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?