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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

not pay Estate Agents full fees and go to court?

21 replies

penguinseatmud · 15/07/2012 21:48

I posted this in legal but more traffic here, so, give me your best!

I am a regular but have name changed because ...
I sold my house via a nationwide EA. I signed a contract. They didn't do what was laid out in the contract. I refused to pay their full fee. I paid proportionately to the service received. I refused to pay for what I didn't receive. They are taking me to small claims court for the remainder, this week. It's been going on for over a year and they have sent me increasingly more 'pay or we'll take you to court' type letters. Ithink they expected me to go "oh shit! court. I best pay". But, I didn't becaue they don't deserve one more of my pence.

Will I be laughed out of court?
It's not so much the money, it's that they provided a really shit service and I don't see why I should have to pay for something that wasn't given. Am I being naive? I'm going on my own. I have no legal representation.
I'm not Julia Brockovitch am I? I'm fucked aren't I? The judge will peer over his/her glasses and in a frowny,stern voice say "You are being ridiculous Ms Penguin. You signed a contract. Pay this big, corporate bastards their money".
Any advice gratefully appreciated!

OP posts:

paradisechick · 15/07/2012 21:49

What did they not do?

Flimflammery · 15/07/2012 21:50

Do you have evidence that they didn't fulfill the contract? (I'm not a legal expert, btw)

watermargin · 15/07/2012 21:52

how long did it take you to sell? I suppose i'm just wondering why you didn't just take it off the market and go with a different e/a - genuine question, not being an arse! :)

YesMaam · 15/07/2012 21:52

see in legal now

BettySuarez · 15/07/2012 21:54

What part of their contract did they not deliver on?

You might have a case against them but you will have to prove it of course

Pickgo · 15/07/2012 21:55

If they have broken the terms of the contract then they are at fault.
But you will need to PROVE they've broken the contract.
Think small claims is a magistrate.

Mintyy · 15/07/2012 21:55

I think you mean Erin Brokovitch?

You cannot expect anyone to comment unless you explain your defence.

FiftyShadesofViper · 15/07/2012 21:57

I'm no expert but I'd have thought if you could itemise what they offered you when you signed the contract and show they have not done it then you could claim they breached the contract. Don't know if it'd be enough though

ludixon · 15/07/2012 21:57

What did they do/not do? How did you work out what to pay them 'proportionately'? You signed a contract. Surely, if they were doing a rubbish job why didn't you swap agents? Or did they sell your house within their contract period? More details needed to get better replies!!

Original poster

penguinseatmud · 15/07/2012 22:03

Ok sorry. It's such a long bloody, drawn out story. It's been in my head for so long I can't isolate the facts but I will try and put them down, if you can bear with me ...

OP posts:

Northernlurker · 15/07/2012 22:07

If they sold your house - so you sold the house to a buyer they introduced to you - then you're being a fool here and you should pay. They aren't going to pass on this and you'll get nowhere in court. They sold your house. Pay them.

Kladdkaka · 15/07/2012 22:07

I don't think the OP has to prove anything. I thought that burden of proof lay with whoever brings the case to court. The OP, as the person defending the claim, has to poke holes in their argument so that they can't prove it.

Viviennemary · 15/07/2012 22:12

If you have evidence that you've complained then you will have a good case. But if you've decided after a year they've not been up to scratch then that's different. If they've actually sold your house I think you will have difficulty winning the case. That's only my opinion though.

Original poster

penguinseatmud · 15/07/2012 22:15

We wanted to move to another part of country for quality of life, a nice school for DC etc.
Put house on market with EA we'd used before.
Slow market etc.
After the allowed period I called another EA.
A man came round and did the signing and dancing 'we're great other EA are shit' act. I had 2 tiny DC being DC. I signed the contract.
Had some viewings and a few offers. Accepted an offer from cash buyers willing to pay asking price.
We'd since found a house/school/location. It was a rarity in that we could afford it, loved school etc etc. had offer accepted.
It took ages for our buyers to get survey. Not the end of the world but annoying.
Survey came back at £40,000 under EA valuation (£235,00 of original val of £275,000).
EA gave me the news. I said we couldn't afford to move at that price could he negotiate?.
EA came back few days later saying 'negotiations have stopped'. I said what do you mean 'stopped'? He said 'negotiations have broken down' and he couldn't get them above £235,000. I asked if he thought we should put it back on the market. he gave glib advice that I can't quote.
I rang buyer directly, we had swapped numbers for curtains etc and between us we got to £242,500. This would allow us to buy new house...

there's more hang on

OP posts:

UserNameNotAvailable · 15/07/2012 22:18

I took TV Licensing to court with no representation and on the day of my trial they dropped their charges. So no you won't be laughed out of court.

In my case they took me to court expecting me to plead guilty but I thought I wasnt guilty. I was refused legal aid and couldn't afford any help, I couldn't even have a solicitor from the courts to help so I just had to say I was pleading not guilty (in front of majistrates or whatever they are called) asked for their licence officer to be a witness and was sent on my way. I date came for my trial and on the day I turned up and noticed my witness (their officer) wasn't there and after waiting about an hour their solicitor came up to me and apologised that it had got this far and asked if I wanted to just drop the case and forget about it, err yeah!

Original poster

penguinseatmud · 15/07/2012 22:36

Northern. They didn't sell my house though.In the contract it says they 'will get the highest price for my property' they didn't. I did.
It says 'they will provide professional advice'.They didn't. We ended up homeless.
The EA charged with selling my house never saw the house.
The EA lied to us and said our vendors would let us move in and pay rent until the sale of our purchase went through. They said no such thing.
I sent a letter of complaint immediately. He replied 4 months later.
I just feel I shouldn't have to pay for a service I didn't receive. And now I think I'm being naive but...it's not fair and I think they rely on their status to just get money for nothing. I've paid them for advertising the property and introducing the buyer but beyond that I might just have asked the postman to sell my house.

OP posts:

BurningBridges · 15/07/2012 22:37

Hi Penguin, have you tried the Property Ombudsman? www.tpos.co.uk

I can see you've said hold on there's more - a few years ago when those silly energy report things had to be done, we got into a mess after withdrawing our house from sale after a few days. We felt that the estate agent had received a refund of the fees that they'd paid the third party to get the report, so was not entitled to a refund from us as well - that would be double accounting. Anyway, we argued it every which way, they then took us to court for double the cost of the report saying it was to compensate them for, well, us breathing I think. Anyway, we took it to the Ombudsman and got the cost reduced, albeit not waived, and we decided to settle at that.

When we did this, agents were obliged to accept the Ombudsman's decision, but consumers (buyers/sellers etc) are not and can take their own legal action afterwards if they wish.

NonnoMum · 15/07/2012 22:45

I don't understand. When were you homeless?

avivabeaver · 15/07/2012 22:46

tbh at this point, you have nowt to lose, they will be spending money on solicitors that they cannot recover from you, due to the small claims limits.

just go with it, I dont think you can win on the bit about the fee being calculated on the asking price, rather than the sale price, as that is undoubtedly in the contract- so wouldn't go all guns ablazing on that.

The rest of it is you being unhappy with the service and it not being worth the fee- its worth a go.

However, you need to be very careful- quite a bit of what you have said wouldnt hold up in court- eg the EA saying he couldnt get them above £235. The only way you can prove this is if you have your vendors in court giving evidence.

annh · 15/07/2012 22:56

On the basis of what you have said so far, I don't think you have a good case. £235,000 may well have been as high as the vendors were willing to offer to the EA, the fact that you personally managed to get them higher will probably be disregarded.

I don't understand why your selling agent was the cause of you ending up homeless. Surely it was your buyer's EA who told you that you vendors would agree to you moving in any paying rent? I assume you didn't buy and sell from the same agent as you were moving to another part of the country?

The fact that the specific agent tasked with selling your house hadn't actually seen it is also probably irrelevant. Unless you sell through a very small practice, there will be agents in the office who haven't seen every house. When we have sold in the past, several agents have turned up with buyers. Obviously, it might be nice to always have the same agent but what would you rather have - lots of viewings or viewings only when the calendars of you, your viewers and that single agent were all free?

Have you got other points on which you are basing your case?

Original poster

penguinseatmud · 15/07/2012 22:57

Thanks for all the advice.
aviva that's what I'm now realising. The judge can't see inside my head and the EA will lie.

OP posts:

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