Fee for changing estate agent or taking house off market - is this normal

[Fennel]

Dp and I haven't sold a house lately but have done so a few times in the past, and last time we did (5 years ago) you signed up with an estate agent but if you were fed up with them you could switch to another, no problem, or take your house off the market. This year Dp and his siblings are trying to sell their mother's house, and his brother has signed a contract agreeing that if we take the house off the market, or change agents, we have to pay all sorts of fees adding up to about £1000. (£350 for photos, more for the agent's time, more for each viewing, etc). Is this actually normal now?

It is becoming more common as they try to get their pound of flesh any way they can.

You can negotiate though.

as I understand it, it's more common now because agents are struggling to keep their heads above water with the low volume of sales at the moment.
I've never heard of additional charges for each viewing though, I thought it was mostly just a standard fee.

I know someone who lost a sale because after a 6 months they didn't get one offer with their agent. Then they went to another agent after coming back from holiday. They got a sale through the second agent but the first agent sent them a letter saying because the person now wanting to buy their house had originally looked at the house when it was up with them they now wanted to have a cut. The second agent also wanting their cut too. They queried this with both of them and both wanting their cut meant they could no longer afford to move as they were selling because they had to downsize and this way it was costing way too much.

I signed a contract with an agent 2.5 weeks ago and have no such fees; it's no sale no fee.

I agreed to sole agency for 12 weeks but after that time I can just walk away, and I can take the house off the market completely with no penalty.

Hmm. Thanks. I think DP's brother was being totally dopey to sign this without checking it... £1000 seems utterly ridiculous to me, we are wondering about challenging it but we need to know what's normal now if we make a big fuss.

So there are still some no win no fee contracts around?

Yes. We only pay a fee for a sale and can go multi- agency after 12 weeks and a higher commission rate.

As the agreement has been signed I would have thought that he was stuck. Is it a low cost Internet startup sort of selling service? In which case I'd have thought that it might be one of the methods that they use to make money.

No, it's a normal local estate agent. [hangry]

Thanks for the comments though, it does seem that DP's brother was being dopey to sign that contract.