Unfair Estate Agents Fee

m1ntie

I agree, the EA did there job and need to be payed.

I dont know what you do for a living - but lets just suppose you are a carpenter and your employer asks you to make a window frame for a customer. You make the window frame to the exact specification your employer asks for - the customer then decides he does not want to buy the window frame and your employer refuses to pay you for the work you have done. Would you be happy with this - I think not!

No difference really , you signed the T&C agreeing to pay in these circumstances so pay up.

Altarf

I think that some people are missing the point completely. Of course the estate agent did their job, and both they and the potential buyer are entitled to be disappointed that the OP has changed their mind about selling.

The point is that the OP says that "On the estate agents website it states - "No sale no fee guaranteed" and "no withdrawal fee". Depending on what it precisely says, will have a significant impact on the OP's position.

If it genuinely does say that with no caveats, then there are two possibilities. Either the OP has signed the estate agents standard contract, and their advertising misrepresents their contract terms. Or the estate agent switched the OP onto a non-standard contract, in which case did they advise the OP that they were not being 'sold' what was advertised.

In either case I can see that if the estate agent did try to take the OP to court, that the court may not be too impressed.

However, as it all depends on what the estate agents web site says, and unless the OP is prepared to say which estate agency, it is all guesswork.

dexters_mum_2

I have to admit that I have worked with and for a lot of EA's and I have yet to see an EA that advertises 'No withdrawl fee', certainly 'no sale, no fee' and usually that is excluded if they introduce a willing buyer and the seller decided to withdraw, as in this case.

I would imagine, if indeed the OP's EA is advertising 'No withdrawl Fee', they mean no fee for withdrawing the property if no willing buyer had been found within the first contact term, normally 12 or 16 weeks, probably after the contract term, it would revert to 'no sale, no fee' and you wouldn't have to give notice of your intention to withdraw the property from the market.

However, it could also be argued that the OP should have ensured his mortgage was going to be OK before placing the property on the market, this is out of the EA's control that the OP had problems with their mortgage application.

Could be worth an anonomous call to the EA asking specifically about the terms of the withdrawl fee, as advertised.

Is the EA in question a member of the NAEA?

Neillgb

Does seem a bit steep for an 'admin fee'. Typical EA scam, in a slow market charge people when sale falls through. OK OP pulled out but commission EA's receive in a succussful sale is ridiculous considering the amount of 'work' they do so when this sort of thing happens they should take it on the chin.

Ask them for a fully itemised bill, phonecalls made, letters written, time spent etc. Dispute their figures and maybe offer them £25 to cover their genuine outlay stationery phone calls costs.

OK you signed T&C's but as i recall the banks T&C's used to include £25 charges for a day late etc etc. We all know what happened to them!!

Might be worth a call to your local newspaper to try and get them to do an article on this. Bad publicity for the agent plus others would be warned.

Good luck.

Mutton_Geoff

This is identical to one of the clauses in the contract that I crossed out and had the agent initial before I got them to sell my last property. I spent a long time in their office checking every single clause and deleting what I didn't like the look of before signing it. Even the agent said they'd never seen anyone do this before. Never sign anything unless you are 100% sure.

benb76

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

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.

WRONG!

You are not bound to any standard Ts&Cs (i.e. small print) if they could be construed as unfair. Your attention should have been drawn to any such terms when you signed the contract and it shouldn't have been hidden in the small print. Given that they advertise a no sell no fee, then I think that this term could be described as unfair/unreasonable, especially since it sounds like you've had to pull the sale for valid reasons.

Check out the office of fair trading website (oft.gov.uk), for their examples of unfair terms and other advice. My guess would be that if you sent a letter to your EA quoting some stuff from the OFT, they would soon waive this charge.

zappahey

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

This is identical to one of the clauses in the contract that I crossed out and had the agent initial before I got them to sell my last property. I spent a long time in their office checking every single clause and deleting what I didn't like the look of before signing it. Even the agent said they'd never seen anyone do this before. Never sign anything unless you are 100% sure.

It amazes me that people will happily sign up to contracts with no real understanding of what they are signing. I tried our EA's patience in a similar way, going through the documentation line by line, seeking clarification and amendment.

MarkyMarkD

benb76 wrote: »

WRONG!

You are not bound to any standard Ts&Cs (i.e. small print) if they could be construed as unfair. Your attention should have been drawn to any such terms when you signed the contract and it shouldn't have been hidden in the small print. Given that they advertise a no sell no fee, then I think that this term could be described as unfair/unreasonable, especially since it sounds like you've had to pull the sale for valid reasons.

Check out the office of fair trading website (oft.gov.uk), for their examples of unfair terms and other advice. My guess would be that if you sent a letter to your EA quoting some stuff from the OFT, they would soon waive this charge.

Thanks for your nicely-thought-out "WRONG". This term isn't in the slightest bit unfair.

The estate agents have done lots of work. They have advertised the property, they have incurred lots of costs, and most importantly they've introduced a completely valid buyer who was ready and willing to proceed. Charging £500 for that is not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination.

So I'm not "WRONG".

"No sale no fee" doesn't imply to anyone sensible "you don't have to pay anything unless your sale goes through ... and you can change your mind without penalty at any point prior to completion". That is an unfair interpretation of the phrase.

Similarly "no withdrawal fee" pretty obviously means, to a reasonable person, "no fee if you withdraw your property from the market before we've found you a buyer" not "no fee if you change your mind AFTER we've found you a buyer".

benb76

chill, it's all open to interpretation, but to assume that all small print Ts&Cs are legally binding would be very naive.

wymondham

benb76 wrote: »

chill, it's all open to interpretation, but to assume that all small print Ts&Cs are legally binding would be very naive.

very true!! - what one person see's as black and white, another will see as grey! - I once paid a solicitor hundreds of pounds for advice and they came back with a 'maybe' !!