April 21, 2011
A recent case involving a firm of estate agents and an owner of a property has highlighted the risks of replying to emails without fully considering the content of the original email.
The owner, Mrs Neal, had been using a number of different estate agents to sell her property without success. She therefore decided to contact Nicholas Prestige Homes Estate Agents about marketing her property. After an initial meeting, Nicholas Prestige Homes sent an email to Mrs Neal setting out the basis on which it had been agreed that they would market her property. Attached to the email was a Multiple Agency Agreement, which entitled Nicholas Prestige Homes to a commission if the property was sold to a buyer they introduced during the period of their multiple agency. Also attached to the email was a Sole Agency Agreement, which gave Nicholas Prestige Homes the sole right to sell the property for a period of sixteen weeks starting from the date the Multiple Agency Agreement ended. All other multiple agency agreements Mrs Neal had with other estate agents were to end before the start of the Sole Agency Agreement.
Mrs Neal replied to the email from Nicholas Prestige Homes with “That’s fine, look forward to some viewings”. Mrs Neal subsequently sold her property to a buyer introduced by a different estate agent during the sixteen week period of the Sole Agency Agreement with Nicholas Prestige Homes.
When a claim for breach of contract was issued by Nicholas Prestige Homes the Court of Appeal found that Mrs Neal’s email to Nicholas Prestige Homes was an acceptance of the terms of their Multiple Agency and Sole Agency Agreements, even though she did not sign either agreement. Consequently, Mrs Neal was ordered to pay damages equal to the amount of the commission Nicholas Prestige Homes would have received had they introduced the buyer to Mrs Neal’s property.
This case emphasises the importance of ensuring you carefully read emails from parties seeking to do business with you before you send a reply, as even an extremely brief email response could create a contract!
For further information on this or other company commercial matters, please contact Ian Jenkinson, solicitor at Spratt Endicott Solicitors on 01295 204000 or email him at ijenkinson@se-law.co.uk.
