Here is my experience BEWARE.
I put my house on the market in 2008, with the agent I was buying the new property from thinking it would help my purchase.
Move on one year and NO sale - I inform existing agent I will be 'dual
agenting' the house - his response was no problem.
The house has now sold with all the effort from the 'new' agent.
I had an offer on property and accepted - no contact exchanged at this point.
Within days of this I receive a demand for full commission payment to the 'old' agent highlighting SOLE AGENTS RIGHT - as per my original signed contract.
My initial thoughts were I should have sacked him before and closed his
contract.
Not only this the small print gives him 6 months right to monies on his
full estimated valuation - which was way too high (laugh).
DO I HAVE A CASE FOR POOR ADVISE? OR JUST PAY UP - I FEEL ROBBED TO SAY THE LEAST.
Anybody ant ideas on this - Onbudsman etc.
It sounds like the original agent had not managed to sell your property in over a year? How long was the original agreement you signed with him for? If shorter than this I can't see that you owe him.
This seems odd to me as whenever I've sold a house I've agreed a contract period. I've never had more than 1 agent at a time to avoid problems such as you've had - they're a crafty bunch....
Sole agent clause is fairly normal in my experiance BUT, it is only for 3 to 6 months usually. So, if they have not sold the property in this timescale you are free to get another agent to market it for you.
I would check your original contract, it will fairly clearly state what term the sole agent clause is for.
If you are unsure i would approach the solicitor acting on your behalf and see if they will take a quick look. A £40 letter from them may make it all go away 😉
Good luck.
mcobie +1
Not sure how it works is residential, however in commercial joint agents are often appointed, then split the final fee regarless to who introduced the new tenant to create a deal.
Resi though I can imagine would be different.
Thanks Guys - I'll try to answer all
1. Not sure on the length of the original contract I'll check this angle
I assumed it was open ended until sold.
2. Already tried the litigation/solicitor letter - he offered to reduce
his commission if the 'new' agent did likewise - NO CHANCE.
He has a watertight SOLE AGENT contract wording albeit 'SMALL PRINT'
separate section to his No Sale No fee.
3. Splitting fee - sounds fair but the two are not 'talking' - the old agent knew of the sale tho' -
Thanks
Looks like you might have gone into this a little blind.
1. Did you formally inform the original agent in writing that you were also appointing a second agent - and when he said "no problem" did you not explore that further. i.e. was that a "no problem as far as I'm concerned, your old contract is still binding" or a "no problem, you are now on a joint agent contract"?
2. When you approached the second agent, did you make him aware that you also had it for sale with another agent?
Might be worth pulling out of the sale in order to tell them to fek off.
A little blind certainly - bad advice you name it - hopesome one learns from my lesson.
I informed the first agent verbally (lesson 1) - always state you instruction in writing & re-read your contract.
It is not a proble to him if he gets his money for the other agents work -true. I would have expected to pay fair expenses agreed for his efforts.
Second agent did not talk to first agent or give any advice on Sole agency rights.
Ask for legal advice before making any decision.
My buyer is expecting further reduction on the agreed price - house back on the market - No fee to the first agent - everybody loses.
🙁 I'm presuming you have sacked off the first agent now then? Check to make sure there is not some sort of "overhang" on the contract. When we were selling a house and stopped using one agent we had to leave it 13 weeks before we could put it back on the market with another agent.
Actually we could have probably dismissed the original contract and not delayed on some sort of incompetency grounds - complete muppets, but the final straw was coming home to find the front door wide open and all the lights on because the agent had shown some perspective buyers around and forgotten to close the door when she left as she was on the phone to another client whilst she was showing the buyers around and was distracted.
My buyer is expecting further reduction on the agreed price - house back on the market - No fee to the first agent - everybody loses.
Presumably your buyer messing about has happened irrespectively of the issue of the fee to the first agent, so at least you can get the estate agent issue sorted now before the next buyer comes along. (Unless I've failed to grasp a point somewhere). Silver linings and all that?
First agent was 'sacked' when I recieved his demand for payment - although
he has a 6 month overlap clause in his contract.
My buyer has now dropped his offer by 10% at point of contract exchange
I have now remarketed so as stated in first agents terms
No sale no fee - guess he'll now chase his expenses incured.
Ooh that's a bit of nasty gazundering! An estate agent I got friendly with told me about that when I was looking at buying my 1st house. He used to do it as reckoned that most people really don't want their sale to fall through in hard to sell times especially if they have found a place to buy. But the thing is to not care yourself if it falls through which means keeping costs low and also not needing to sell somewhere so risk losing a buyer.
