Estate agents fees - sole selling rights

livvster

Can anyone help me.

We've had our house up for sale with no interest for three months with an agent with sole selling rights. Our personal circumstances have changed and we put in our 8 week notice to withdraw our property a couple of weeks ago.

We know the people who's house we want to buy and this weekend they have asked us to do a house swap as they are really keen to move.

If we exchange contracts after the notice period will we still have to pay the agents fee? Our contract says,

Our charges are payable in the event of a sale being arranged during the period of the Agency. You will be liable to pay remuneration to us, in addition to any other costs or charges agreed, in each of the following circumstance - if (unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged) in the period during which we have sole selling rights, even if the purchaser was not found by us but by another agent or by any other person, including yourself; - if (unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged) after the expiry of the period during which we have sole selling rights but to a purchaser who was introduced to you during that period or with whom we had negotiations about the property during that period.

Does 'introduced to you' mean the agent needs to introduce the client or can we introduce someone ourselves?

Hope this makes sense. I'd really appreciate anyone's advice.

Thanks
Livvster

m1ntie

I am not an expert but reading the terms of the contact I would say you should be ok.

"if (unconditional contracts for the sale of the property are exchanged) after the expiry of the period during which we have sole selling rightsbut to a purchaser who was introduced to you during that period or with whom we had negotiations about the property during that period".

"Introduced" in this instance means introduced by your selling agents.

One thing you will need to be careful of is that your buyers are not on your agents mailing list. People who are seeking to move house are often on several agents mailing list - sometimes without realising it. If so they may have been sent the details of your property and this could and probably would be viewed as an introduction.

If I were you, I would write to your agents immediately your notice period expires and ask them for a written list of people they have introduced - hopefully your purchasers will not be on it!

livvster

thanks ever so much. I really hope so. The guys who want to buy our were not looking in our area so I'm really hopeful. To be honest, I'd be happy to pay any out of pocket expenses but am really want to avoid paying big bucks. Fingers crossed.