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ESTATE AND HOUSE AGENTS
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See also:ESTATE AND See also:HOUSE AGENTS . A See also:person exercising the calling of a house See also:agent in See also:England is required, under a See also:penalty of £20, to take out yearly a See also:licence upon which £2 is charged as a See also:duty of See also:excise, unless he is licensed as an auctioneer or See also:appraiser, or is an agent employed in the management of landed estates, or a See also:solicitor or conveyancer who has taken out his See also:annual certificate as such. In this connexion a person is deemed to be a house agent if he advertises for See also:sale or for letting, or in any way negotiates for the selling or letting of any furnished house or See also:part of any furnished house (any See also:storey or See also:flat rated and let as a See also:separate See also:tenement being for this purpose a house); subject, however, to the qualification that no one is to be deemed to be a house agent by See also:reason of his letting, or offering to let, or in any way negotiating for the letting of, any house the annual See also:rent or value of which does not exceed f,25. A house agent who is merely instructed to See also:act in the usual way of his calling has no authority to bind his employer by a See also:contract. His business is to endeavour to find a person willing to become a purchaser or See also:tenant and then to communicate his offer to the owner. Unless See also:express authority is given to the agent to sell or let, and for that purpose to enter into a binding contract, the See also:principal reserves his right to accept or refuse the offer. As a See also:rule, a house or estate agent has no authority to receive See also:payment on behalf of the principal. Where he is em- ' These diets are, wherever they still exist, survivals of the "parliaments " of separate territorial See also:units.ployed to procure a tenant, he must use reasonable See also:diligence to ascertain that the person to whom the See also:property is let through his agency is See also:fit to be a tenant. He does not, however, in any way See also:guarantee the payment of the rent. A house agent may not, for or in expectation of payment, prepare any See also:deed See also:relating to the sale or letting of real or See also:personal estate. There is, however, no similar See also:prohibition as to agreements not under See also:seal, and it is a See also:common practice for house agents to See also:charge for the preparation of them. House agents are usually remunerated by way of See also:commission. The See also:scale adopted by the See also:Institute of Estate and House Agents embodies the rates usually charged. In the See also:absence of express See also:provision upon the subject between the principal and the agent, commission is payable only when the latter has found a purchaser or tenant. If, however, he had found a person willing to buy or take property upon the terms upon which the principal intimated to him his willingness to sell or let it, the principal will be liable to pay the amount of the commission, even though in fact he refuses or is unable to sell or let it. Where the agent can show that he has brought about a sale or tenancy he will be entitled to the commission notwithstanding the fact that another agent has been paid, or has recovered in an See also:action, commission in respect of the same sale or tenancy. The agent's authority may be revoked at any See also:time; but, where he has already per-formed the service for which he was employed, the principal cannot defeat his right to be paid the amount of the commission by subsequently revoking his authority. If the agent is unsuccessful in finding a purchaser or tenant, as the See also:case may be, he will not, as a rule, have any right to remuneration for his efforts in the See also:matter.
Most auctioneers, in addition to holding See also:auctions, carry on the business of house and estate agency. The number of licences issued to house agents and appraisers in England for the See also:year ended 31st See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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