Advice Please

[jules5526]

hi we went to visit property for sale, at first we saw parking to be a problem, so didn;t offer a price, a week later we found a solution, and went to put an offer in and were told she has taken it off the market, the estate agent emailed her, we waited a week, to be told that she was refusing to deal with them and wasn't accepting any offers from them.
apparently her contract ended at the end of the mth.
The she popped up with another estate agent at the same time we have approached them with a higher offer only to be told the offer had to go through the other estate agent who she won't deal with, he said he would see what he would do grrrrr
my question is is it possible to deal with the seller directly and by pass these two sooo fed up being stuck in the middle, would we be breaking any laws(estate agent laws) if we did i know they wouldn't like it. but i don't want to lose this house, and be outbid whilst waiting around for estate agent rules, any advice greatly appeciated, oh forgot to say the contact had finished with estate agent 1 when we put offer in.
Hope makes sense

Thanks
Julie

 

[Barny]

This is an awkward area and something that I have also been in a similar position with!

Unfortunately, because the original agents 'introduced' you to the property, whether you were to have an offer accepted through another agent or direct with the seller, the original agents are well within their rights to make a claim for their fee owed because they introduced you.

The new agent will hopefully be able to get something rolling but the way the seller needs to realistically look at it is that they have a potential buyer for their house and if your offer was accepted, they will actually then be dealing with their solicitors and not the selling agents and even on occasions when you may need extra info such as window measurements, looking at fixtures or fittings, etc, you could agree to speak to the seller direct, again to cut out the original agents.

Good luck!

 

[Donquick]

Yes, absolutely, it is more than possible. As Barney says, the original agent may have a claim to their fee if things develop, but this does not mean that you cannot talk to whomsoever you please. The same applies to the vendor by the way - it isn't the official secrets act just because there is an agents board outside the house! If you want the house and you are getting nowhere, please, go and knock on the door or put a note through the letterbox with your number on it - you are not under contract to anybody, are you?? You will then know if it is the vendor who is creating problems or the agent and you will soon establish whether you want to do business with this vendor or not. At worst they will tell you which agent to speak to and fill you in with the story so far. (You may find it is the vendor and not the agents who is sticking the spanner in the works). Certainly, the vendor will need to sort out their liabilities with the relevant agent if they want to do the deal, but if you have a conversation with them and both parties are in agreement, the rest of the arrangements will fall into place much more easily than if you are trying to do the deal via intermediaries. Fortunately for all of us, estate agents do not have any sort of powers of control or legal recourse over normal citizens as you suggest in your post

 

[Jonathan Rolande]

Hi,

you can approach the lady directly but she will likely still be liable for at least one agency fee, but that’s not really your concern. Best of luck, sounds a bit messy!

Jonathan

 

[Crosbyhome]

i'd post a note through. It'll be up to the estate agents to figure out who owe what