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

zzzLazyDaisy

Just a thought - does your house insurance have legal cover? If so, get them to have a look at it.

seth

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Just a thought - does your house insurance have legal cover? If so, get them to have a look at it.

I think I have legal cover on the new house, indeed the cover started during the time of the dispute and sale as I had to have buildings cover from after exchange. Thanks I will check this.

seth

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

I would send the sols a letter explaining once and for all that the price was £x amount, as set out in the agreed contract and signed by [name] on behalf of the company prior to marketing the property.

OK I have a scanned PDF of the original signed contract I can attach this to the letter.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Then say that you are enclosing a cheque for the said amount, and as far as you are concerned, that is the end of the matter.

At the time of completion the funds were available to my solicitor. When they tried to pay, the funds were not accepted, and my solicitor noted this. The EA states that I have altered the agreement without their consent and knowledge. But the EA's own written correspondence to me prior to the sale confirms the reduced rate I had discussed with them so clearly they had read and accepted the contract they signed as the rate was much lower than their standard rate.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Tell them that no further correspondence will be entered into, and they must not write to you again unless it is to issue proceedings.

I see.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

The reason I say send them the cheque is that you accept that you do owe them that sum of money, and if the matter should come to court, you will be whiter than white, having paid what you say was owed.

I think the fact that my solicitor had the funds and tried to pay the EA but the EA refused may amount to the same thing? Happy to send a real cheque if you think that would help?

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

DO NOT make the mistake of marking the letter 'without prejudice' as this will prevent you from showing the letter to the judge if it does come to court - however this is not very likely as they will incur solicitors fees which - based on the information you have given us - they are very unlikely to get back.

I'm not sure, EA have industrial contract with solicitors so their cost of litigation I'd suspect is much lower than mine. Also reason and logic seem not to be a characteristic I've noticed when dealing with the director of the EA. They seemed to send me 2 letters saying pay us the amount due on our standard contract with the reduced rate, we never agreed to a fixed price. I wrote back asking questions, which were not answered: "I have a sign contract for a fixed price fees when sold via multiple agency. What evidence do you have that no fixed price agreement is in place?".

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

However - please note if you offer more than the contractual amount, then you SHOULD mark the letter 'without prejudice save as to the question of costs' and tell them this letter is sent in accordance with section 36 (otherwise you are deemed to be admitting that you do infact owe the higher amount)

Good point, section 36 of what?! Sorry I'm not a legal person.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

If it helps, I had a dispute with an EA over a bill (advertising was supposed to be included, they changed their terms halfway through marketing the house and tried to get me to cough up for the advertising after the change) I refused, paid what I owed, and after a long long silence, they wrote and said they would not be taking the matter any further (keep all your papers for 6 years tho, just in case)

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Thanks for sharing this, I fear that as the difference is >£11k the EA director will think its £11k we can throw £3k of legal time at it. And £3k of their legal budget will be about £5-6k of mine as they buy lawyer time in bulk.

seth

notatroll wrote: »

Seth, you talking about related ‘stress’ makes me want to cuddle you. I dislike solicitors but if they bully you out of £11k with no proof they deserve the money and not you. Courts aren’t made for them to make money, you know. Just to recoup: I understand you have no negative history, reasonably ‘good citizen’ and EAs do not have any proof that you have acted with any untoward intent, the evidence you have described here shows quite the contrary. In the end EA’s ‘losses’ would be deducted from the sales person’s bonuses and forgotten about. (If you managed to sleep with her/him and now feel sorry - go ahead and share) They would even accept your other properties to sell if that is what you want. Go speak to the EA firm’s principle if you do not want any more stress - tell that you would agree to leave it out of court and pay full £3.5k out of you pure goodwill - you can even offer him/her a ‘commiseration’ dinner if that makes you feel better. Otherwise file a ‘Seth against EAs’ harassment case

I see your point. Perhaps a meeting with the director of the EA might help, it certainly can be any worse than the muddle with lawyers and letters saying I said / they said.

seth

I asked for some time to talk to my solicitor... after they took over 4 weeks to reply to me...

I received your letter dated the 15th April on the 17th April and sent a copy to my Solicitors. Clearly there is a difference of opinion between your client and myself. I hope we may resolve in a timely manner, without the need to resorting to court action.

To do this I would like some more time to take up the points you raised with my solicitor. My solicitor was only able to respond to with their comments to your letter yesterday. I am drafting a full response to your letter with some material that both you and your client may wish to consider. I hope to have this sent to you within 48 hours, via email?

Could you also acknowledge receipt of this email. I have called and left a voice mail for you this morning with no response. I thought that this brief email would both help clarify the position and help keep you and your client updated with progress toward resolving matters amicably in a timely fashion.
Please feel free to contact me via email or phone.


I look forward to your response.

Blah....

This was the reply I got....

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email.

I look forward to hearing from you or your solicitor by no later than 4pm on Friday 25th April 2008.

Regards ...

So thats just over the 48 hours I asked for around noon today

seth

Just a note to say thanks to all the people that have taken the time to post comments and suggestions. I'm taking time to note down all the excellent points to make a really strong case to them:

1. Funds for EA made available for payment at time of completion, payment refuse by EA.
2. EA's own computer system has reduced rate based on signed contract prior to sale. After sale EA denies knowledge of revised contract. Written evidence of revised contract being on their computer system provided by EA themselves.
3. EA states document was read only. On inspection the contract was an editable word document not a PDF. Further my solicitor confirms that the original sent to me from EA was editable.
4. I have asked repeatedly how the EA can claim they were not aware of the revised contract signed in April 07 when the wording that has been changed from the standard contract is less than 3 cm from the place where the EA signed. It is a single page contract not a multi page document, one would expect a professional sales person to notice the revised rate and terms. Especially when I rejected the printed copies left for me to sign the previous day and asked for a soft copy that I could alter.
5. EA has made several mistakes: With the sale of the property, telling me that my buyer was no longer interested and I'd have to re market at a lower price. I had to meet with my buyer and negotiate. Hardly the service I expected from a professional EA. After the sale I was told by the EA that the contract was not joint, but sole agency so they were entitled to 1.4%. Later I was told they did not accept the revised contract they had signed. Despite these claims I have written confirmation prior to the sale they had details of the revised contract on their own computer system. Communication between branches very poor, during and after sale. I still get letters at my new house from EA to the "Occupier" asking if I want to sell as they offer an excellent professional service.
6. In January I was sent 4 copies of the EA standard contract to sign, which I declined.

Bit late now so I'll incorporate these and any other suggestions into a letter tomorrow.

Many thanks.

Seth.

reehsetin

i'm not sure if including the problems with the sale with help
it would look to me (i'm not a professional so please discuss with your own solicitor) that you were bitter about the sale and therefore wanted to get out of paying the fees

i would say stick to the legal facts!

->

Especially when I rejected the printed copies left for me to sign the previous day and asked for a soft copy that I could alter.

very strong point! completely rebuts what their solicitor has said

chappers

Seth

A word of advice, you are now recieving leters from their solicitor, I would be letting your solicitor deal with this and directing their solicitor to speak to him.
Whilst your letter is very thorough, IMHO it is abit long winded an convoluted , stick only to the facts that you have documented evidence for with regards to the change in contracts.Sometimes the less you say the less you leave yourself open to. Let them continue to tie themselves up in the lies they have started.

I would not make them an offer at this stage , infact I wouldn't make them an offer full stop.

I would keep all communication by letter from now on.

I would never ever use these agents again.

Alan_M_2

Get your solicitor to deal with this, you have a signed contract and I don't see why you are even discussing anything with them.

You have an agreement, take it or leave it, and £2000 to £3000 buys you a lot of solicitors time (and trust me I know this, I run a business and have to use solicitors for everything so I don't get screwed by complex contracts!).

Fight this every step of the way, and I would hope to get costs awarded too. Do not give in. These people use solicitors to intimidate and browbeat people into paying so all the stress will go away.

Mostly they're full of sh*t and just trying to push you to paying. Fight it tooth and nail!

seth

seth wrote: »

I think I have legal cover on the new house, indeed the cover started during the time of the dispute and sale as I had to have buildings cover from after exchange. Thanks I will check this.

I have legal but it is only for making a claim, not defending a claim, relating to consumer contracts.