Any estate agents?

[C8PPO]

Scenario:

Person A lives in small-ish village, where he has lived for 45 years or more. Decides to sell house to downsize, and enlists local estate agent on sole agency basis.

Person A is then out for a walk in said village, where he bumps into Person B, whom he has known ever since he lived in the village. They exchange the time of day, in the course of which Person A mentions to Person B that he has put his house up for sale.

Later that day, Person B's (adult) son telephones Person A to say that his father mentioned that the house was for sale, and could he come and view. Therefore, the connection has been made without any reference to the (sole) estate agent.

Now, I'm fairly clear that in this situation, which is detailed above exactly as it happened, Person A has no liability to the agent for commission fees if the sale to Person B's son proceeds. Fully understand that Person A cannot (a) make the sale to someone who saw the house as a result of the agent's advertisement, but wanted to quietly circumvent the agent, and (b) that Person A cannot engage a second agent whilst he's in the agreed time period of a sole agency agreement, but my understanding is that if the vendor (Person A) finds a purchaser without recourse to the estate agent, then he is free to proceed without fees?

I guess this does in part depend on any contrary small print in the contract with the agent, but as a general rule is correct, no?

[apguy]

The key point in the contract is 'Sole Agency' Or 'Sole Selling Rights'

Sole Agency means in the scenario above the agent wouldn't get a cut. Sole Selling Rights however gets them commision irrespective of who introduces the buyer.

[davidjpowell]

EA contract probably includes sole selling rights so you are wrong.

I suggest that A gets his estate agent to do the job and negotiate with B son.

[C8PPO]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That's interesting, there's no board and it's only been on the market a couple of weeks. Person A is a relative, who's been out of the housing market for a very long time, and is convinced that regardless of contract, it's his moral and social duty to pay the agent if Person B's son proceeds. I'm trying to convince him that he may be able to save several thousand pounds. I don't imagine the agent would blink twice if Person A hands hima cheque, regardless of the circumstances.

Will need to establish the Sole Agent vs Sole Selling Rights issue though.

Thanks for the input.

Edited by C8PPO on Monday 18th January 21:57

[beckerman]

Another similar one for you...

Person A is inheriting a house and gets a valuation from an agent during the will probate process. He lets the agent know that he will contact him if/when he wishes to sell the property.

Several months later, a neighbour asks whether the house may be up for sale in the near future as he has a friend, Person B, who might be interested. Person A says that the house will probably be going on the market in a couple of months with the aforementioned agent once the property has been transferred into his name.

The next day, Person A gets a call from the agent saying that he has been contacted by Person B and would it be possible for Person B to look round? Person A agrees to show Person B round the house.

Exam Question: If Person B makes a reasonable offer to Person A and they wish to go ahead with a sale, would any money be due to the agent? Note that at no stage has any instruction has been given to the agent to market.

[thebullettrain]

Contracts don't have to be written-they can be verbal - as long as both person A and the estate agent have a sufficient understanding of the broad terms then that's fine.

[beckerman]

So the key point would seem to be whether both Person A and the agent had an agreed understanding of contract terms. If these were never discussed, would i be correct in saying that there can be no implied acceptance of the agent's terms?

[thebullettrain]

Possibly. However, it depends on other factors like have you had prior dealings with your agent whereby the terms don't need to be discussed i.e. can the terms be implied?