House withdrawn from sale - Auctioneers fees?

[dereko1969]

Hi! Just in case anyone finds themselves in similar situation, I have contacted seven different estate agents, including a director of one of the big name firms who I know from my schooldays. They all said that while technically they cud due in this situation, it is not standard practice, and none if them had ever experienced it. They all followed the rule no sale, (that is sale completed), no fee.

I'm sorry but I don't believe that you asked them the appropriate question. Did you ask would you look for your outlay on advertising etc to be repaid or just a simple no sale no fee?

There have been numerous threads on here previously whereby estate agents have sought, correctly, to be repaid their outlay on selling a house.

I don't think your EA's have any right to seek the full % fee for the sale of the house and they should not have witheld your rent but they are certainly right to seek their outlay to be repaid and your claim of naivety seems a bit absurd to me, they've done the work they were hired to do, you changed your mind after they'd found a buyer for you and you expect to not to have to pay them anything?

 

[elainem]

House withdrawn from sale

Hi! Derek, thanks for your reply. If you read what I said, the outlay, advertising etc. is not in dispute - in fact they actually haven't invoiced me for that, but the actual payment of e10,000 full fee for selling the property is in dispute. When I contacted the other auctioneers, it was to ascertain whether their comission, and not their advertising fees, which are a given, would be paid if someone withdrew from sale agreed. I really only thought that I would have to pay for advertising fees, brochures, etc if I withdrew from sale agreed, and this has, in fact, been confrimed by other estate agents.

 

[Dermot]

elainem. I have reread your post and I do not see anywhere in your post that (a) you have been Invoiced for €10,000.00 in commission.
(b) that you have been told verbally by the EA that you owe €10,000.00 in commission.
I do see where you stated that the agreed commission was 2% and you calculated that this gave a figure of €10,000.00. This would indicate that the sale figure was €500,000.00 before it was withdrawn.
Have you burned some bridges with the estate agent at any stage of the sale process. Was there any sharp exchanges when you informed the EA that you were not going ahead with the sale.
I would have expected that you would have had some discussion in relation to fees at the time you terminated the sale.
I just have the feeling that there is a small piece of significant information not being disclosed here. I intend no offence by this.

 

[Luternau]

Currently you are speculating on fees as you have received no invoice related to the sale. You have already been advised you may be liable for a fee here. However, the only party that can confirm that is your auctioneer-not a straw poll of other auctioneers.

Up to now, you have been dripping key information in and asking questions in such a way as to get the answer you want to hear. Did you ask them if a seller would be liable for any sales fee if they pulled out after sale agreed?

In the current market, any sale agreed is a huge triumph for all involved. Even with the pending surgery, it must have been a significant decision for you to pull out of a sale? Could you not have negotiated on the date of transfer/sale. It would have taken about 3mths anyway. It just looks like you rushed into cancelling without getting information on options and fees.

To be fair to you, I don't see it being right for the auctioneer to withhold rent or a deposit from you, given no invoice for fees has issued. Have you told them they won't be getting any fee? Something seems to be missing here? If not, you need to write to them and ask that they refund you all rents due to plus deposit held.

 

[Bronte]

. When I contacted the other auctioneers, it was to ascertain whether their comission, and not their advertising fees, which are a given, would be paid if someone withdrew from sale agreed. .

Why didn't you ask a straight question. If there is a sale agreed and the vendor pulls out is there commission?

The only way I would see that commission is not due on sale agreed is when there is sale agreed but the sale doesn't actually go through for legal or mortgage reasons, this is why auctioneers do not receive their fee until the transfer.

In addition why did you not ascertain what exactly would be due to the auctioneers when you hired them. Instead of ringing around 7 auctioneers after the fact.

It's also confusing as you're saying you're not in dispute about the advertising, but yet you started the thread saying this is what the dispute is about.