Can an agent force you to sell?

[Scarlett]

Hi

I've posted this in the legal section as well but my friend is desparate for an answer:

A mate of ours in the village who has a holiday home came over just before Easter and bumped into his previous estate agent who managed to talk him into selling the house.  The morning he was leaving he told us this and told us the price - absolutely silly money - at least 30K less than we have known similar properties to go for.  We told him at the time that we thought it was well under-priced.  He said he didn't care if the house took a year or more to sell.  My husband said he thought it would sell within the week. Within two days of getting back to the UK our mate was told that he ha dbeen offered full asking price on the property.  Of course he now feels that (a) he was duped into putting it on at a low price and (b) that the agent already had the buyer lined up and consequently that was why he valued the house so low.

He has since changed his mind about selling the house but the agent has said that he can't because he signed a mandat de vente and that he can be taken to court if he doesn't sell.  I thought that this just gave the agent th exclusivity for the 3 month duration of the mandat.  In fact my parents lost a house in France a few years ago because although they signed a compromis de vente the owners had second thoughts at the last minute and decided not to sell and the notaire said there was nothing they could do about it.

Does anyone know the rules?  Have they changed since my parents failed in their purchase?  Was it naivety on my parents part in that they could have forced the sellers hand?  Is it different rules if a property is being marketed through a notaire or an agent? 

I feel so sorry for our mate because when he came to say goodbye last week I could tell he was already regretting having put the house on the market but I think he thought that it would take for ever to sell anyway and now not only may he have lost his house when he's had second thoughts about selling it, but also he's literally GIVING it away.

BTW I'm talking about the fact that he signed a mandat de vente between him and the agent, not a compromis with any buyer.

Is there a cooling off period for signing a mandat like there is for a compromis for the purchaser?  If so, I think our mate's house was sold before he had chance to think about it!!!

[Eslier]

I think you will find that there is no legal reason why your friend must go ahead with the sale of the house however, since he signed a contract with the agent and the agent has subsequently done the job he was contracted to do selling at the full agreed asking price, if your friend decides not to proceed with the sale then he will need to pay the agent an amount equivalent to the commission that the agent would have made if the sale had gone through.

[BJSLIV]

From

http://www.agence-immobiliere-gers.com/mandat-immobilier.php

Si l’agent immobilier trouve un acquéreur aux conditions du mandat, mais que le propriétaires a changé d’avis (et n’a donc pas de bonnes raisons), l’agent immobilier peut réclamer des dommages et intérêts d’un montant égal à la commission.

In other words as Eslier said the Agent would be entitled to his/her commission.

This is not the first time I have heard of almost exactly this pattern of events.

Someone (English) who had almost changed their mind about selling, was presented with a buyer on the last day of the exlusivity contract. They had not seen the property, and when the reluctant vendor tried to back out, even offering to pay the commision, they agent threatened legal action by the purchaser. The sale went through as the Brits didn't feel up to a fight in a foreign country..

 

[Nick Trollope]

Just to reinfore the other two posters points, your friend cannot be forced to sell the property (as he did not sign a Compromis de Vente with the purchaser). The Agent is entitled to his commission (and I guess/feel sure that a Court would award it to him) as he did sign a contract with them.

If, however he could prove that the buyer was a set-up, then he could report the Agent and avoid the commission - if he was convicted. Impossible to prove, I'd suggest.

Best advice is to show the contract to a Notaire and ask him.

[michelin79]

.....unless there was something dodgy about the deal eg the agent buying it for himself  to sell on at instant profit. I guess I'm clutching at straws because I'm sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen [;-)]

Mike

[Scarlett]

Thanks for the replies.  I've suggested to my friend that I get another agent and a notaire to value the house.  That way, surely if they come in significantly higher that would be the "good reason" mentioned above for wishing to withdraw from the contract with the original agent?

I just can't believe how much he valued it at.  It's a really nice 3 bedroomed house with 3/4 of an acre of garden and orchard, a triple garage (in excellent condition) and a lovely little boulangerie (in Normandy) and the agent says 120K!!!  The two houses either side sold last autumn, one fractionally bigger but with less land for 185K and the other much smaller, for 130K - both to French buyers, so not even Brits hyping the prices.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote user="Scarlett"]

Thanks for the replies.  I've suggested to my friend that I get another agent and a notaire to value the house.  That way, surely if they come in significantly higher that would be the "good reason" mentioned above for wishing to withdraw from the contract with the original agent?

[/quote]

I can't see what this will achieve - after all he/she did sign a contract, and the Agent has every reasonable expectation that it will be adhered to.

Let us know the outcome, please.

[Will]

I think, just to bring a bit of reality to the discussion, that nothing is 100% firm until the statutory time after all signatures have been put on the compromis. I've seen several instances of both buyers and sellers breaking agreements and generally acting in a degree of sliminess that would shame even the worst estate agent. In those cases, although the agent could pursue them through the courts, it just isn't worth the hassle - best thing they can do is just count it as a lost sale and not deal with those people again.

I'm not saying that your friend has acted in an underhand manner, though there may well be a degree of foolishness. I think that as the French house market (particularly for holiday homes) is quite depressed at present, though it has picked up recently, comparisons should be drawn with houses that have sold in the last few weeks rather than some time before. There were, and still are, far too many over-priced houses around and whereas last year there may have been buyers from overseas or from other parts of France (e.g. Parisians) who would pay inflated prices, people are more wise to that now. The more sensible agents are valuing houses to sell - which was achieved in this case - rather than just hang around on the books, which does nobody any good. I know, and this situation bears this out, that even in the current market a good, properly-priced house, in a popular price range, is unlikely to hang around for long on a good agent's books.

Maybe the valuation in this case could have been higher - who can tell? If your friend doesn't like the price achieved then he should be able to drop out, though he won't win any friends among agents, notaires or buyers. I don't think a second valuation will achieve much, unless the first was wildly out. Agents know what their competitors have on the market, and what is going on locally, so may well put in a higher valuation in order to secure a mandat.

[Scarlett]

I understand what you're saying and those houses last year were by no means snapped up - they were both on the market for almost a year and then eventually went to local French people, so weren't bought on the high of any holiday home market.  My friend made it clear to the agent that he was in no rush to sell and didn't mind if he still owned the house this time next year.  To have sold to the first people that were shown the house, who offered the full asking price without even trying to put in an offer and within two days on the market still seems pretty damned quick to me and would indicate that it is well underpriced.  In fact, I know of two sets of Brits here who wanted me to show them the house because, although they weren't actively looking for a second property, just thought it was too good an offer to miss. 

Anyway, I've emailed my mate and told him that I'll do whatever he wants to help but haven't heard back yet.  Will keep you informed.

[Scarlett]

Well our friend is quite sad about the whole thing but has decided that he is putting this all down to experience (bad experience) but as he hasn't actually LOST anything on the sale he is going ahead rather than going through the hassle of a possible legal case.

However, he's asked us if we want any of the furniture etc.  We don't want any of his furniture but we would be interested in his woodburner.  He doesn't think he can sell us that as he thinks it's part of the house sale.  When we bought our house the previous owner had taken everything, including the fitted hob and oven out of the worktops and cupboards.  The agent said that because it hadn't been speicified they could do this, so I would have thought that the same could be said of the woodburner in this instance.

Our friend is happy to let us have it if he is allowed to but thinks that the mandat may say that it is part of the sale.  Are these kind of fixtures and fittings usually itemised at this stage or is it in the compromis de vente.  I thought it was the latter but I could be wrong [:(]  And it's such a pretty little woodburner.