract as you say perhaps they think something has superseded this. Will get onto the solicitor. Their solicitor is now asking me who altered the contract, trying to make it sound as if I altered the doc without their consent or knowledge. The dialogue to alter the contract was verbal, but I was careful to make sure they signed the contract BEFORE we allowed them to take photos, advertise and show the house.

Jorgan_2

Did the agent sign the contract before it was e-mailed to you or did you make the changes to the signed contract?

If you made the changes & then the agent signed, they have agreed to the new terms. If they signed & you then changed the agreement, they may have a case.

chappers

If you can show them a signed copy of the contract it doesn't matter if father christmas signed it, if this went to court and they couldn't produce a signed contrat to contradict the one you have then i'm sure a judge would find in your favour.
Was every page of the contract signed, the only wriggle out I could see is if say one of the middle pages was altered and is different to their normal contract, then they will try saying that you altered it at a later date.
This is just EAs living up to their sharp reputations, why are they not just happy with the multi agency commision.