Estate Agent claiming sale
Discussion
Basically after being on the market for just over a year our house has finally been sold due to divorce.
The previous estate agent - not the current one who we have sold through - are telling us they will be charging us as well as they originally introduced the buyer to our property when we were using them.
Firstly I have no idea who is actually buying our house, when i asked our present estate agent i was told under the data protection act they are not allowed to give me that information.
We had that many people view I couldn't remember one from the other.
How can we be charged twice? Surely if the buyer had viewed our house previously then decided not to buy at that time but then viewed at a later date with a different estate agent and decided to buy then that is nothing to do with us?
Also they are saying we didn't give them 14 days notice that we were no longer going to use them even though the contract was up. Notice was then given and house removed from sale for the notice period.
My ex spoke with them at the time and was informed as the contract was over we were free to do as we please, it was no longer anything to do with them.
They keep emailing us both to ask for the buyers name so "you do not end up paying both estate agents"
Personally I feel both estate agents need to sort this between themselves as I can't see what we have done wrong.
Any thoughts?
The previous estate agent - not the current one who we have sold through - are telling us they will be charging us as well as they originally introduced the buyer to our property when we were using them.
Firstly I have no idea who is actually buying our house, when i asked our present estate agent i was told under the data protection act they are not allowed to give me that information.
We had that many people view I couldn't remember one from the other.
How can we be charged twice? Surely if the buyer had viewed our house previously then decided not to buy at that time but then viewed at a later date with a different estate agent and decided to buy then that is nothing to do with us?
Also they are saying we didn't give them 14 days notice that we were no longer going to use them even though the contract was up. Notice was then given and house removed from sale for the notice period.
My ex spoke with them at the time and was informed as the contract was over we were free to do as we please, it was no longer anything to do with them.
They keep emailing us both to ask for the buyers name so "you do not end up paying both estate agents"
Personally I feel both estate agents need to sort this between themselves as I can't see what we have done wrong.
Any thoughts?
PurpleMoonlight said:
Spanglepants said:
Firstly I have no idea who is actually buying our house, when i asked our present estate agent i was told under the data protection act they are not allowed to give me that information.
I've never heard such rubbish in all my life ....Ask your estate agent to explain exactly how this breaches data protection legislation.
PurpleMoonlight said:
I've never heard such rubbish in all my life ....
It's such b
ks but to be honest I'm not sure the OP is telling us everything as this I don't believe ANY estate agent would say it. How are you supposed to sell to someone when you don't know who they are? Estate agents aren't involved in that part - your solicitor is and all the paperwork has their names on it!
Spanglepants said:
The previous estate agent - not the current one who we have sold through - are telling us they will be charging us as well as they originally introduced the buyer to our property when we were using them.
They keep emailing us both to ask for the buyers name so "you do not end up paying both estate agents"
But they know the buyers name surely?They keep emailing us both to ask for the buyers name so "you do not end up paying both estate agents"
Fishing expedition, or your buyer was registered with that agent before and has now told them what they are buying after a follow up call.
I can assure that is exactly what was said to me
It's such bks but to be honest I'm not sure the OP is telling us everything as this I don't believe ANY estate agent would say it.
How are you supposed to sell to someone when you don't know who they are? Estate agents aren't involved in that part - your solicitor is and all the paperwork has their names on it!
p1stonhead said:
It's such b
ks but to be honest I'm not sure the OP is telling us everything as this I don't believe ANY estate agent would say it. How are you supposed to sell to someone when you don't know who they are? Estate agents aren't involved in that part - your solicitor is and all the paperwork has their names on it!
I've queried this myself as its obvious ea1 knows exactly who's buying our house . Apparently, according to my ex , ea1 were doing follow up calls to previous potential buyers and said buyers have then told them they are already buying the property but through ea2.
Why they didn't buy while we were using ea1 I have no idea.
Why they didn't buy while we were using ea1 I have no idea.
Vaud said:
But they know the buyers name surely?
Fishing expedition, or your buyer was registered with that agent before and has now told them what they are buying after a follow up call.
Fishing expedition, or your buyer was registered with that agent before and has now told them what they are buying after a follow up call.
Sorry missed your post before
This seems to be what has happened
Ea1 is not trying , as they put it, to save us paying out to two ea's
They're looking to get their cut
This seems to be what has happened
Ea1 is not trying , as they put it, to save us paying out to two ea's
They're looking to get their cut
Vaud said:
But they know the buyers name surely?
Fishing expedition, or your buyer was registered with that agent before and has now told them what they are buying after a follow up call.
Fishing expedition, or your buyer was registered with that agent before and has now told them what they are buying after a follow up call.
We had a similar situation. Ea1 was ditched due to being useless. Ea2 sold house. Sometime later ea1 came out the woodwork wanting money as they introduced the buyer of our house. That is they showed them round, buyer made an offer ea failed negotiations (didn't bother) and no sale was made. Ea2 showed same buyer (we didn't realise it was the same person as never met them) round and actually negotiated and sold the property. Annoyingly we had to cough up due to ridiculous ea contracts. Where introducing is termed where an offer is made. If sold later by someone else the other ea can claim their fee. Can't think of another profession where you get paid for failing.We did consider fighting it and did try ombudsmen but were in the middle something else so had to bend over and take it.
So o.p if both estate agents introduced the buyer you might be stuffed. Best google it and get proper advice.
It wasn't an ea group who's name rhymes with fart was it? They found us after scanning the land registry info I believe. Known for it.
So o.p if both estate agents introduced the buyer you might be stuffed. Best google it and get proper advice.
It wasn't an ea group who's name rhymes with fart was it? They found us after scanning the land registry info I believe. Known for it.
OP needs to check the contract with the first agent. Then read this - http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2008/419.h...
Usually the estate agents terms and conditions will make it clear what they think and introduction is.
The key thing under the Estate Agents Acts and various case studies is "Effective Introduction", but this can be tempered by the terms and conditions you signed up to You will need to serach the web to find out how that definition is applied. If your agreement says something like "Sole Selling Rights" the you are highly likely to have to pay two fees.
I think you need to take this up with both agents ASAP, the aim is to get them to agree how the fee is split, but make it clear that you will be paying only 1 fee. The issue is moere common than you might think, we sometimes get it on land deals, worst one I had was two agents each claiming £200k.
Yu could always start by telling agent 1 to "Foxtrot Oscar" as they did not make an Effective Introduction
As for the Data Protection Act bit, what a total load of bks, EA2 sounds like a bit of a plank. What's teh betting that EA2 alreadty knew that the buyer had viewed through EA1>
The key thing under the Estate Agents Acts and various case studies is "Effective Introduction", but this can be tempered by the terms and conditions you signed up to You will need to serach the web to find out how that definition is applied. If your agreement says something like "Sole Selling Rights" the you are highly likely to have to pay two fees.
I think you need to take this up with both agents ASAP, the aim is to get them to agree how the fee is split, but make it clear that you will be paying only 1 fee. The issue is moere common than you might think, we sometimes get it on land deals, worst one I had was two agents each claiming £200k.
Yu could always start by telling agent 1 to "Foxtrot Oscar" as they did not make an Effective Introduction
As for the Data Protection Act bit, what a total load of b
ks, EA2 sounds like a bit of a plank. What's teh betting that EA2 alreadty knew that the buyer had viewed through EA1>You will have received a "memorandum of Sale" from the selling agent, it is a letter that goes to both solicitors, the buyer and the seller so that everyone has the same information. All info will be on that.
Make sure you instruct your solicitor not to pay out any fees to either agent until this is sorted, if the solicitor is difficult remember YOU ARE THE CLIENT, he may not like it but ultimately will follow your instructions
Good Luck
PS it may be at worst case you can talk them down to a joint agent rate which round here is 2%
Make sure you instruct your solicitor not to pay out any fees to either agent until this is sorted, if the solicitor is difficult remember YOU ARE THE CLIENT, he may not like it but ultimately will follow your instructions
Good Luck
PS it may be at worst case you can talk them down to a joint agent rate which round here is 2%
We had a similar case. We had our house valued after seeing a house we liked. No contract was signed implied or anything.
Long story short, we bought a house from the same estate agent, but the vendor took our house in part exchange as they were about to be repossessed.
Estate agent then wanted full whack for fees on something not agreed.
All I did was call the deal off totally and within an hour they apologised and it was back on.
I dislike people who do what the EA is trying to do.
Long story short, we bought a house from the same estate agent, but the vendor took our house in part exchange as they were about to be repossessed.
Estate agent then wanted full whack for fees on something not agreed.
All I did was call the deal off totally and within an hour they apologised and it was back on.
I dislike people who do what the EA is trying to do.
No list was given to us unfortunately. The mood Im in over this is making it easy to be cynical as to why I received no list.
p1stonhead said:
When removing one agent and going with another, its often the case that the original EA will give the seller a list of people they had introduced/shown round so fees are not doubled if they come back and buy later.
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