Estate Agents - legality / etiquette when properties being marketed by multiple agencies?

[What2donow4]

Earlier this year I viewed a couple of properties with an estate agent on behalf of my elderly parent. They are still on the market and my parent now wants to view them. There is a third property she also wants to view which is on with a different agent as sole agent. This agent is also marketing one of the bungalows I viewed with the first agent, so they are keen to show her this one at the same time as it is just over the road.

My query is the legality / etiquette if we like this one for her. Are we obliged to purchase it through the agent I first viewed it via?

It used to be that if a property was listed with 2 agents, if it is sold, they both get commission regardless of which one introduces. Might be different these days.
It is more tricky if you saw property 6 months ago with agent A and it is now solely listed with agent B

Gosh! Pricey for the seller then. One flat in a retirement complex I saw on Rightmove appeared to be on with three agents.

The rate for multiple agency is higher than sole agency, but 2 agents are not twice the cost of one agent.
So Sole might be 1%, 2 agents doing the same property might be 1.5% but if it sells they get 0. 75% each

Ok, thanks for explaining. That makes more sense.

I think the first agent would argue that for that property, they are the primary agent. For the sole agency, the second agent is the primary agent. The commission split on dual or multiple agencies varies according to their contract.

The vendor (seller) will have a clause in their contract that obliges them to pay a fee to the agent who "introduced" the seller to the property. In this case that will be the first agent. The vendor can sell to whoever they want through whoever they want but if they sell to your parents through the second agent they can expect to pay fees to both agents as the first agent will almost certainly pursue it.

Sorry. That should have said "who introduced the buyer to the property."

Ex EA here, it depends on the arrangement the EAs have made. Sometimes it’s the agent who introduced the buyer and sometimes it’s a split. I’d ask them.

I was pursued for a duel fee. 1st agent on for 12 weeks but failed to sell. 3 viewings only. Break off 6 weeks then on with 2nd agent. Viewing came back through 2nd agent but had already viewed with 1st. I accepted there offer and the sale went through.

About 6 months after the sale, agent 1 sent a legal letter demanding full fee £2k approx as they introduced the buyer.

I fought back with complaints that had been unresolved, lies that had been told, 'fake' viewings to shut me up (I recognised one as the admin guy in their office). We only dropped agent 1 because they were so terrible. The worst bit was finding out from our buyer that they had made an offer to agent 1 that was never passed on to us. The final offer we accepted was £5k less than their first offer.

I managed to get the fee waived, they dropped it if I agreed not to counter claim for loss over not communicating the offer to us.

In summary: the seller pays dual fees and likely to have it stipulates in contract if they are marketing at the same time. If they have moved from 1 agent to another, then try to go to the first agent.