Estate Agents

[bednobs]

in general terms, if you accept an offer on your house, but then pull out (for whatever reason) does the estate agent still chrge you?

[RATTER15]

Yes I think so unless there is a valid reason, the Estate Agent has fulfilled his obligation by finding a buyer that you accepted.

[Peter Pedant]

as ever it depends on the terms of the contract

when we were selling my mother's 6 bedroom house the estate agent made quite sure we realised that his job was to bring possible buyers to the door and said he would charge whether or not the sale went thro

long answer for possibly ......

[SirOracle]

Bednobs....in general terms maybe not only estate agent but the purchaser may be looking for money as you could be in breach of contract.

[murraymints]

my brother pulled out and was charged for the advertising, fact sheets etc ..prospective buyers not in line for anything as no contracts were signed .. in Scotland a couple of years ago...

[ummmm]

SirO...accepting an offer is not a contract. Contracts have to be signed. If you pull out after that then the purchaser can look to be compensated.

I didn't pull out of a sale but I did take my house off the market with no charges...

[Retrochic]

A lot of Estate Agents advertise 'No Sale No Fee' so if there is no Sale there will be no Fee. Technically you have to Exchange Contracts for it to be classed as a 'sale' . To answer your question: If you pull out of a sale before Exchange then most likely you will have Admin Charges to pay but certainly not the % of the sale price you would have paid if the property sale had gone through.We put one of our refurb properties on the market but then found a Tenant so withdrew it -the Estate Agent charged us for Advertising which I thought was fair enough.

[Retrochic]

Ummmm In Scotland an acceptance of offer is a legally binding contract which makes property sales much quicker. I wish England would adopt this method as much of Europe and all of North America follow this procedure.

[ummmm]

I think bednobs is in England though.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Retro...in Scotland the acceptance of an offer is not legally binding until the concluded missives are completed.You can pull out without penalty up to that point.

[Retrochic]

Bright Spark -missives are not offers to purchase, they are conditions of purchase and are not signed by the potential buyer or seller, but their solicitors. Once the missives have been dealt with the potential buyer then puts in a formal offer to buy. Once the offer has been accepted on all points, you have entered into a legally binding arrangement and neither party can withdraw without potentially being held liable for the consequent losses of the other party. This is different from the English way as you can accept an offer at any time, but until Contracts have been exchanged and both parties have signed, you can pull out without penalty.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Retro...my point is that the initial 'offer' for property is meaningless until the missives are concluded.As you say when the solicitor has made the formal offer pulling out will be very expensive.