Breaking contract with estate agent for private sale

[chummymummy7]

We have a sole agency sellers agreement with our agent, and we're not happy with the service.

We've found a proceed-able buyer privately and would like to end our contract with the agent and go ahead with a private sale.

Do we need to give the 28 days notice to the agent and after that, are we free to sell privately, or is there a minimum wait period?

And is it very dependent on particular T&Cs or is it fairly straightforward? Thanks!

What do your t&cs say? Some contracts will say an agent is entitled to the fee even if you found the buyer. It is impossible for anyone to know

It will depend on your T&C. Most agents have a clause that you have to pay them if it sells within so many weeks/months otherwise everybody would take the piss.

You need to look at the terms and conditions. My brother sold privately after having advertised with an estate agent and he was sued for the fee.

You could negotiate with the agents and get a reduced fee as they can still be useful getting the sale through to completion and IF the sale fell through for any reason you would still have a good relationship with them in order to find another buyer.

@bilbodog I didn't know that - is this something you've done successfully?

@chummymummy7 - i havent done it personally but have worked in EA in the past and know that some agents will negotiate deals as its better for them to make some money rather than none. And it has already cost them a lot of money to produce your property details and put them on rightmove - and your buyers may not have known you were selling if you hadnt done this. It also shows them some respect which they will appreciate - and gives you brownie points if the sale gets tricky and you need them to help progress things.

It will also depend on how you found your private buyer - if they only knew you were selling because of the house being on the market with an agent (even if it’s just they saw a board outside your house), the agent is very likely to pursue payment.

How you found the private buyer could also be a factor - if they knocked on your door after seeing the for sale sign or the house advert on Rightmove then your agent could argue that they were involved..

Last time we put our house on the market our then tenant was still trying to decide whether or not to buy, so I took a keen interest in this part of our contract! In that case we were liable for I think half the fee if we sold privately to someone who we already knew (ie someone who demonstrably would have been in a position to know about the house without any marketing).