What to pay the EA?

[audley]

Hi, I am in a quandry! We have agreed to part exchange for a house that was to let. We agreed to pay the vendors legal fees. He has had an offer of £10k more than we are paying but he has agreed to stay with our arrangement if we pay the EA fees so he gets a nice round £100k and our old house. The EA is acting as his letting agent and the house is occupied until March. Anyway, the agent has proposed a fee based on 1.75% of the higher offer plus VAT. I think this is high as he has only had to value the house and show us around in about 7 minutes! He has not had to market it or produce particulars. Would you haggle and if so how low would you go?
Thanks

You're effectively bound by whatever the contract says - have you got a copy of it?

It would be worth trying to haggle, there's no guarantee of any success though.

Thanks Mary, I should have said, there is no contract because they were not intending to sell. The only contract is as their letting agent. The owners said they were surprised the EA expected so much out of it!

If their letting agent contract doesn't specify what happens if they sell, and no binding verbal agreement has been made, then I would say they're not legally entitled to anything (but I'm not an expert), so haggle away!

When we had ours on the market about 18 months ago we were being charged 1.25%.

I would say 1.75% was much too high and they are trying it on, however, some agents do have a minimum fee so make sure this doesn't affect it. I would suggest ringing around other agents, explain the situation but naming no names and see if they will tell you what their normal charge would be. If you don't tell them the situation they may not be prepared to disclose their fees if they think they are in with a chance of selling your home.

If neither seller nor buyer has signed a contract specifying that you will pay fees in the event of a sale on this property, the estate agent is not entitled to anything.

If they have given a 'formal valuation' rather than a 'market appraisal', that fee should have been specified in their paperwork, and is likely to be in the region of £100.

You'll need to instruct a solicitor to take your purchase forward now anyway, so they will deal with this issue for you, and tell you what the score is once they have seen your paperwork.

Agree, there is no contract to sell so why are they expecting anything (let alone 1.75% - cheeky so-and-sos!)

Great, thanks for your advice. We have instructed a solicitor so will raise this with him
Hooray!