M
Mark Sheridan
New Member
Good Morning - I am hoping someone can confirm my concerns on the recent sale of my property.
When we listed the property we agreed 2% fee flat with no mention of plus VAT. We completed on the sale on Friday the 25th October and when we reviewed the outstanding charges from our solicitor we could see that the fees from the estate agent were nearly £2K more than expected. When we queried this we were told that VAT was added.
We had no idea this would be the case so we checked the signed contract from the estate agent. It looks like the fee was blank on the contract. This is a picture of it below.
When we queried this further the estate agent, he admitted that they added the values and simply sent a letter to tell us they did so? Again you can see this attached. To note, EVERY single detail was entered on the contract by the estate agent except the fee so not sure why that would our responsibility to add?
Can someone confirm if this is legal? I would have thought any changes to a contract especially something like the fee should be agreed with the seller and then initialed on the contract.
This estate agent is also states it follows the TPO Code of Practice yet one of their values are - “VAT on fees – to ensure all fees and charges are quoted inclusive of VAT.” which obviously hasn't happened.
If you look under section 5X of the TPO Code of Practice for Residential Estate agents you will see the following:
The only thing from solicitor has abided from the above is sending a letter stating the rate. Not once did the let us know that this data was missing on the original contract and they added it.
I just want to know if i have a case worth fighting here and if so what is the best avenue to escalate this
Thanks for reading and appreciate any replies
Mark
.
When we listed the property we agreed 2% fee flat with no mention of plus VAT. We completed on the sale on Friday the 25th October and when we reviewed the outstanding charges from our solicitor we could see that the fees from the estate agent were nearly £2K more than expected. When we queried this we were told that VAT was added.
We had no idea this would be the case so we checked the signed contract from the estate agent. It looks like the fee was blank on the contract. This is a picture of it below.
When we queried this further the estate agent, he admitted that they added the values and simply sent a letter to tell us they did so? Again you can see this attached. To note, EVERY single detail was entered on the contract by the estate agent except the fee so not sure why that would our responsibility to add?
Can someone confirm if this is legal? I would have thought any changes to a contract especially something like the fee should be agreed with the seller and then initialed on the contract.
This estate agent is also states it follows the TPO Code of Practice yet one of their values are - “VAT on fees – to ensure all fees and charges are quoted inclusive of VAT.” which obviously hasn't happened.
If you look under section 5X of the TPO Code of Practice for Residential Estate agents you will see the following:
The only thing from solicitor has abided from the above is sending a letter stating the rate. Not once did the let us know that this data was missing on the original contract and they added it.
I just want to know if i have a case worth fighting here and if so what is the best avenue to escalate this
Thanks for reading and appreciate any replies
Mark
.