Estate agent

[pompey38]

Just a bit confused regarding the estate agents code of conduct, if they weren’t able to sell my property during the contract and I took it of them , are their fees still payable if I end up selling to one of the people that organised a viewing with the estate agents months ago?? even if i sell it to them after months ?

Yes. If you sell to a buyer that they introduced to you, even if you no longer have a contract with them, you will be liable for their fees. There was a big case about this (haven't been in practice for a while, so someone with a better memory than me will, I'm sure know it). You only have that buyer because the agent marketed to them....is I think how the legal argument went.

It’s that the case if i market with someone else and the supposed buyer for example organise a second viewing? and how long this is valid for? if i rent the property for a year or two , this still applies

I've just done some googling to try and find the case - it seems that it is a bit of a grey area. The agent has to have been the ''effective cause of the introduction'' to gain the fee. So if the only way that your potential purchasers knew your house was for sale, and viewed your house, was via your first agent, and that they were 'ready, willing and able' purchasers - ie had funds and were proceedable, then it may be that you would be liable to pay the agent a fee, even if some considerable time has elapsed. But you may wish to take legal advice - I'm only a (former) chartered surveyor and haven't practised for 10+ yrs now so am a bit rusty on this.

Why didn't the potential buyer make an offer when it was for sale with the EA?

Nobody made an offer with me of the agent but I got a long list of names of the estate agent when i took the keys back , so was just wondering if it’s a time limit for when this clause finishes?? or it lasts forever sort of thing .

Was there anything on the list apart from names? What an odd thing to hand over!

We had this situation. House on the market, had a viewing. A couple of months later put it with another EA and the first people who viewed spoke to them and arranged a second viewing. First EA said they were owed the fee, the second then said they were. We tried to negotiate to pay half each but neither of them would have it, had to escalate it to a complaint and ask them to sort it out between them. We ended up paying the first EAs as they were the original introducers.

This is correct, the original agent can claim their fee if you sell privately or through a nee agent but it is only enforceable for a period of 6 months. You should share the list of viewers with any new agent to make them aware of previous introductions and ask them to confirm they’ve received that list.

I asked for it , they were so “ insisting” on their fees if we sell to anyone that was shown the house by them , so I asked for the list to try and avoid that

In our case, the first EA sent the second EA the list of names of everyone who had viewed when we moved to them. The reason the second EA was disputing that the first ones were owed the fee was because they said it was a different person but it turned out it was the same family just a different member organising the second viewing. Unnecessary complication but there you go! So I’d go with first EA who originally introduced gets the fee.

Thank you, that is exactly what I wanted to know .

Xpost @pompey38 if you look at the contract you signed it usually says if anyone buys within x period and they’ve introduced them they get the fee. I think our period of time in the contract was 6 months.

BTW you wouldn’t pay 2 full fees in this instance, only to the first agent although the second agent may charge a withdrawal fee, you would have check the contract wording.

I will, many thanks for your help

@ImNotWhoYouThink we nearly had to pay 2 fees. Our EAs were so unprofessional, once the second EA said the first ones could have the fee, they said they weren’t going to bother to do any work for it because they weren’t getting a fee (which is why we asked if we could split it). So they asked the buyers to go back to the first EA for any queries but of course our contract wasn’t with them anymore so they wouldn’t do anything either. Nearly lost the sale and it was such a stressful time.

A good example of one of the few time it is really important to read the contract from them before you sign for something! They will have to make this clear in their contract. Ours was a clause for 6 months and we were just about to chance agents when they found a buyer. Hope you get everything sorted.

It should say in your contract how long you are tied in for.
Years ago I received an offer from a non proceedable buyer. Months later I changed estate agents and this buyer became proceedable and made another offer through new agent. I had months of arguing as second agent maintained they had re-introduced the buyer and therefore should be paid.
It was worrying as couldn't afford 2 sets of fees but went back to first agent and paid them. Second agent gave up in the end but threatened all kinds including court.

But how would they know that the Jane Smith on your list is the same Jane Smith who bought via another agent?

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz for us, they said it was the same phone number

But the estate agent wouldn't had out the phone numbers to the sellers would they?

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz so when we moved from estate agent 1 to estate agent 2, EA1 gave EA2 a list of names/numbers of people who had viewed who they’d introduced. In this case, it was a different name but the same number as it was a family member who called EA2 to arrange the second viewing. That’s when they both asked for the fee and we had to register a complaint and ask them to sort it between them because we weren’t prepared to pay 2 lots of fees