Sacked estate agent - looking for costs

I've done a quick search and there is one similar thread but I really am a worrier and just wanted to check (afraid of being put on a bad credit rating list or something). To cut story as short as I can (plenty of previous posts by me explain situation as it occured:

Estate agent came to value my property. I said I was afraid it might not go over the 381 threshold but that I really felt it was worth more due to being an end property, but mid-terrace ones were going for 381. He told me he was confident he could get it over the 400 mark. I said that if it was only going to get 381 I would sell it myself as knew I could get that straightaway by putting an ad on DAFT. Paid him €200 upfront for advertising on myhome. 3 months later after his useless efforts at selling and rubbish service he's still coming back with the 381. I took house off market. Waited one month. Put house back on market and sold myself. Got over 410,000 within a week (took better photos, did a better brochure etc.) Got e-mail last week from smarmy EA pretening he was taking an interest to see 'how we got on'. Me trying to be nice told him the price we got and said I felt it was due to the effort I had put in, and was friendly in the e-mail and wished him luck in his business. Sale has closed I am in new house but got a re-directed (An Post) letter today from the EA saying that he wants €200 for 'signage' as it was us who took our property off the market.

I know the other half is going to tell me to bin the letter (and in fairness if I didn't have the re-directed post I probalby wouldn't have gotten it). I feel like writing a letter telling him exactly what I think of him for wasting 3 months of my time misleading purchasers and wasting my time (trying to get me to accept the 381).

Please someone tell me I do not have to pay this clown and that if I don't there is no danger of me being blacklisted.

wally said:

Sale has closed I am in new house but got a re-directed (An Post) letter today from the EA saying that he wants €200 for 'signage' as it was us who took our property off the market.

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Did you get anything for this €200-did the EA have signs made up for your property? Is/was there a contract?

CCOVICH said:

Did you get anything for this €200-did the EA have signs made up for your property? Is/was there a contract?

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Yes he did have a sign up outside the house and on the main road (he is charging 100 for each sign). So I do think, well he did incur that expense (though I'm fairly sure it was not that expensive considering the cost of the sign I erected myself). There was no contract whatsoever, I signed nothing, because if he had asked me to sign something I would have made it clear that I would only be paying him if he got me the €400,000 which he was 'confident' he could get.

I made it clear that if he could only get 381 for the property I would just sell it myself. I am just looking at it that if I pay him this, then I've paid €400 for absolutely nothing (apart from the stress and worry of his uselessness at being an EA). I've said in previous posts about how I got a friend to ring and it took him 3 days to phone back. But of course this is probably not the issue. To answer your question CCOVICH no there was no contract but yes he did provide signs - however he never mentioned that if he did not sell my house that he would be sending me an invoice to cover the cost of them.

The Estate Agent incurred expenses on your account. Under Agency Law you are supposed to indemnify him for these.
The fact that he was unable to fulfil one of the terms of the verbal contract with you i.e. "Get me more than €381k" is a separate issue.
The question with regard to this is (IMO) whether the time given by you to the Estate Agent was sufficient for him to find a buyer. i.e. was the Estate Agent unable to find a buyer in a reasonable amount of time.
That seems to me to be a rather grey area and not worth fighting about.
So I suggest you pay him.

I would say €200 is a cheap conclusion to the affair especially as you made an extra 29k yourself. Well done.

I would suggest you don't pay him. I was in a similar situation myself. Paid a deposit to an EA who failed to sell my property. They came looking for more money, and I explained that I felt I had paid them more than enough, given that they failed to sell the property. I suggested they go the legal route if they wanted to claim the balance, and I never heard from them again.

harvey said:

I would say €200 is a cheap conclusion to the affair especially as you made an extra 29k yourself. Well done.

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It's not the €200. It's the principle. He was rude and aggressive when we wouldn't accept the 381 after 3 weeks of him showing the property and made us run the risk of people wondering what was wrong with the house that it was on so long. He didn't do what he was hired to do (get at least 400,000) and he certainly never mentioned that I would have to pay €200 for signs. I'd have no problem giving the €200 to charity, it's the twits own fault for forking out for signs and then marketing the property all wrong - not mine.

This Estate Agent is willing to risk the reputation of his firm for €200??????

turtle77 said:

This Estate Agent is willing to risk the reputation of his firm for €200??????

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On the other hand, he would probably say that he can't please all of the people all of the time. The reputation of any business will hardly fall apart on the word of a single dissatisfied customer. I am continually hearing bad stories about the auctioneers in my own town yet their businesses are booming.

Surely he can use the signs again??? Really the only cost he incurred would be the cost of the nails???!!1

I wouldn't pay him either - same thing happene to me last year and i actually lost out on my dream house because of his time wasting. I was 8 months pregnant at the time and the whole situation caused me a great deal of stress. I didnt give the EA a penny for advertising on myhome.ie and newspapers etc. He knew not to come looking for it aswell. He probably didnt want to incur the wrath of a heavily pregnant woman just after losing her dream home!

I am in same boat and am not going to pay him. Like you my guy didn't turn up for some viewings , no effort. He never put the property on daft which was one of the verbal agreements so he never fulfiled his side of the deal

You have already paid him €200 for advertising costs. He couldn't sell your house in 3 months.

You re-advertised and sold the house yourself after he failed to do so.

He now wants another €200 for failing to sell your house? He has no contract?? Is this a joke? Am I missing something?

If I were you, I'd throw that letter into the bin, have a good laugh at his cheek and get on with your life.

Why not put his name and company on here so we can all have a good laugh?? Save anyone in future being stupid enough to "employ" an estate agent in the first place when you can do it yourself.

Don't just throw the letter in the bin if you are not going to pay the costs. The last thing you need is an entry in Stubbs Gazette or some such. Be sure to reply outlining the reasons why you do not feel you owe the money - his general incompetence, the fact that you sold your house easily when doing it yourself and so forth. Make it clear that he was very lucky to get even €200 off you and that should he pursue the matter further you will consider seeking a reimbursement of these charges for the reasons you already outlined.

Be sure to raise several questions in your letter so that if he doesn't reply things will be tougher for him should he take it to court. When he says you didn't pay the bill you will be able to present a copy of your letter (make sure it is sent via registered post) and say he failed to reply addressing your concerns.

My guess is that he is chancing his arm and even a reply like this will be enough to put him off.

Yeah, I think you are right room305, my worry is the bad credit rating, so rather than ignore it perhaps I should reply. I've worked as a legal secretary and am sure he hasn't a leg to stand on.

Now the challenge of trying to be polite in a letter when I know what I'd really like to say....................

I am glad to see most people seem to agree I should not pay it as the first couple of replies were offputting - my original question was whether he could chase me for the money or not, whereas a couple people advised me to pay it, which was not what I asked. I've no intention of paying it.

Obviously I'd love to name and shame the clown but I'll have to make do with telling everyone I know to avoid him as obviously not allowed to put it on here.

Ballyman, as usual you make me laugh and it was thanks to your previous posts I had the nerve to sack the clown in the first place, cheers.

No problem, glad to be of help

having some experience 1st hand of this the EA often will "chance the arm" and try and get some costs back on a lost sale.
I would be very very surpsised if they sought costs after you send such a letter as outlined earlier.
Its just a ring around done when there is a bit of spare time trying to hoover uo any cash they may be able to get in.

what do you have to pay an EA upfront when you ask them to take on your property? Obviously the house gets advertised on their own website, but its obviously up to you whether it goes on myhome.ie
I hear they charge €200 for myhome.ie?

so do they also look upfront for the cost of the signs? Visiting the house to take pictures?

I'm looking at ads from a property in the same estate I'm trying to sell mine, that is advertised on daft by an EA. All they have is 1 picture of the front of the house. I have my ad on daft in a private sale with 13 pictures. I have gone to the trouble of doing a very detailed description of each room where as the EA ad has a 2 liner about the full house.

Now if I don't end up selling in 6-8 weeks, I might look at the avenue of using the EA. As far as I'm concerned, I've done most of the leg work for them if it comes to that.

tosullivan said:

I'm looking at ads from a property in the same estate I'm trying to sell mine, that is advertised on daft by an EA. All they have is 1 picture of the front of the house. I have my ad on daft in a private sale with 13 pictures. I have gone to the trouble of doing a very detailed description of each room where as the EA ad has a 2 liner about the full house.

Now if I don't end up selling in 6-8 weeks, I might look at the avenue of using the EA. As far as I'm concerned, I've done most of the leg work for them if it comes to that.

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Are you crazy? You just said your website is way better than the EA's. What in the name of God do you think an EA is going to do that you can't do??? My EA's website was a disgrace, I had to constantly hound him to get him to ad more pictures, and highlight massive selling points he hadn't even mentioned (e.g. luas extension). Don't throw your money away, an EA will not attract a buyer that you can't attract yourself... It was different when myhome.ie had the monopoly and you needed an EA to get on there, but everyone checks DAFT now too.

All I paid was the €200 up front for myhome.ie, not sure what other EA's charge upfront though.