Sole agents: To charge for eternity? No bank account reconciliations secret funds
UNDESIRABLE JUDGMENT, GOOD FOR DEMOLITION
Things were going badly enough for estate agents without Foxtons Ltd v Bicknell and another [2008] EWCA Civ 419, [2008] All ER (D) 328 (Apr). That case will make their search for an effective linkage between their actions and an ultimate sale that much harder and, at the same time, will reduce the risk to the seller of being saddled with two sets of agents’ commission for the price of one property.
“A purchaser introduced by us…”
Sole agency terms (adopting the wording of the Estate Agents: Provision of Information Regulations 1991 (SI 1991/859), (the regulations) entitled Foxtons to commission where contracts were exchanged with “a purchaser introduced by us…” Foxtons said that meant a person who at some time in the future became a purchaser.
But hang on, say a client placed their property with sole agents, withdrew it and subsequently put it back on the market with other agents two years later and those agents