House Sale Closed - Sale Proceeds Short

My house sale closed on Friday last. My Solicitor was balancing out funds today and lodged the proceeds to my account, less the initial deposit paid to the Estate Agent.

The Estate agent had sent a letter to the Solicitor detailing the sale proceeds and confirming they had a €6,000 deposit. The sale was closed on this basis and the purchaser paid the sale amount less the initial deposit. It now turns out that the Estate Agent only had a €5,000 deposit, meaning that I am left €1,000 short. The Estate Agent today sent a fax to my Solicitor advising that it was only a €5,000 deposit, but its too late as the sale closed last Friday.

My Solicitor thinks it is up to the Estate Agent to chase this up with the Purchaser/Purchasers Solicitor as it was their error, as she feels it will be very difficult to get this from the Purchaser now that the sale is closed. She is saying they (the EA) owe me that money and should take a hit out of their fees. The Estate Agent is not returning calls to either myself or the Solicitor. I am not willing to let it go, but dont want to incur massive legal fees in chasing it up.
Any ideas!

Have u paid the EA their fee? If not then tell them that you will need to deduct the €1k. You instructed them to go sale agreed for a particular price.. they advised that they had collected the deposit... their problem... not yours

ninsaga

The buyers' solicitor should be contacted, because when it comes down to it they've underpaid by €1,000, and the amount of the sale price should be specified in the contracts or appended documentation - the accuracy of which they should have checked. Yes the EA messed up, but they should be the last resort.

This happened to me quite the other way around, just last week - my solicitor accidentally overpaid the sellers because of confusion about the deposit with the EA, and that was resolved very quickly and easily with solicitor-to-solicitor phone call post-closing. If there was nothing contentious about the closing, I can't imagine your solicitor should object to making a phone call - if that doesn't work, you can consider other avenues at that stage.

ninsaga said:

Have u paid the EA their fee? If not then tell them that you will need to deduct the €1k. You instructed them to go sale agreed for a particular price.. they advised that they had collected the deposit... their problem... not yours

ninsaga

Click to expand...

EA fees are generally deducted from the initial deposit placed with them, so that's v unlikely to be a runner.

The sale price was stated clearly on the contracts. The error was due to the "letter of sale" which was sent by the EA to both my Solicitor and the purchasers Solicitors confirming 1. the sale price and 2. the amount of the holding deposit.

I can't deduct it out of their fees as they hold the deposit, which turns out to be €5K instead of €6K as they advised my Solicitor.

My Solicitor wants them to chase up the Purchaser/Purchasers Solicitor. The Solicitor for the purchaser was very doddery, forgetting to send cheques, etc, and really gave the run a round for the signing, but there were no contentious issues. I think my Solicitor does not want to have to chase him, as he really was disorganised and there would be a lot of hassle. Plus the fact I know the Purchaser is away all over Christmas and most of January. She feels that the EA should pay me the full amount and let them chase up the purchaser.

What is the limit the small claims court can deal with? I think it's 2k. Wonder if they would deal with a case like this?

The more I thought about it overnight, the more annoyed I became. The EA has deducted their full fee from the deposit, and charged commission on the full proceeds of the sale, even though the proceeds have been paid short. The keys should never have been handed over until the full proceeds were paid, which would be the norm in any house sale. They faxed a revised sale instruction to my Solicitor yesterday showing a revised deposit of €5,000 when the funds were collected Friday.

My Solicitor does not want to enter into a debt collection situation and I completely understand where she is coming from, I work collecting debts for our company and know how much more difficult it is to collect money when the transaction is finalised.

We will phone the purchasers solicitor today and see what he says and take it from there.

I can understand that everyone makes a mistake, however, it is the hiding out and not taking the calls that is getting to me. Their mistake, they should sort it out, or write it off out of their fees. I dont think that the small claims court would apply here, as the purchaser technically owes the money, I just dont want to incur any legal fees in collecting the €1,000 which was their mistake.

Thanks for the advices.

Looks like good news. My Solicitor contacted the purchasers Solicitor and he said he had €1,000 extra in the account for it, and did not know why. The purchaser himself had insisted it was due, and the Solicitor was insisting it was not, based on the EA's letter of sale. There is an exchange of documents to take place tomorrow, so it should be included with them.

The EA was on apologising profusely to my Solicitor, so hopefully thats it resolved now.

I state again here re prime time programme on dodgy estate agents.The EA is at fault here and a complaint to the IAVI wouldn't go astray even if the problem is now resolved.

That's excellent news, MandaC - it's always nice when the fight you gear up for turns out to be unnecessary!

MandaC, Delighted that your house sale saga is now at an end. Had been following your posts from the start of the process. I'm sure you will enjoy the Christmas!!