A quandary I currently have and would like anyone's thoughts on...!
I am moving. Put my house on the market early Jan this year with one EA: lots of viewings; several offers; 3 acceptable, but none ever reached the SSTC stage. One buyer in particular dragged on forever. Put an offer in, negotiated and accepted. She had to find the money for stamp duty so held off formally committing... Wanted to bring a builder round. Builder cancelled... More delays etc etc over a period of 6 weeks. Eventually - just as I was told that she was ready to put it into the hands of her solicitors, she pulled out. I didn't ever take it off the market and, in fact, was very keen during these final stages to change EA just to be proactive, but EA kept assuring me that this lady was very keen and was in a very good position to buy (first time cash buyer) although I did suggest that she seemed flakey.
Anyway, when this conclusively fell through, I changed EAs and, within a week, following several viewings was SSTC and have exchanged with a completion date set.
Contractually I owe the original EA a fee (£300) for marketing etc. I knew this when I signed up, and am they type of person who doesn't usually barter, let alone withhold payment. But should I? 5 months is a long time not to sell a house that quickly proves itself saleable with another agent, isn't it? Original EA's judgement and advice is really the only thing at fault. Some questions were raised re marketing by EA#2, but nothing really.
Just wondering if I would be unreasonable to avoid paying? Or if anyone has had a similar experience...?
Ta!