Selling a house with agent and then decicing to sell it privately

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peelaaa

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If you advertise your house with an estate agent and then receive an offer via the agent but then decide to sell it privately with the buyer hence saving on estate agent fees, what do you then owe the estate agents?
Can they force you legally to pay them their fee?
 
I was in a situation like this before where the seller tried to make us buy behind the EA's back. The EA's take on it was they had 'introduced' us to the house and therefore were entitled the selling fee.
It's not over just at Sale Agreed you know, there can be an awful lot of hassle involved in the whole sale transaction, where dealing directly with the buyer can get very tricky. You would need a very flexible and understanding solicitor to go ahead with this.
Also if this Sale falls through in two weeks time say, you are left with no estate agent. And you can be sure if you then try to use another estate agent, the first EA will be on the blower to let them know you tried to do the deal behind their back.
 
peelaaa said:
If you advertise your house with an estate agent and then receive an offer via the agent but then decide to sell it privately with the buyer hence saving on estate agent fees, what do you then owe the estate agents?
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You owe the fee on the sale price based on whatever deal you made with the estate agent.

Can they force you legally to pay them their fee?
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Yes. It's one area where the law is not an ass.
 
We withdrew a house from EA a few years ago - while the EA didn't introduce the buyer or do a viewing with them, the only reason the buyer contacted us was because of the EA sign so in hindsight they were due their fee. They didn't look for it though (thankfully) and the sale fell through. We ended up having to find another EA and had no luck from it - went sale agreed 4 times and ended up with huge legal fees for all the issued contracts! I would leave it with the EA.
 
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