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Terminated agreement with Estate Agent because dissatisfied.

They have sent me an invoice for £172.50 inc. VAT. This is written into the Contract I signed, but I had expected they would have kept their end of the bargain by being more efficient. Do I have to pay? There is also a 6 month clause binding me to them for anyone they introduced. Their's is a fixed fee of £6,750 no matter how much they sell my house for. I asked for a free valuation, the Agent, gave me one, and proceeded to get me to sign an agreement, and took photographs all on the same day. I was overwhelmed and as I am in my late 70s, do not think I have been treated fairly. Please can you give me some advice?

Asked on Dec 11 2009, Selling in Sutton Coldfield | Report content

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    MarkXperie...

    You do not say how long the agent was acting for you but I assume it was over 2 weeks (you have a 14 day cooling off period after signing the agency agreement in which to cancel it with no obligation). If there was a clearly marked clause in their agreement that said you would have pay £172,50 if you withdrew (was this for the provision of a Home Information Pack? - if so they should send it to you and you can use that with any new agent that markets your home) then technically you must pay it. That said, if their service was bad I would complain to the head office. If you don't get satisfaction from that, find out if they are members of the Property Ombudsman (link to their website at the bottom) who you can ask to look into any complaint for you. Although there are still some rogue agents out there, the vast majority care about their reputation and take treating customers fairly very seriously so I would hope you might get somewhere with this one. On the 6 month clause, this is pretty standard in the industry and usually only fair. If they have introduced someone to your property who later ends up buying it, it is probably only fair that they get a fee. You would only have to pay that fee if someone they introduced actually buys your property at a price you are happy to accept though so you would probably be fine with this. Finally, if you are instructing another agent, make sure you let them know which people have already viewed it though the first agent to avoid any confusion and potential to pay 2 fees.

    Web reference: http://www.tpos.co.uk

    Answered on Dec 14 2009, Report content
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