Beware that casual "just go ahead"email!!

The Court of Appeal has just awarded damages of over £10,000.00 to a firm of estate agents due to a breach by the seller of a property of the agent's sole agency agreement.

The unusual feature of this case is that the agency agreement had been entered into by emails between the seller and the agents.

The agent had sent the seller an email with both their multi and sole agency terms and conditions and the email went on to state that after a certain date the seller would market the property through the agents on a sole basis.

The seller replied with an email which basically said "that's fine, look forward to some viewings".

The property was eventually sold by another agent who had previously been marketing the property on a multi agency basis.  The first agents claimed their fee.

The Seller argued that there was no contract - she said that she had not fully read the e-mail or the sole agency terms and conditions and that it had always been her intention to market the property through several agents.

The Court of Appeal decided that there was a contract brought into being by the exchange of emails and that the sale by the other agent had deprived the sole agent of the chance of earning commission on the sale.  The Court therefore awarded the agent the full amount of its lost commission by way of damages.

The seller therefore effectively paid 2 lots of estate agent's fees and was also landed with a fairly hefty legal bill!

The great thing about email is that it makes instant communication astoundingly easy.  The bad thing about email is that it makes instant communication astoundingly easy!  Be wary about landing yourself with an obligation you never intended just with a quick click on the "Send" button!

Celebration time for Estate Agents?

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has announced that it is to consult on a proposal to repeal the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991. (

Under the Act it is an offence for an estate agent to make any statement (usually in the sales particulars) which would mislead a potential buyer or which is simply untrue.

 

The Act covers matters such as location, views from the property, measurements and size of rooms and garden and structural matters.

There is therefore a considerable degree of overlap between the Act and the Regulations - and indeed the powers of Trading Standards under both are very similar.

This has lead to calls for the Act to be scrapped and for customers of estate agencies to rely on their rights under the Regulations instead.

However, whilst the two sets of rules do indeed provide similar protection to consumers, it should be stressed that the protection is not identical, and added to which there has been, over the years, a considerable amount of case law flowing from the Act which gives Trading Standards and the Courts a degree of guidance as to the interpretion of the Act which simply is not available under the Regulations, given that they are relatively new.

We can only hope, if the Act is repealed, that Trading Standards and the Courts will continue to apply the same standards of enforcement which have been available to consumers under the Act.  If not, the days of "compact and bijou" may make a return!

If you would like to have your say on the consultation, it is open until 5th April 2011

If you'd like to comment on this or any of the other posts in the blog, just type it into the box below the relevant post and click the " Post Comment" button.

Cause to celebrate!

Common sense has stuck its head above the parapet!

The government has with immediate effect suspended the need for the preparation of a Home Information Pack when selling your house.

So not only will you be able to get your house onto the market sooner (because you won't have to wait for the HIP to be prepared) but the cost of the HIP (averaging around £300.00) will no longer be a consideration for sellers.

The need for an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) remains.

It's a shame for all the estate agents touting for HIP business, but good news for the rest of us!