Estate Agents & Conflict of Interest

[maddogs33]

Anyone know the inner workings of the world of estate agency??

We put our house on the market in Dec 15, in Feb 16 we notified our estate agents we were removing our property from the market and changing agents. Suddenly they had a bundle of offers on the table and we naively accepted one. No due diligence had been done on the chain and the sale subsequently fell through.

They kept harassing us with new offers and I had to send an email in August telling them we were not their clients and they did not have authority to market our property.

In Sept 16 we engaged new agents and accepted an offer through them. Old buyers have come back and made offer through both new agent and old agent.

We have no interest in any communications with old agents, they are the worst, however, we don't feel new agents are being entirely upfront either. They are pushing offer from their new buyer, old buyers have massively increased their offer (now a bit above new buyers). Is there a conflict of interest here with our new agent? Are they not promoting old buyers offer because old agents might have a claim on fees?

Anyone know if old agents have claim over the fee if we sell to old buyers given the time elapsed?

It will depend on the terms of your contract with them, but standard estate agent terms are that you pay their fees if they find your buyer, even if time has elapsed (and this has been upheld in court as a reasonable term).

Depends on your contract but usually if someone who they introduced to you to buys your house then they will get the fee. There is a time limit on this though and that should be in your contract

Your old agent will get the fees, they might have an agreement between them with regard to which agency takes over the negotiations and sales progression if you agreed the buyers found by first agent. Of course the second agent will push offers that they've generated. Find out the exact position of each buyer, do they need a mortgage? What loan to value? Do they have something to sell? Has the agent seen a mortgage in principal etc. Decide which offer to take based on this information as well as the amount offered.

Hmm new agents when they were trying to win our business said 6 months had elapsed so it didn't matter about old agent.

I suspect they are pushing their buyer as old agents will clearly attempt to get the fee if they can.

Moral of the story, I don't trust any estate agent as far as I can throw them, the only people they care about are themselves. Vile creatures!

That's a bit harsh about estate agents. I've known good ones and bad ones, as with all other jobs. Ultimately your new agents can't tell you what the contract you signed with your old agents says - your new agents may genuinely believe that the old agents would only get the fees for 6 months, but you are the only one that can actually check this as only you know what you agreed.

Well there's a sweeping generalisation, I'll take my untrustworthy advice elsewhere.

Be careful. I've seen contracts which end up with you paying both EAs if the buyer has had contact with them both.