Questionable auctioneer

I put my house on the market a couple of months ago and despite the a good few viewings, I got no offers. Recently I got a direct call from a guy who asked was I still interested in selling the house (he got number from existing tenant). I told him to talk to my acutioneer. He had rang the auctioneer over three weeks beforehand and was told the property was off the market. I then agreed to show him around the house the next day personally and he made an offer on the house which I accepted. I do not intend on paying the auctioneer his sale fee (advertising I will pay) as in effect he cost me this sale by telling the client that it was off the market. If he has done this once maybe he has done it several times? It is strange, probably a coincidence that I show one person the house and they buy and he shows about ten people the house and no offer!!! Any advice on not paying auctioneer.

Can you please clarify as to whether you instructed your auctioneer to either withdraw your property from the market or cease advertising the property for a period of time?

Can you also please clarify if you have a signed terms letter OR a letter of intent from your auctioneer setting out what the conditions of their employment will be?

Have you discussed with your auctioneer the fact that they informed a potential purchaser that your property was off the market when they called?

Wondering if you are sure about what the buyer said. Did the estate agent actually say the property was off the market or is the buyer saying it just to avoid the agent?

Never told auctioneer to take it off market. I do know he was on holidays when these peopole rang him. Also I do not think these people are telling lies. I have no wish to get into an argument with my auctioneer on this either, What the point!!

Sounds like you cant, maybe a silly secretary or dozy junior negotiator got mixed up with the address. Maybe the enquiror gave misleading or non-precise infomation regarding property address or location. Offer the agent his costs and state that you will take it no further regarding his offices misrepresentation.

mo3art said:

Can you also please clarify if you have a signed terms letter OR a letter of intent from your auctioneer setting out what the conditions of their employment will be?

Have you discussed with your auctioneer the fact that they informed a potential purchaser that your property was off the market when they called?

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Ok so you've answered my first question above, but you have not answered my other 2. If you want a fair answer as to what you legally should pay your auctioneer you will need to answer the other 2 questions.

Could the person making the offer be telling porkies and dealing with you personally to get himself a better deal. I would have contacted the EA myself and asked for an explanation as I can't see how the EA could benefit from telling him it was off the market. Dubious buyer alert in this instance I would think

MrMan said:

I can't see how the EA could benefit from telling him it was off the market.

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Because he wants the few buyers that are out there at the moment to buy houses that his buddies are trying to flog?

MrKeane said:

Because he wants the few buyers that are out there at the moment to buy houses that his buddies are trying to flog?

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Sheer speculation, I work in the industry and have never once seen this happen in the past 10 years. Totally OT.

i wouldn't think that is a safe bet at all. If that was the case the 'buyer' would have at least been pushed in that direction.

Sorry mo3ART,

I have signed nothing, but also I do believe in a handshake as good enough.

On the second, no I have not spoken to him, but I think it is fair that we will all know the resultant answer, he did not and the buyer is lying.

Well Toolbox given your responses I would say that you can expect to be slapped with a bill for full agency fees. It's up to you to see if you can negotiate these down due to the fact that the prospective purchaser was told that your property was off the market.

As a matter of interest, a number of the larger estate agents operate a database of callers and if they are one of these they should be able to check the date of the caller, the properties they enquired about and what brochures were sent out. If this estate agent is one of these there should be a simple way of checking if the wrong information was given out.

Good luck with your renegotiation.