Estate Agent demanding payment when I sold directly

[ev612337]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone has some advice for the following situation:

We had our home on the market with a local estate agent for almost 1 year. In that time the agent had brought one party to view the house and it came to nothing, mainly down to the hugely lacking professionalism of the agents employee who escorted the prospective buyers on their tour IMHO.

Anyway, in frustration at the lack of action or interest, my wife and I took it upon ourselves to take on the sale of our home directly and privately. We took a premium advert on daft.ie and we took our own pictures far better than the estate agents. We left the agent with his sign in our garden and our home for sale in his store window. However, we never heard from the agent and had just the one viewing as mentioned. Once we took the sale on directly, we generated several viewings and some serious interest. One of the interested parties actually made us an offer which we accepted and we sold the home and moved on to our new home.

In turn, the estate agent finally (after about 10 months from our "move-out date") came sniffing around and realising that we'd sold the home, started getting active - sending us bills and demands for moneys. Our postal mail is forwarded to our new home, so we get the letters. However, the agent is sending to the old address and does not seem to know where we moved to...

My query is, what grounds does an estate agent have to demand any moneys when they did not achieve the sale and had nothing to do with it.

For the purposes of this issue, let me explain that I wrote to the agent after just a few weeks of them taking on the home for sale telling them that I was not prepared to accept their terms (exclusivity and so on) and that I would actively seek a buyer myself and in such a case, they were not in the picture as regards any fees etc. They acknowledged and agreed to this in writing by reply.

The reason for my concern is that they have now written (again to the old home address) to us threatening to appoint a debt collector and warning us about how this can affect our credit rating!!! The moneys concerned relate to their outlay on advertising. So, in terms of significance, the amount is irrelevant. I am stubborn and I do not see why I should pay them for speculating and losing. They took a punt and if they were successful they would have pocketed over 6000 Euro in commission fees, but they were not successful and so they lose.

I sold the house directly and privately and after much effort on my part. They made no effort, but now expect ME to pay for their dire attempts. Does anyone know what I should do? I am currently ignoring the correspondence as they have not sent any to my new address, suggesting that they do not know my new address. The An Post mail forwarding service expires in mid-November so maybe then they'll feck off when mail is bounced back to them? Who knows?

Thanks in advance for your opinions and advice

[Hootanany]

Originally Posted by ev612337

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone has some advice for the following situation:

We had our home on the market with a local estate agent for almost 1 year. In that time the agent had brought one party to view the house and it came to nothing, mainly down to the hugely lacking professionalism of the agents employee who escorted the prospective buyers on their tour IMHO. Anyway, in frustration at the lack of action or interest, my wife and I took it upon ourselves to take on the sale of our home directly and privately. We took a premium advert on daft.ie and we took our own pictures far better than the estate agents. We left the agent with his sign in our garden and our home for sale in his store window. However, we never heard from the agent and had just the one viewing as mentioned. Once we took the sale on directly, we generated several viewings and some serious interest. One of the interested parties actually made us an offer which we accepted and we sold the home and moved on to our new home. In turn, the estate agent finally (after about 10 months from our "move-out date") came sniffing around and realising that we'd sold the home, started getting active - sending us bills and demands for moneys. Our postal mail is forwarded to our new home, so we get the letters. However, the agent is sending to the old address and does not seem to know where we moved to... My query is, what grounds does an estate agent have to demand any moneys when they did not achieve the sale and had nothing to do with it. For the purposes of this issue, let me explain that I wrote to the agent after just a few weeks of them taking on the home for sale telling them the I was not prepared to accept their terms and that I would actively seek a buyer myself and in such a case, they were not in the picture as regards any fees etc. They acknowledged and agreed to this in writing by reply. The reason for my concern is that they have now written (again to the old home address) to us threatening to appoint a debt collector and warning us about how this can affect our credit rating! The moneys concerned relate to their outlay on myhome.ie and total just over 300 Euro. So, in terms of significance, the amount is irrelevant. I am stubborn and I do not see why I should pay them for speculating and losing. They took a punt and if they were successful they would have pocketed over 6000 Euro in commission fees, but they were not successful and so they lose. I sold the house directly and privately and after much effort on my part. They made no effort, but now expect ME to pay for their dire attempts. Does anyone know what I should do? I am currently ignoring the correspondence as they have not sent any to my new address, suggesting that they do not know my new address. The An Post mail forwarding service expires in mid-November so maybe then they'll feck off when mail is bounced back to them? Who knows?

Thanks in advance for your opinions and advice

They did not sell it nuff said

[goodburger]

a few paragraphs would have made the story much more easier to read...... husband!!!!!

[Ste.phen]

Generally, you pay for their myhome/daft fees regardless of whether or not they sell the house.
When i saw the title I thought they were going after you for the 1.5% or something.

I imagine you probably do owe them the advertising costs, but i'd make sure the're not inflating it.

[Thoie]

I'd agree with Ste.phen. You know how much the Daft ad cost, so you have an idea if the charges are reasonable. I'd consider it reasonable to pay for the advertising, and perhaps the cost of the sign n the garden and maybe a few quid for, say, an hour or so of their time.

They can't affect your credit rating unless they take you to court for the debt.

[dudara]

What contract etc did you sign with them? They may well be entitled to recoup some costs from you.

Your credit rating cannot be affected unless they succeed in having a court judgement made against you. They probably don't have many sources of income right now and therefore they've decided to chase you.

[Cabaal]

To be honest it depends what the Terms & Conditions of the contract with the agent said, if you did not like these terms you should not have agreed to them.

Affecting your credit rating is bull**** as they can't do this without taking you to court and unless its a decent amount of money they are unlikely to do this

[penexpers]

They are entitled to their advertising costs.

[Enii]

Originally Posted by ev612337

Hi All,






The moneys concerned relate to their outlay on advertising. So, in terms of significance, the amount is irrelevant. I am stubborn and I do not see why I should pay them for speculating and losing.



Thanks in advance for your opinions and advice

Did you agree to paying for advertising. This is normally charged, regardless of a sale or not......

[Miaireland]

Check your contract. You probably do owe them money. I had two estate agents selling my house but sold it myself and had to pay both of them.

[silly1]

Originally Posted by Miaireland

Check your contract. You probably do owe them money. I had two estate agents selling my house but sold it myself and had to pay both of them.

Pay exactly what to both of them Commission? Advertising fees? other? & what exactly did you agree with each agent.

[Miaireland]

Advertising and other bits and pieces. It was all stated out in the contracts I signed so can't complain.l

[the_syco]

Originally Posted by ev612337

For the purposes of this issue, let me explain that I wrote to the agent after just a few weeks of them taking on the home for sale telling them that I was not prepared to accept their terms (exclusivity and so on) and that I would actively seek a buyer myself and in such a case, they were not in the picture as regards any fees etc. They acknowledged and agreed to this in writing by reply.

The reason for my concern is that they have now written (again to the old home address) to us threatening to appoint a debt collector and warning us about how this can affect our credit rating!!! The moneys concerned relate to their outlay on advertising.

Are they looking to recoup the amount for advertising? As you have done an ad on daft yourself, you'll know the cosst of that, and if they are telling fibs or not. If it's only a small fee, pay it, but if they're trying to screw you, photocopy the letter they sent to you,, and send the copy back to them.

[smelltheglove]

I was in a similar situation a while back, an agent brought numerous visitors to my house but the agent in charge suffered an illness and was out of work for a fair amount of time, after almost 6 months on the market I heard nothing as they never transferred the sale of my house to anyone else. I went with another agent and sold within 2 months. The first agent wrote to me and called me asking for advertising costs which I declined to pay as they did not produce on their side of the deal, end of.

[AARRRGH]

Originally Posted by smelltheglove

The first agent wrote to me and called me asking for advertising costs which I declined to pay as they did not produce on their side of the deal, end of.

That seems a bit unreasonable tbh. I personally would pay their advertising costs.