Quick, possibly stupid, question: do you still pay the estate agent if you take your house off the market?

[Anglepoise]

Morning wise ladies (and gents)

This might vary from estate agent to estate agent, but if you put your house on the market and then take it off again, do you still pay them or is it only if a sale goes through?

Thanks

Nope, no need.

You should only pay if the property sells.
You have prob already paid for your HIP, so nothing to pay I would expect!

Sorry, forgot to add: Your agreement should be to pay a % commission.

If there is no sale, there is no commission.

You people are genius - thanks

You might have an agreement where the estate agent meets the cost of the HIP, and in that case you'll normally need to reimburse the HIP cost if you take the property off the market, but otherwise no.

but you may find if you were to sell with another agent in a few months' time the current EA could still claim commission especially if they had originally introduced the buyer so check your contract.

Cheers - if we took it off then it would be because housemate is buying me out, so I'm assuming they can't take the credit for introducing us!

You do need to check your contract - some agents have a clause which says you have to pay if they introduce a client who is 'ready, willing and able' to buy, even if you don't go through with it

Okay, will have a read through - ta

you usually have to keep it on for a minumum period though. 12 weeks i believe

and you can't sell it independently before those 12 wks are up or they do take the commission