Property not sold - do I owe the estate agent?

newbie2013

My house has been on the market with him for 2 years, at the time i was desperate to sell it to use the money for some other investments and to pay of what i owed some family members. I would only owe about 9% on what the house is worth in this climate (150-200k) Now ive had alot of thought about it and am thinking of taking it off the market for another 5-10 years but was wanting to know, do i owe the estate agent anything for all the call outs he done with potential buyers and advertising.

L1011

Check the contract you signed with them. There's no way to answer without knowing what you agreed to.

Usually you will have to pay for advertising at the bare minimum - this would usually be a fixed fee to cover the website listings, putting up the sign, ads in papers if they still do that, etc.

Bigcheeze

Generally no. They operate on a no foal no fee basis.

newbie2013

MYOB wrote: »

Check the contract you signed with them. There's no way to answer without knowing what you agreed to.

Usually you will have to pay for advertising at the bare minimum - this would usually be a fixed fee to cover the website listings, putting up the sign, ads in papers if they still do that, etc.

No contract signed

Santa Cruz

newbie2013 wrote: »

My house has been on the market with him for 2 years, at the time i was desperate to sell it to use the money for some other investments and to pay of what i owed some family members. I would only owe about 9% on what the house is worth in this climate (150-200k) Now ive had alot of thought about it and am thinking of taking it off the market for another 5-10 years but was wanting to know, do i owe the estate agent anything for all the call outs he done with potential buyers and advertising.

My experience with a leading Dublin firm is that you pay up front for advertising. This is about 350 plus VAT for a three bed house.
The contract states that there will be no other fee incurred until they supply your solicitor a purchaser with a signed contract. If you withdraw the house from sale at that point you are still liable for the full auctioneer's costs.

In your case you have not reached this point so you should be allright.

newbie2013

What about if a buyer came in for my property, i looked at others but didnt see anything i like then refuse the offer. Am i stilll liable for the costs

D3PO

newbie2013 wrote: »

What about if a buyer came in for my property, i looked at others but didnt see anything i like then refuse the offer. Am i stilll liable for the costs

If the EA got you an offer of asking and you refused it and pulled the house of the market your likely to be libel to pay the EA yes.

As others have said your going to be libel for at min the advertising costs. Seems very strange to me that no contract was signed though.