QLD Agreement with Real Estate Agents - Rights Under Australian Consumer Law ?

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Alexandre

Member
16 December 2015
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Hi everyone, I asked a real estate agents (let's call him J) 2 years ago to sell my house upon an agreement based on "No sale, No fee' whatsoever, which was accepted by the real estate agent.

At the time, J said he would do a few things to maximize his chances to sell our house and he decided to do a photo shoot. He then gave us a copy (as a freebie) and we both confirmed our agreement that unless he sold our house, no fee whatsoever would be paid, whether be for advertising or other, and he confirmed OK.

After a few lame attempts and over 6 months (our agreement was for 3 months) wasting our time, J failed to sell or even provide us with any substantial lead, and we terminated our contract as we both agreed, based on the "No sale No fee agreement" and that was that. We were gutted by having lost months in cleaning and hope that after talking to a couple other real estate agents, we even decided to give up selling the the house...

We thought nothing more of it all and a year later we received a first invoice for the photo shoot...

I politely declined to pay it, reminding him of our agreement and surely enough, we heard nothing more for another year. Now 2 years later this month, we received, via email, another attempt from him to charge us for what was assumed to be a null and void invoice and we want to find out our rights under Australian Consumer Law here before we tell him to drop such claim.

So what are my rights here, please? May I continue to refuse payment for such a ludicrous request, given that we had a commercial agreement proscribing him from charging us anything until he sold our house (which he failed to do) and given that we never asked him to take such photos since this was his sole decision? Should I tell him myself that the law gives me right to deny him?
 

Paul Cott

Well-Known Member
LawConnect (LawTap) Verified
26 May 2014
342
100
889
Ballarat, Victoria
Alexandre,

If you had an agreement as you say, then just don't pay the invoice and refer to the agreement whether written (preferably) or verbal. It's really as simple as that. Maybe the agent has a different version of events, obviously perhaps wrongly.

Just assert your version and see what happens.
 
S

Sophea

Guest
Hi Alexandre, I agree. Simply continue to write back and state that your agreement was that no fee was to be charged unless the property was sold, it was not sold and so you are not bound by law to pay anything. Include a copy of the agreement if a written copy exists. Put it to him to prove that you agreed to pay for the photo shoot.
 
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