Letting Agent Agreement/Contract, does anyone agree to them?

[Twoten]

I get a fair bit of work from letting agents. More of them are asking me to sign an agreement /contract. The terms of these agreements have been so unreasonable I refuse to sign them and lose the business. This made me wonder, why anyone would agree to such terms.
These examples are taken from 2 different agent contracts.

• Agree that the agent provides instruction on behalf of their clients so cannot be held responsible for non-payment of account, particularly if there is late submission of invoices.
• Photos should be taken by The Contractor before and after works are carried out and should be
  shared with XAgentX.
• The XAgentX will counter invoice 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} + VAT of each invoice issued by The Contractor as referral fee.
• The Contractor confirms that the prices quoted to XAgentX are in accordance with their standard rates and charges. The referral fee should not be added to the cost of quoted works. If it is found that The Contractor has quoted on like-for-like works outside of XAgentX that are cheaper a penalty of up to £500 may be charged and The Contractor may be removed from our Approved Contractor list.
• The Contractor’s invoices are paid individually if and when there are clear funds received from either rental payments or our client.
• Payment to The Contractor will be held if there is one or more counter invoice from XAgentX outstanding. Payment will resume when the outstanding counter invoices from XAgentX are cleared and issued in the next payment run.
• We act on behalf of our clients and XAgentX will not be held liable for any debt to The Contractor. The XAgentX will chase payment on behalf of The Contractor and if not successful after 6 months from the date of the outstanding invoice, The XAgentX will pass the client’s contact details to The Contractor.
• Provide our clients with a minimum 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} discount against your advertised labour rate. Under no circumstances should this be offset against the charge levied by our administration fee (we reserve the right to carry out pricing audits should there be any suggestion that the agreed discounts are not being applied). This agent also charges £12{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} +VAT commission and expects you to charge your normal rate.

I’ve also had agents ask me to add about £20 to a repair and give them a back-hander. I tell them if they want a commission, to invoice me for it, I’m not getting involved with giving backhanders. (I can’t understand why estate agents get such a bad reputation).

If anyone agrees to the commission and adds it to the cost of the repair (which I have done in the past), don’t forget you have to add the commission, plus the commission on the added commission. Therefore if the repair is a hundred pounds and the commission 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} +VAT you’d have to add about 13.4{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}.

[electrofix]

no would not sign that ever

do some work for agents but its under my rules

strive to be better than other local engineers. have see some really dangerous jobs. had one yesterday, some clown had fitted a rear bearing on a hotpoint dryer wrong way round, that meant the castle bit that revolves and holds the lock wire could not be fitted so was discarded. result the rear bearing dropped and cut through the shaft. the case was full of lint. it was a fire waiting to happen

Dave

[Twoten]

The latest contract I’ve been asked to sign is for an estate agent that’s been bought out. I’ve worked for them for 20 years and the management team doesn’t want to lose me as a contractor, but unfortunately, the company that has taken them over are insisting on the contract.
I explained I could only agree to the the term “payment if and when there are cleared funds” when Waitrose agree to the same terms for me!
The girls in the office that I normally deal with, have said that they would make sure I get paid, but I assume this would be by increasing charges on other properties (which I don’t agree with).
As for the 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} discount, maybe Waitrose will agree to that as well .

[electrofix]

its not unusual to take 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} or so off the top. I have always refused to do it but if i had to I would increase the bill by the correct amount and add it as an agents commission at the end. That way when the landlord sees the bill they realise the agent is taking a cut

I would hold fire and see how it goes. if your the best man for the job the complaints from getting idiots in will soon bring them round

and your correct with the maths 100 + vat bill you would have to charge £134

As for vat are you turning over £85000 plus ?

Dave

[Twoten]

electrofix wrote:its not unusual to take 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} or so off the top. I have always refused to do it but if i had to I would increase the bill by the correct amount and add it as an agents commission at the end. That way when the landlord sees the bill they realise the agent is taking a cut

I would hold fire and see how it goes. if your the best man for the job the complaints from getting idiots in will soon bring them round

and your correct with the maths 100 + vat bill you would have to charge £134

As for vat are you turning over £85000 plus ?

Dave

Most of the agents I work for won’t use anyone else. The property management team that usually gives me the instructions doesn’t want to go elsewhere but unfortunately, the company who have taken them over are a very large group and unlikely to accept a contractor that won’t comply with their agreement. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Turnover is less than £85000 so I’m not VAT-registered.

[stratfordgirl]

Unfortunately, with all property agents, your contract is with the landlord, not the agent, whether you sign a contract to that effect or not. The clue is in their name, they act as agents for the landlord, they are not your customer.

Agents generally pay you out of the tenant’s monthly rent, before it gets transferred to the landlord. If the tenant is in default, the agent will attempt to recover your invoice amount directly from the landlord on your behalf, but if they can’t, your only recourse in law would be to claim from the landlord directly.

Regarding so-called commission deductions, these clearly border on unethical, in effect being an additional charge by stealth on landlords. I suspect the last bullet point in Twoten’s initial post is to absolve the agent of any liability should the landlord find out about the additional costs they have incurred due to the so called commission deductions by the agent.

I took the view early on that I would not take work with so-called commission deductions, despite assurances that I could uprate my charges accordingly. This was in part because I found working directly for home owners and landlords more rewarding and straightforward than working through an agent, and in part because I didn’t want to get a reputation for high charges in my local area.

[electrofix]

Twoten wrote:

Most of the agents I work for won’t use anyone else. The property management team that usually gives me the instructions doesn’t want to go elsewhere but unfortunately, the company who have taken them over are a very large group and unlikely to accept a contractor that won’t comply with their agreement. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Turnover is less than £85000 so I’m not VAT-registered.

you will probably just have to give them time to get a few idiots in who make a mess of things. They will probably find more machines get scrapped as a result
they may get on the phone to you when they feel something is not right. if that happens offer to take a quick free look and report back. There is nothing like a report saying the job is dangerous or been scrapped for no reason to sway them back towards you but on your terms

Dave

[boselecta]

Completely agree I’ve just told YourMove that I’m not doing any more for them because of their contract conditions and commission scheme.

They now charge a shocking 18{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} commission on every job!!

There are so many good estate agents I work for who pay me by return I’m happy to loose their work.

[electrofix]

boselecta wrote:Completely agree I’ve just told YourMove that I’m not doing any more for them because of their contract conditions and commission scheme.

They now charge a shocking 18{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} commission on every job!!

There are so many good estate agents I work for who pay me by return I’m happy to loose their work.

agree it may work for some trades but there are a lot less people doing our job so we can afford to say no and wait for them to come to their senses

Dave

[Twoten]

stratfordgirl wrote:Unfortunately, with all property agents, your contract is with the landlord, not the agent, whether you sign a contract to that effect or not. The clue is in their name, they act as agents for the landlord, they are not your customer.

I took legal advice on this and was advised my contract is with the agent as they give instructions. I can’t rely on the contract between the Landlord and Agent as this would be classified as transference of contract which doesn’t hold up in law.

[stratfordgirl]

Twoten wrote:
I took legal advice on this and was advised my contract is with the agent as they give instructions. I can’t rely on the contract between the Landlord and Agent as this would be classified as transference of contract which doesn’t hold up in law.

I don’t think that advice is correct. Lovetts Solicitors who are debt collection and recovery specialists suggest the opposite here (see last post):

https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/liability-for-unpaid-invoice.380304/

[Author]

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