Help. Different EA wants to book viewing

[PC96]

Hello, I’m just looking for some help and weather we will get charged at all.

so we are currently on the market with an EA but yet had no luck and had no offers but we got a call today from another EA wanting to book a viewing with someone who is interested. With our EA we are in a contract for sole selling so I was just wondering if we went ahead with the viewing from the other EA and then received an offer are we liable to pay two fees. The EA we are not with said we wouldn’t have to pay two fees as they are not marketing our property at all. Does anyone know if this is the case as we don’t want to end up down the line having to pay more fees and would like to know beforehand. Hope that made sense as I’m still a bit confused myself.

I wouldn't risk it. Tell the second agent that all viewings are booked through your original agent.

it could get messy. I wonder why the buyers dont just contact the agent it is on with now - would be much simpler!

Assuming you’re on Rightmove ect… why doesn’t the buyer just phone the right agent?

Is it a buyer's agent? They are rare here, but do exist. If that is the case, you won't be liable for fees as the buyers will be paying them to find a property for them

I had this once, years ago. second agent is trying it on, they would both want commission if you went with a purchaser introduced by them. The viewer, if they exist, must have seen the property on Rightmove or Zoopla and therefore the first agent would be entitled. In our case, the agent was trying to keep a chain together and ensure his own commission.
Tell him to refer his client to your chosen agent.

Odd, how did they hear about your property? Why not just go to your agent. If they found your property through your sole agent’s marketing you will be liable for their fees until the contract is up.

Hmm it sounds messy and possibly fishy.

I'm another one who thinks, why don't the interested Buyers simply book a viewing through the EA you are on with?

If they are genuinely interested in your property they will book a viewing through your current agent so I would tell the second EA that you are only accepting viewings that way at the moment.

My advice is don't do it. We had a crossover of contracts when we were switching EA on our last house sale ... so stressful being told we had to stump up over in £3k fees or the second EA would take court action for non-payment.

The first EA has the commission if you have sole agency contract. E.g. if a potential buyer sees it in their window first, but then books a viewing with another EA later on, you still become liable to pay fees to the first EA. So in our case we paid the first EA ... But we'd come under contract with the second EA, whose legal team said the buyer had been introduced first through their viewing. It all got very horrible and threatening.

It was only through sheer grit, the helpful first EA and exchange of letters and some email evidence that I managed to make the second EA's legal representative back down.

Thank you everyone I was under the impression also that we would have to pay two fees if we accepted the offer through the 2nd EA as we are in a contract with another and did wonder why did they not just book the viewing with our current EA. Seems a bit strange so thought I would ask before we confirmed with them whether we was happy to or not. I will definitely go back and ask them a few more questions as I don’t want to be paying anymore extra fees.

I have seen it mentioned on here once - but I stress, only once - that this happened to someone and the EAs split the fees between them.