solictors letter from estate agent

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A friend has received a solictors letters from an estate agent A. When he was initially selling his property he instructed estate agent A later on he engaged another estate agent B. A couple came to view the property & he gave them the details of both estate agents, they made an offer through estate agents B which I accepted & estate agent B took the applicable fee. However Estate agent A are now seeking the fee from him as they claim that the buyers initially found the property through them.

Upon contacting his solictor he told him just to pay up and that he had no case surely this is not the situation, when the buyers approached him he was not aware that they had seen the property previously they had gone to the site and spoken with builder. Has he anyting to go on?
 
A while ago I saw some correspondence from one agent to a disgruntled client which said something to the effect that "IPAV rules state that no agent can take on a client currently engaged with another agent". It sounds strange to me why the 2nd agent was prepared to get involved knowing that another agent was already engaged. They normally have IMHO an exclsuivity clause which states something like they house will be with them for a period of xx months. If you want to bring in a new agent the norm would be to disengage the original guy.

Roy
 
Are the auctioneers members of IPAV or the MIAVI? If so, refer them both to the their institute and ask them to sort it out.

Brendan
 
If you want to I think that you can have multiple agents selling your house provided that the agents in question are aware of it and are prepared to work with each other. They can agree to split the commission.


This may be more common with large expensive isolated or difficult to sell properties than with your typical 3 or 4 bed semi in suburbia.
 
AFAIK most estate agents would have a clause in their contracts of Appointment that if the property is sold after the term of appointment had passed to a purchaser that the agent had previously been aware of/introduced to the vendor then the agent is due a fee.

Also, afaik, if the property is sold through another agent, whilst the term of appointment for the first agent is still in effect, the first agent and the second agent are due fees.

Did the person in question sign any T&C for either agent?
 
quarterfloun said:
Why can you not have multiple agencies selling your property as in the UK?
Click to expand...

It is not the case that in the UK you can have multiple agents (unless there is a particular arrangement that you pay them all when the property is sold! Several sellers in my neighbourhood recently encountered situations where they wished to change estate-agent. They all independently found they could only do so after a 28-day written notice to the originally-retained agent. This is common courtesy as well as business sense that the first agent is otherwise unaware of the switch and goes on promoting and/or arranging viewings for your property if it is on their books. In one of the situations above there is a similar kerfuffle to yours going on. The seller was with Agent A for over a year, submitted the 28-day formal notice and simultaneously switched to Agent B; agent A, worried at losing the commission, put on a spurt and sold the property within the 28-day-notice period (during which Agent B had made promotional literature, put the property on their website, arranged viewings etc). The seller's focus has to be the relationship/contract with the agent who is the "middle man". It doesn't matter, effectively, how the purchaser comes into contact. If your contract with with a particular estate agent/auctioneer then they are the ones who are officially trying to shift the property on your behalf. If it were otherwise people could "duck out" of fees all over the kaboodle, claiming they "saw it when driving past" etc., etc.
 
Sorry I was not clear in my posting, In the UK you have a choice of sole or multiple agency. I found when selling one of my homes when nothing was happening I went to Agency X who said that they were "quiet" and so I asked about going multiple. According to the Agent he said fine, put the 1.5% sole agency on hold and moved to 2.5% multiple. I then instructed two other Agents to do the same. They all said that 2.5% of the fee was fine and would not be taking 2.5% (or any fee) if the others sold the place. ie on sale I paid 2.5% out and not 7.5%.
 
That's not true about multi-agencies in the UK, btw. You can have as many as you like, and so long as you don't sign a sole agency agreement you only need to pay the one that sells it for you. None of this rubbish of paying for advertising on the website, or the cost of a board either.
 
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