When selling a house, there are times when you may be dissatisfied by what your estate agent is doing, and there may come a point where you wish to terminate the contract altogether. However, the amount of money that you owe your estate agent and the point at which you can pull out will depend entirely on what your contract says.
What should I look out for?
Most estate agents have an exclusivity agreement. Essentially, this means that you must stick with the same estate agent for a certain amount of time. This can vary from four to 16 weeks, and some estate agents allow you to pull out with a certain amount of notice. Look for these clauses in your contract, and check what they actually say.
If you have engaged an agent with a fixed fee service, you may still have to pay the fixed fee regardless of whether the property sells. Some fixed fee agents, such as Yopa, also offer a no sale, no fee service, so it’s worth looking into that.
You should also be aware of the difference between a sole agency agreement and a sole selling rights agreement. The former essentially means that the agent is only entitled to a fee if they introduce the buyer. The latter means that should a buyer come forward – regardless of who introduced that person to the property – they will still get their fee, provided they are still in the contractual period.
Talk to your estate agent
Realistically, the first thing you need to do is to talk to your estate agent. If the house isn’t selling, for example, you need to ask why. In many cases, the price is too high, and that’s down to the estate agent valuation. There’s still a tendency to value houses a little too high on the basis that a higher valuation is more likely to win you over. It might also be because the agent hasn’t marketed it appropriately or because the property just isn’t quite right for the area (such as a 1-bed apartment in an area with lots of young families, for example).
If you want to make a complaint about the agent’s conduct, you need to go through the estate agent’s complaints process first. The complaint can be escalated to the Property Ombudsman (assuming you’re selling or buying a house) if the agent fails to resolve the case.
If the agent has breached the terms of the contract, you’ll need to talk to them about it. Examples of potential breaches include:
- Not passing on all offers
- Not sticking to set timescales
- Not advertising on promised websites
- Not conducting viewings
Again, you have to look at your contract to see if these are breaches. A breach of contract would often negate the contract, letting you out of it. These are relatively rare, however. This is more solicitor territory, and you would do well to consult one should you have any questions regarding whether the estate agent has breached your contract and your options thereafter.
Ultimately, changing your estate agent doesn’t have to be an expensive affair, and if you select the right one, you can do it painlessly. Pay attention to when you pay commission and check what rights you have in the event your estate agent isn’t selling your property. Finally, be sure to check out our guide to the number of viewings it takes to sell your home.
