switched agents who gets commission.

chappers

Some of you are probably aware of the palaver my wife and her brothers have gone through trying to sell ahouse, well the situation has become even more complicated.

Due to the poor way in which the original agent handled the sale, we terminated their contract and instructed another agent to market the property. In the original agents T&C there is a six month introducers clause which says that they are entitled to their commission if any buyer they previously introduced purchases the property within six months of us terminating the agreement.

Well now the guy who originally was going to buy the property has managed to now secure his finance and has matched his original offer through the old agent, we currently have a sole agency agreement with the new agents.

My question is ,Is there any way we can sell to him without paying two lots of commissions, neither of the agents are willing to split the commission.
should we just sell to him through the original agents and hope the new agents don't find out, how do agents usually find out if they have missed out on commissions they should have got under these circumstances.

I feel a quite bad about this as the original agents were useless and even misled us during the sale process and the new agents have worked hard and secured a few viewings, all be it only producing ridiculously low offers.

if we have to we will pay the two sets of commissions but would obviously not want to if we can help it.

Any ideas
Cheers

Gareth

PasturesNew

I had this. All agents know there is a list of people who have been introduced by Agent1. When I moved to Agent2 I said "there's a list". They didn't mind ... until I told them it was a list of 30!

Anyway, Agent1's client turned up again (through Agent1) and was proceedable. So I completed with them. Agent2 was fine because they were on the original list.... OK, miffed, but fine.

So I only paid commission to Agent1 as per our collective understanding when I changed agents that anybody introduced by Agent1 and on the list was payable to Agent1. And my buyer wasn't introduced by Agent2 (keeping it simple).

Agent1 and Agent2 both agreed at the switch-over time that the list was the way they do it - and all agents know this and accept it.

Both my agreements were Sole Agency. My buyer was only ever introduced by Agent1. I was provided with a typed list when I left Agent1, that I read out to Agent2 over the phone.

Hope you get yours sorted.

Jorgan_2

Why do the second agents think they have a right to the fee? The buyer wasn't introduced during their agency agreement, from memory this buyer had offered previously, so I can't see what claim the second agent has.

PasturesNew

Just had a thought, what professional groups are they both a member of? If they are a member of the same group, you could check this through with the professional body.

If they are members of different groups, you can ask both what they think (probably anonymously in the first instance).

If neither is a member of any group, I'd call a meeting with them both at the same time and all 3 sit round a table together.

But you should only pay one set. They're just desperate. Agent2 probably wouldn't want to attend a meeting as he'd know he'd look desperate and he'd want Agent1 to think it was OK and he didn't need the money.

chappers

Cheers folks with regards to the agents my thinking was also that agent 2 shouldn't get any commission. We did get a list of introduced parties from agent 1 in case there was any comeback from them but stupidly didn't give it to agent 2, nor did they ask for one, even though they new we had marketed the property through another agent. I will find out the full ins and outs as my brother-in-law dealt with the agents , I think agent 2 is trying to get their commission as there is a sole agency agreement in place.

Jorgan glad to hear what you are saying as that is pretty much what has happened agent 2 has had no part in the new offer from the purchaser, and as you say he was already previously introduced before the new agreement.

Cheers
You have both put my mind at rest.Hopefully we can finally get this place sold.

RabbitMad

agent 2's agreement doesn't say something like
"or with a buyer introduced by another agent during the period" because if it did then this other agent didn't introduce the buyer during that period.