Beware of Estate agents and their Contracts
Always always instruct estate agents on Sole agency only this way, you will not pay them if you sell your house yourself, (private sale) and you can advertise on the Internet,
According to research by Which?. Contracts can be badly worded and misleading.
It warns people to watch out for terms, which could catch them out.
- For example, if you opt for sole selling rights, and then find a buyer yourself, you will still have to pay the estate agent.
- Another one to watch out for, if you are a seller, is a “ready, willing and able purchaser contract”.
If you must use an estate agent agree a sales fee upfront none of this percentage rip off, estate agents will go for this deal just ask.
So agree that a sale is worth £350, after all they dont work hard to sell your home so why pay for it…
If you consider that on a percentage deal if you take an offer say 13000 less they lose just £195 and on a house sale of £12700 you still have to pay them almost £2000…
We have an estate agents contract here you can use. Estate agents contract from Which.
You will have to pay once a buyer, who is able to exchange unconditional contracts, is found.
This still applies if you withdraw your property before the sale is completed.
In this scenario, you may also be charged for the cost of ‘For Sale’ boards and advertising.
Do not let estate agents compile your “FREE HIP”. If you let you Estate agent compile your Home information pack or HIP.
- This will mean that:(a) He or she will charge you more than otherwise for selling the house.
- (b) you won’t easily be able to change agents because the HIP will be tied into them in some way – or you will have to pay for it in order to change agents.
- (c) you will be “encouraged” to go to some conveyancer in a remote location that has a deal with the agent and the HIP provider and the agent will probably get a kick-back from the conveyancer that YOU WILL BE PAYING FOR.
If you compile your own HIP its yours, so you can change agents as you see fit without penalty.
- Do not accept the the 2% or 1.5% estate agent fees
- Always get them down to below 1%, and use the contract below we have for you, that way everything is upfront. No nasty shocks.
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unfortunately i got into free hips and signed the contract which i now want to pull out of as the agents are simply not doing their job.have found out they are charging me £100 more than the advertised price of the hips.they will not negotiate and i cant afford to pay.Am almost ready to cancel in writing and let them take me to court,but am a bit scared of consequences. moneys tight,but means cant go with a better agent and need to sell the house.I can buy a hips on internet for £250 LESS!!
Hi Lorna,
how much fees are you paying to the estate agent?
Hi Lorna,
Did you get this resolved. i am in the same situation. I agreed to a HIP pack, because i needed one. and then found out thast they wanted nearly £200 more than the average price.
Need to find a way of getting out of it!