can I dispute this?

[bunnyhunny]

our house is on the market, and has been for a couple of months. we are only selling to buy another house that is near us. if that goes, we will come off the market.

the estate agents sorted out the hip for us, and said we could do no-sale-no-fee on it. we origianlly went with immediate payment, but before it was carried out our car broke down and we asked if we could go with the no-sale-no-fee method instead, which they agreed to. the hipp was carried out.

I got a letter today from the hipp person, asking me to sign the agreement. for the no-sale-no-fee part, it says we must stay on the market with the same estate agents for 6 months. If they havent sold my house in 3 months, I fully intend to change agents. They never said anything about this before we went for no-sale-no-fee. I havent signed anthing yet, not even agreeing to immediate payment, so can I dispute the terms?

I would think so, if the no sale no fee terms are different to the immediate fee terms they should have told you and you definitely have grounds for complaint.

thanks for your reply.

That's what I thought - its kind of like taking out a buy-now-pay-later policy at a shop and them not telling you the terms of the deal until after you have bought it.

so who should I complain to - the estate agents or the hip company? the company work through the agents, but I have been very happy so far with the agents so far.

how should I negotiate this? as far as I was concerned, we would pay for the hip when exchange has taken place (who ever the agents were at the time), and could pull out at any time (obv not immediately cos that would be taking the mickey) without incurring cost.

I would complain initially to the estate agents - would it be them who have inserted the 6-month clause into the hip payment agreement anyway? Whether they did or not, it was them who arranged the hip, and they should have informed you of any differences between the two payment methods.

Did the estate agents knew you were only marketing your house in order to buy this other house? Because if they did it's reasonable to suggest that they absolutely should have told you about this clause on the pay later hip, as it's unlikely you'd stay with them for 6 months. Even if they didn't know, I would still suggest they had an obligation to at least provide you with the paperwork stating the differences between the two payment packages.

I would suggest to the estate agent that they simply drop this clause and sell more efficiently! And argue if they disagree. Be brave!

ok, I will call them in a bit.

just one thing though - should I say to them that we wouldnt stay with them for 6 months anyway? as in, we have signed a 3 month contract, and if they havent managed to sell by then, we would change agents anyway?