This is long, my apologies in advance.

We picked an agent from three candidates who came round to view our flat. The valuations were all fairly similar and all three seemed like a good bet. It’s probably worth mentioning that the flat is in Glasgow but we are based in Manchester and the agent will have to do all the viewings etc.

Anyway I’ve just got the contract through the mail. The first thing that stood out was a £300 plus vat fee if we wanted to terminate the agreement, which is for 9 months. I googled it and found this website
Advisory.co.uk

Well, my contract contains quite a few things the author of that piece reckons are ethically challenged.

Such as:

Irrevocable instruction to my solicitors (I haven’t got one yet, but in light of this I really should) to pay the agent upon the date of entry

Their right to end the agreement without notice or penalty, but 28 days notice and a hefty penalty for us

If we find a buyer and they “react to any advertisement, display, and/or sales particulars, and/or property list by the agents and/or has spoken to the agents about any aspect of the property and its marketing.” then we still need to pay.
The web article above seems to think this is very bad, but it could be standard practice for all I know.

If this is all normal, then that’s absolutely fine. We made a mess of it trying to sell it just as the market crashed 5 years ago and don’t fancy making any more costly mistakes this time around..

Your best advice, opinions, abuse, and jokes please.

P.s. Anyone looking for a nice flat in Shawlands?

mark up the contract in pen/scratch through the bits you dont like.
Send it back signed, keep a photo copy.
See what they say.

REDACT, the bits you dont like.

Big black pen

^ Wot he said. Worst they can say is no then you can instruct a competitor. Although ideally it will all be quick and easy, having an agent you feel comfortable with and who seems reasonable and open is a bonus.

STOP

The markets flat, find another agent

Tell them they can have 3 months as sole agent, 9 months is a mickey take

The other clause is not uncommon but basically if you mention to someone on here (or your mum) that your gaff is for sale and sell it completely without the agent they still trouser the fee

Again – tell them where to get off

Find another agent

I am genuinely struggling to determine if that’s advice or a joke….

The redacting bits I mean

@piemann – why not. Common practice when negotiating a contract. Make the amendments you want, send it back and if the other party agrees great. If not move on or negotiate the terms further…

make sure no “ready, willing and able” clause exists

tie in periods = avoid anything over two months

pieman – your are the customer and are instructing them on what you want them to do for you.

If they come back and say they want an extra 0.2% because you insist on 2 month exclusivity then that’s fine – you know what they value the 9 month clause at.

I do it all the time. I change fee bases if I think they are too high or dont encourage them to achieve a higher price (I put fee ratchet on meeting price levels in a contract a few years back – they get a base % for anything up to an agreed target, and for anything over they get a higher fee rate. It was lucrative for them, but it meant I got them to really push for the extra sale price)

I also strike out renewal fees for tenancies and I always take off a bit of the tenancy fee rate if I use the same agency for management services.

They can always say no, but they never do. The want my business, Im a good customer. Im straight with them and it keeps them straight with me.

Thanks for the advice. I will try to negotiate the bits I’m concerned about.

Cheers
Pie