Unfair Estate Agents Fee

mike69_2

We have recently withdrawn our house from the market as we had problems with our mortgage application.

We had a buyer lined up, and we were very sorry and gutted about having to take the house off the market, but we had no choice.

This morning I had an invoice from the estate agents for £500 + Vat for "admin fees". Their T&C's state -

"However if a purchaser is introduced that is willing to pay your asking price or whose offer is accepted by you and you later withdraw your instructions through no fault of the purchaser, an administrative fee of £500.00 plus VAT will be charged"

Unfortunately I've signed these T&C's but I still feel very hard done by, and I feel I've been misled. On the estate agents website it states - "No sale no fee guaranteed" and "no withdrawal fee". Am I the victim of misleading information? How can they justify £500 for admin?

I've checked with other agents in the area and none of them have this charge. I'm considering claiming that we didn't ever accept the offer, and that we were simply considering it pending our mortgage application appointment. Would this work? How could they prove we had accepted, we didn't ever instruct a solicitor?


Myself and my Wife are gutted about this we really can't afford £587 and think we are being unfairly charged. Is there anything we can do even though we have signed the T&C’s?

Many thanks in advance
Mike.

Jorgan_2

Do you have it writing from the EA that you accepted the offer? If so, they have proof that you accepted it.

As for £500 for admin fees, depending on what they define as admin, it could be quite easy to get to this figure.

Without seeing the full wording of the contract, its very difficult to advise you, but heres my thoughts:

With the 'no sale-no fee guaranteed' and the 'no withdrawl fees' are there any asterixs or numbers by them that lead to the small print?

They may claim that they haven't charged you a withdrawl fee, rather an admin fee. How need to know how they define these two, all they sound the same to me. They may be in breach of advertising rules with the 'no sale no fee guaranteed' by charging you any fee.

Persoanlly I would speak to the EA & challenge the fee, highlighting the no sale no fee, if that fails, threaten them with and if need be approach trading standards.

mike69_2

Jorgan wrote: »

Do you have it writing from the EA that you accepted the offer? If so, they have proof that you accepted it.

As for £500 for admin fees, depending on what they define as admin, it could be quite easy to get to this figure.

Without seeing the full wording of the contract, its very difficult to advise you, but heres my thoughts:

With the 'no sale-no fee guaranteed' and the 'no withdrawl fees' are there any asterixs or numbers by them that lead to the small print?

They may claim that they haven't charged you a withdrawl fee, rather an admin fee. How need to know how they define these two, all they sound the same to me. They may be in breach of advertising rules with the 'no sale no fee guaranteed' by charging you any fee.

Persoanlly I would speak to the EA & challenge the fee, highlighting the no sale no fee, if that fails, threaten them with and if need be approach trading standards.

Hi, thanks for the advice. In response to your question there are no asterixs etc leading to any small print.

How would i find out if they are in breach of advertising rules?

Thanks again
Mike

wymondham

maybe during a boom market you'd get away with it, but i suspect they need fee's wherever possible now

MarkyMarkD

You signed the Ts & Cs. End of story.

It's irrelevant what the advertising said, once you were given the full Ts & Cs and signed to accept them.

And, in any case, they DID obtain a sale for you. It was you who chose to cancel the sale, not their buyer.

I can't honestly see why you think this is unfair.

Strapped

Sorry, but I agree with MarkyMarkD.

inmypocketnottheirs

Eons ago, when god was in short trousers, I ran an estate agency business. Our wording then was 'Commission will be payable at the agreed rate of x% should we introduce a buyer who is ready, willing and able to proceed to exchange of contracts.' The commission was then payable on exchange.

The agent here has done his job, and has limited your exposure to £500+ VAT. It is not their fault either that you can not proceed. I think their fee is reasonable on the basis of the job they have done. And further more, you signed and agreed to the terms.

Felicity

I agree, you signed the t&cs, the estate agent did the work, so you should pay them.

Sorry if it is not what you want to hear but its probably a lesson learned, review the t&cs for anything that you are signing up for.

Estate agents have a bad reputation, but they did what was asked of them and so they should be paid for the work they did. It is not their fault that the sale fell through.

Pumpkin_Pie_5

As a buyer who was left nearly a couple of grand out of pocket after our vendor "got cold feet in the curent market" and decided not to sell, I for one think it's only fair. The estate agent did their job - As has been said its not their fault you won't proceed.

dexters_mum_2

Although the fall through of your sale wasn't your fault entirely, the estate agent has probably advertised your house on internet portals, newpaper advertising, produced copies of details, matched your house with potential purchasers, accompanied viewings to your house and negotiated a sale for you. Their costs have to be covered and I do appreciate that it was your mortgage application that let you down, you can't expect anyone to do this for nowt!

Have you tried getting a mortgage elsewhere or using a whole of market broker to see if they can help you at all with your mortgage.

I think also, your buyer would back up the estate agent if you took it further, they would obviously be disappointed your have pulled out, and possibly they had instructed solicitors to proceed, which would substiate the EA's position.

However, there may be room for negotiation, how long were you on the market?

DM

Generali

As far as I can see you have three choices:

1. Cough up the cash
2. Try to negotiate a smaller figure
3. Say to them something along the lines of, "Screw you, I ain't paying" and make them take you to court and thus test the legality of the clause.

I suggest you try #2 but the choice is yours. Out of interest, did you read the contract before you signed?