Realtors and banks….gotta remember HOW they make their money in the equation. I’m sorry that this happened, and hopefully things are done quickly so you can move past it.
Stop saying you're nieve. It's ridiculous. At the end of the deal what did u say to ur agent? Did u offer to cover any of their "expenses"? No. Not until after they sued you, that is. Lol. You're not fooling anyone here, and you certainly won't fool anyone in court. Good luck, but I hope u just pay before you make it worse.
I'll correct myself to be fair. You were definitely aware you were shafting the agent, but had no idea of the consequences.
Now you do, and I wish u all the best.
A silver lining for someone in the future as a cautionary tale. Some lessons really suck to learn, but it seems like you have a very level head and you’ll make it through this on the upside. Don’t beat yourself up
Your realtor should have told you about the clause .... And didn't clarify - had he simply done that he wouldn't have found himself needing to take you to court.
That said - there is something to be said for the sanctity of a contract.
Sorry this is happening OP.
"my agent assured me that as the buyer, I wouldn't owe him any fees."
Hahaha I see numerous comments every day of people saying that the buyer doesnt pay anything anyway. Seems like this lie is a pretty good strategy to rope buyers into stupid agreements. Hilarious that anyone would turn around and say OP should have known.
This could be a good case to help change the realtor cartel in canada.
I don't understand what the problem is. You aren't going to have to pay him any more than he properly earned. It's not like there is some huge penalty clause here. You signed a contract. He provided the services. All he's asking for is payment, not a big windfall profit....just pay him and you're out. This is like walking out of a store without paying. Security stops you. They don't try to arrest you, or call the police...they just say "well pay for the stuff and off with you". Only a fool would go to court over that.
I agree with this OP. This is your best course of action. No one likes going court and if you tell the agent you are willing to pay the commission without going court, they will be all ears. Don’t expect much of a discount but try your best. Otherwise you will risk incurring legal expenses and ignorance is not a viable defence position. Best of luck!
I didn't cut my agent. In fact, he was involved every step of the way, even speaking with the seller. However, the seller preferred not to deal with an agent. I even asked my agent to guide me, but he didn't provide any information. Also, the market conditions weren't great, and I didn't want to miss out on this golden opportunity. I didn't push him aside, but instead of informing me, he attempted to conceal the details
That's a great story. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're telling the truth. Even if so, unfortunately for you in canada ignorance is no excuse to the law. You're liable and I'm sorry but there's no lawyer on earth that can fix this for you.
Everyone isn't as savvy and informed as you are; there are simple and naive individuals as well. I'll do my best to defend myself and my rights, even though it may require further research on my part. Thanks for your time and understanding.
Research all you want. You know what you did, and just an fyi if you try and fight this in court you could end up liable for the agents legal expenses on top of everything else. Pay the commission, or you'll be paying a lot more than just that.
Further research and defend yourself and your rights? You signed a contract, I can't understand what you are trying to do here.
Unless you are deemed mentally unfit/disabled and not liable for your actions, the court will make you pay every single dollar you owe to that agent and might also make you pay the court fees and damages that he might accrued due to loss of revenue.
I apologize for the harsh words but I hope this will be a good wake up call for you.
So you used their services and expect not to pay them?
What outcome are you looking for? Regardless the realtor needs to be paid for the work they did. It’s not like they didn’t do anything, even you admit that.
I didn't have any issues with paying my agent's fees and services. But my concern is that if payment was required, it would have been better if they had informed me beforehand before I purchased my house and told me that I had to pay according to our agreement, or that I should cancel the agreement before proceeding with the transaction if they were honest and trustworthy. I could have paid their expenses upfront using the loan I had from the bank, rather than it becoming an issue after buying my house
So this is where you pay and have the lawsuit dropped. See it from the realtors point of view. They did work but did not get paid. The realtor didn’t want face to face confrontation so they went through the proper legal channels to get what they are owed. I don’t see the issue with that. I don’t know what communications or lack of occurred. Benefit of doubt is that there was some misunderstanding/ miscommunication. If you are willing to pay, that is the end of it. Pay and be done with it.
but you did cut him out lol. he didn’t get paid. I hate agents as much as the next guy and he should have been more open about it all, but you did fuck him out of his commission.
Yes. You did. You got them to do all the work and you expected it was for free ? Do you go to work to do favours? You’re going to lose and you deserve it.
If I made a mistake, I'll cover the costs of my error and have no issue with that. However, my agent's conduct wasn't any better; they abandoned me in the face of the mistake to pursue their own interests.
The cost of your error is the commission % of the sale, that's clearly stated in the contract. You don't pay for real estate agents gas and insurance. You pay them commission.
....eh? I have never paid commission as a buyer. Only as a seller. The commission is usually set up as a % of the sale price, split between both agents.
I.e 500k house. Buyer pays 500k in cash/mortgage. Seller gets that 500k-remaining mortgage-agent fees (buyer + seller, usually in the 5-7% range)
Ya exactly so it is brought by the buyer. Same thing as saying you’re not paying the grocery store’s rent when you buy food. I guess technically you’re not paying it directly but it’s still you paying it
It’s an expensive lesson. Realtors are certainly untrustworthy and he should’ve been upfront about it. You can try to play that card in your settlement negotiations to reduce the payment. But if I were you I would certainly expect some form of payment to have to be made. Try to negotiate him down.
And we are all telling you, the cost is what you signed to pay him. This isn’t a “what do I owe you” situation. I don’t know what extra drama you’re trying to throw in the mix with “abandoning you to pursue their own interests” but you said yourself they attended the property, gave you advice and guidance, and ultimately would also have to follow your instructions if you told them you didn’t want their guidance for certain things.
You signed a buyer agreement. You bought a property. There is a contract. You owe the commission now.
The irony is that you fucked yourself over and the person who benefitted the most was the seller. They avoided paying realtor fees out of the purchase price and now you get to pay it instead. If you hadn’t tried to cut out your agent and be a sneak, the seller would have paid the commission, not you and you probably would have gotten the unit for the same price.
Congrats. You saved yourself negative $20k
You don't know the full story. Why are you attacking me unfairly and angrily when you're not impartial either?
I didn't tell the whole story; I summarized it. In the volatile market, I couldn't find any suitable houses due to excessive offers, so I gave up on buying a house. I had no contact with my agent for two weeks. One day, my friend told me about a unit for sale in our apartment building, and the seller wanted to sell it without an agent. I informed my agent about this house. My agent contacted the seller, but they couldn't reach an agreement. Where was my problem? Was it that I informed my agent, or was it something else? My question is why didn't my agent inform me that I had to pay commission and tell my bank about it?
The fact that my friend found the house had nothing to do with my agent, even though I kept them informed throughout the process.
Ok I take it back. You’re good to go. I’m sure the judge will agree.
Edit: to add, I’m offended as a working person. You had this person doing work for you, showing you properties. If you went to work, did your job for weeks, and then your boss came along and was like “some dude approached me at a coffee shop and said he would do the job for two days work, so I’m just not going to pay you” would you be okay with that ?
Read what you’re signing people. A property is literally the most expensive thing you will ever buy in your life. Half a million dollars or more, and the paperwork doesn’t even deserve a glance ? That’s not smart business.
If you really want to represent yourself in court then my suggestion is that you need to read your contract that you had with your realtor and find any holes showing that they completely misrepresented their written services.
The contract will strictly explain what is expected from your realtor, terms, conditions, and payment expectations, etc.
You cannot keep claiming naivety as an excuse to not pay. As much as people hate realtors, your realtor still invested their time in helping you find a place, negotiate (even though they failed at securing the deal), and advising you. Time is money. As an adult, you should know better than you expect to get free services from businesses.
"Abandon you to pursue their own interests" may be the stupidest thing you've said in this entire thread (and judging by the mass downvotes on everything you've said, there are a LOT of stupid comments here). This is their livelihood. OF COURSE they are going to "pursue their own interests". It's how they put food on the fucking table.
It's definitely going to be a tough lesson to learn, especially since I signed the contract. However, I feel there was a significant lack of communication and transparency on the agent's part. It's my problem now, but I believe it's crucial to explore all avenues and possibly seek legal advice to address this issue effectively.
That’s the thing about contracts. They’re IN WRITING. all the words are there. They are the same words whether they are spoken or written. The only difference is that written proof can be referred back to later, which is their entire point. And why they are better and more accurate than something verbal. That written document means pay up. Don’t make him sue you and waste more of your money defending yourself. You’re going to lose.
Your defense is seriously “I thought he would tell me what I’m signing” and “I thought he liked me so much he was doing all the negotiating, representation and attending appointments for free!”
I honestly don’t understand. Someone explain it to me.
So. When you received this agreement did you not read it ? When your agent sent you this document to sign did you discuss it with him? Also, I’m sure your agent would have reached out to you before suing u looking for payment
The contract I signed, my agent told me that by doing so, he would have the authority to protect me. This was my first experience buying a house alone, and I mistakenly signed the contract without reading it, trusting one of my friends' friends. It wasn't normal, but it happened. What should I do?
You bought a condo so it was like what max 500-600k? His 2.5% commission would be around 12.5k. honestly not even that expensive of a lesson to learn. If you tell the agent you will pay them accordingly to a plan, say 1k a month you'd be done in a year. No point going to court you will 100% lose and don't bother getting a lawyer because you'll just have to pay lawyer costs on top of the commission. A 12.5k lesson is literally nothing to learn to read everything before you sign.
Thanks for the info you provided. Anyhow, my agent should've given me this info earlier, not you. And I won't give up; a judge has to tell me to pay, not you.
Okay, I just honestly advise you not to hire a lawyer or paralegal or anything. You'll be sinking more money into it and you legitimately have 0% chance of winning.
The lawyer's gonna tell them "yeah, if you waste a court's time with this, they're gonna ding you with costs". And the lawyer's going to ask for a $5K retainer before they give that advice.
You go to court over this you'll have to pay for your lawyer, the commission fee to the real estate agent and the court/ lawyer costs for the real estate agent.
To be honest just pay the agent what they are asking. You’re not likely to win in court at all. You signed a document and didn’t read it or even understand it. The agent isn’t obligated to tell you what you are signing, you signed off agreeing to the entire agreement that was in the English language.
Just pay up now to make it easier. You’ll end up paying their legal expenses and probably interest as well. Certainly a whole lot easier to pay now IMHO.
Had to read this a few times, but I agree that it seems odd that he is paying commission as a buyer. The commission should have come from the sale, split between both agents.
The issue is that there was no selling agent, and the seller obviously refused to give the buying agent any money.
Which then circles back to the contract he signed, covering the agent commission.
Buyer should have negotiated better. I.e 4% lower price to cover agent fees. A seller trying to shaft the buying agent is going to have a very hard time selling their condo.
I would guess this is the negotiation his agent tried. Probably advised him of this, and he ignored and bought the place anyway. And here we are.
This was a reasonable solution. If my agent had informed me, I could have sought a discount from the seller or asked my bank to cover the agent's commission. But my agent acted as if there was no contract between us.
“I feel taken advantage of” despite taking advantage of a realtors services without paying them and now coming to Reddit to seek free legal advice so they don’t have to pay a lawyer.
“I feel taken advantage of” because I signed a contract without reading or understanding it, and now I’m obligated to honour it.
Lesson learned: never sign a contract with anyone without reading terms and conditions. As tempting as it is to continue pushing the blame onto your former realtor it will not help you in the future. I’m no lawyer… but from my understanding unless if you can provide some sort of proof that your former realtor actively deceived you then you really don’t have a case. Not reminding you of the terms that you signed during your purchase is not them being deceitful.
As for now the best thing to do is probably reach out to a lawyer, bring the contract for them to review and let them advise you the best way to handle your case.
So that’s one side of the story. I assume this is the one you will provide to your lawyer.
“I’m a person that doesn’t read what I’m signing” generally doesn’t work well for people in the court system.
However, depending on your province, agents have various levels of disclosures they have to provide to you about commissions. In BC, it’s basically impossible for this to happen unless you are completely blind or don’t speak English.
Your story is, however, just a story. On the flip side, it’ll likely be construed that you used your agent for negotiations, which probably means they drafted the offer, then went behind his or her back and tried cutting out the agent. Considering this is more common than anyone realizes, this is going to be the narrative that the plaintiff will make.
Court cases are decided on the details - probably many that you have left out here.
Good luck.
Depending on how much of a language barrier you're dealing with you might have a leg to stand on here, but courts do not side with people who claim "I didn't read what I was signing" under normal circumstances. Your grasp of English seems pretty good here though, so I doubt that your English is so poor that this will be a useful defense.
Also the fact that you ended up keeping the agent in the loop and quite likely asked him for advice while going through with the private sale would lead me to believe that he did likely offer some professional advice with regards to the sale, even though he did not handle the contracts on it.
Fact is is that you signed a contract on this, and are likely liable to pay the commission. Cheapest way to handle it might just be to go ahead and pay the commission depending on your jurisdiction and what the percentage you signed for was.
Realtors and banks….gotta remember HOW they make their money in the equation. I’m sorry that this happened, and hopefully things are done quickly so you can move past it.
Reading people's comments, I realize how naive I was, and it makes me appreciate your comment even more. Thanks.
Stop saying you're nieve. It's ridiculous. At the end of the deal what did u say to ur agent? Did u offer to cover any of their "expenses"? No. Not until after they sued you, that is. Lol. You're not fooling anyone here, and you certainly won't fool anyone in court. Good luck, but I hope u just pay before you make it worse.
Alright, I tried to pull a fast one on you but couldn't. Go ahead, be happy you caught me.
I'll correct myself to be fair. You were definitely aware you were shafting the agent, but had no idea of the consequences. Now you do, and I wish u all the best.
A silver lining for someone in the future as a cautionary tale. Some lessons really suck to learn, but it seems like you have a very level head and you’ll make it through this on the upside. Don’t beat yourself up
Your realtor should have told you about the clause .... And didn't clarify - had he simply done that he wouldn't have found himself needing to take you to court. That said - there is something to be said for the sanctity of a contract.
Sorry this is happening OP. "my agent assured me that as the buyer, I wouldn't owe him any fees." Hahaha I see numerous comments every day of people saying that the buyer doesnt pay anything anyway. Seems like this lie is a pretty good strategy to rope buyers into stupid agreements. Hilarious that anyone would turn around and say OP should have known. This could be a good case to help change the realtor cartel in canada.
I don't understand what the problem is. You aren't going to have to pay him any more than he properly earned. It's not like there is some huge penalty clause here. You signed a contract. He provided the services. All he's asking for is payment, not a big windfall profit....just pay him and you're out. This is like walking out of a store without paying. Security stops you. They don't try to arrest you, or call the police...they just say "well pay for the stuff and off with you". Only a fool would go to court over that.
Make the agent an offer.
I agree with this OP. This is your best course of action. No one likes going court and if you tell the agent you are willing to pay the commission without going court, they will be all ears. Don’t expect much of a discount but try your best. Otherwise you will risk incurring legal expenses and ignorance is not a viable defence position. Best of luck!
So basically you used a real estate agent for advice, negotiation, and cut them out of the deal at the last minute. Oh boy, you're in for a ride.
I didn't cut my agent. In fact, he was involved every step of the way, even speaking with the seller. However, the seller preferred not to deal with an agent. I even asked my agent to guide me, but he didn't provide any information. Also, the market conditions weren't great, and I didn't want to miss out on this golden opportunity. I didn't push him aside, but instead of informing me, he attempted to conceal the details
That's a great story. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're telling the truth. Even if so, unfortunately for you in canada ignorance is no excuse to the law. You're liable and I'm sorry but there's no lawyer on earth that can fix this for you.
Everyone isn't as savvy and informed as you are; there are simple and naive individuals as well. I'll do my best to defend myself and my rights, even though it may require further research on my part. Thanks for your time and understanding.
Research all you want. You know what you did, and just an fyi if you try and fight this in court you could end up liable for the agents legal expenses on top of everything else. Pay the commission, or you'll be paying a lot more than just that.
Further research and defend yourself and your rights? You signed a contract, I can't understand what you are trying to do here. Unless you are deemed mentally unfit/disabled and not liable for your actions, the court will make you pay every single dollar you owe to that agent and might also make you pay the court fees and damages that he might accrued due to loss of revenue. I apologize for the harsh words but I hope this will be a good wake up call for you.
asking for pity is not defending your rights. It sucks and the agent is being a dick but legally they are in the right.
So you used their services and expect not to pay them? What outcome are you looking for? Regardless the realtor needs to be paid for the work they did. It’s not like they didn’t do anything, even you admit that.
I didn't have any issues with paying my agent's fees and services. But my concern is that if payment was required, it would have been better if they had informed me beforehand before I purchased my house and told me that I had to pay according to our agreement, or that I should cancel the agreement before proceeding with the transaction if they were honest and trustworthy. I could have paid their expenses upfront using the loan I had from the bank, rather than it becoming an issue after buying my house
So this is where you pay and have the lawsuit dropped. See it from the realtors point of view. They did work but did not get paid. The realtor didn’t want face to face confrontation so they went through the proper legal channels to get what they are owed. I don’t see the issue with that. I don’t know what communications or lack of occurred. Benefit of doubt is that there was some misunderstanding/ miscommunication. If you are willing to pay, that is the end of it. Pay and be done with it.
How do you think Realtors make money? The money fairy?
But I know now ! i paid fo this knowledge
but you did cut him out lol. he didn’t get paid. I hate agents as much as the next guy and he should have been more open about it all, but you did fuck him out of his commission.
Yes. You did. You got them to do all the work and you expected it was for free ? Do you go to work to do favours? You’re going to lose and you deserve it.
If I made a mistake, I'll cover the costs of my error and have no issue with that. However, my agent's conduct wasn't any better; they abandoned me in the face of the mistake to pursue their own interests.
The cost of your error is the commission % of the sale, that's clearly stated in the contract. You don't pay for real estate agents gas and insurance. You pay them commission.
I wasn't the seller! I was buyer
Who do you think usually pays both agents? The buyer is the only one bringing money to the transaction lol
....eh? I have never paid commission as a buyer. Only as a seller. The commission is usually set up as a % of the sale price, split between both agents. I.e 500k house. Buyer pays 500k in cash/mortgage. Seller gets that 500k-remaining mortgage-agent fees (buyer + seller, usually in the 5-7% range)
Ya exactly so it is brought by the buyer. Same thing as saying you’re not paying the grocery store’s rent when you buy food. I guess technically you’re not paying it directly but it’s still you paying it
Now I understand what goes between the buyer or seller and the agent. But unawareness and misunderstanding, people aren't funny.
It’s an expensive lesson. Realtors are certainly untrustworthy and he should’ve been upfront about it. You can try to play that card in your settlement negotiations to reduce the payment. But if I were you I would certainly expect some form of payment to have to be made. Try to negotiate him down.
And we are all telling you, the cost is what you signed to pay him. This isn’t a “what do I owe you” situation. I don’t know what extra drama you’re trying to throw in the mix with “abandoning you to pursue their own interests” but you said yourself they attended the property, gave you advice and guidance, and ultimately would also have to follow your instructions if you told them you didn’t want their guidance for certain things. You signed a buyer agreement. You bought a property. There is a contract. You owe the commission now. The irony is that you fucked yourself over and the person who benefitted the most was the seller. They avoided paying realtor fees out of the purchase price and now you get to pay it instead. If you hadn’t tried to cut out your agent and be a sneak, the seller would have paid the commission, not you and you probably would have gotten the unit for the same price. Congrats. You saved yourself negative $20k
You don't know the full story. Why are you attacking me unfairly and angrily when you're not impartial either? I didn't tell the whole story; I summarized it. In the volatile market, I couldn't find any suitable houses due to excessive offers, so I gave up on buying a house. I had no contact with my agent for two weeks. One day, my friend told me about a unit for sale in our apartment building, and the seller wanted to sell it without an agent. I informed my agent about this house. My agent contacted the seller, but they couldn't reach an agreement. Where was my problem? Was it that I informed my agent, or was it something else? My question is why didn't my agent inform me that I had to pay commission and tell my bank about it? The fact that my friend found the house had nothing to do with my agent, even though I kept them informed throughout the process.
Ok I take it back. You’re good to go. I’m sure the judge will agree. Edit: to add, I’m offended as a working person. You had this person doing work for you, showing you properties. If you went to work, did your job for weeks, and then your boss came along and was like “some dude approached me at a coffee shop and said he would do the job for two days work, so I’m just not going to pay you” would you be okay with that ? Read what you’re signing people. A property is literally the most expensive thing you will ever buy in your life. Half a million dollars or more, and the paperwork doesn’t even deserve a glance ? That’s not smart business.
If you really want to represent yourself in court then my suggestion is that you need to read your contract that you had with your realtor and find any holes showing that they completely misrepresented their written services. The contract will strictly explain what is expected from your realtor, terms, conditions, and payment expectations, etc. You cannot keep claiming naivety as an excuse to not pay. As much as people hate realtors, your realtor still invested their time in helping you find a place, negotiate (even though they failed at securing the deal), and advising you. Time is money. As an adult, you should know better than you expect to get free services from businesses.
"Abandon you to pursue their own interests" may be the stupidest thing you've said in this entire thread (and judging by the mass downvotes on everything you've said, there are a LOT of stupid comments here). This is their livelihood. OF COURSE they are going to "pursue their own interests". It's how they put food on the fucking table.
What did he conceal? Per your own admission, it was in your contract that you signed.
He informed you when he gave you the contract you signed without understanding. You need to take ownership for this.
Gonna be an expensive lesson but you signed a contract and you don't really have much recourse in a he said/she said
It's definitely going to be a tough lesson to learn, especially since I signed the contract. However, I feel there was a significant lack of communication and transparency on the agent's part. It's my problem now, but I believe it's crucial to explore all avenues and possibly seek legal advice to address this issue effectively.
That’s the thing about contracts. They’re IN WRITING. all the words are there. They are the same words whether they are spoken or written. The only difference is that written proof can be referred back to later, which is their entire point. And why they are better and more accurate than something verbal. That written document means pay up. Don’t make him sue you and waste more of your money defending yourself. You’re going to lose. Your defense is seriously “I thought he would tell me what I’m signing” and “I thought he liked me so much he was doing all the negotiating, representation and attending appointments for free!” I honestly don’t understand. Someone explain it to me.
This is why we read contracts carefully, the courts won’t care what your agent “should’ve” mentioned verbally. They care about what was written/signed
they took u for a ride if what you're saying is true. better to pay up.
You keep calling him 'my agent', you signed a contract with him, pay him for his services. You are scamming him, not the other way around.
So. When you received this agreement did you not read it ? When your agent sent you this document to sign did you discuss it with him? Also, I’m sure your agent would have reached out to you before suing u looking for payment
[удалено]
The contract I signed, my agent told me that by doing so, he would have the authority to protect me. This was my first experience buying a house alone, and I mistakenly signed the contract without reading it, trusting one of my friends' friends. It wasn't normal, but it happened. What should I do?
You should pay your agent.
You bought a condo so it was like what max 500-600k? His 2.5% commission would be around 12.5k. honestly not even that expensive of a lesson to learn. If you tell the agent you will pay them accordingly to a plan, say 1k a month you'd be done in a year. No point going to court you will 100% lose and don't bother getting a lawyer because you'll just have to pay lawyer costs on top of the commission. A 12.5k lesson is literally nothing to learn to read everything before you sign.
Thanks for the info you provided. Anyhow, my agent should've given me this info earlier, not you. And I won't give up; a judge has to tell me to pay, not you.
Okay, I just honestly advise you not to hire a lawyer or paralegal or anything. You'll be sinking more money into it and you legitimately have 0% chance of winning.
The lawyer's gonna tell them "yeah, if you waste a court's time with this, they're gonna ding you with costs". And the lawyer's going to ask for a $5K retainer before they give that advice.
You go to court over this you'll have to pay for your lawyer, the commission fee to the real estate agent and the court/ lawyer costs for the real estate agent.
To be honest just pay the agent what they are asking. You’re not likely to win in court at all. You signed a document and didn’t read it or even understand it. The agent isn’t obligated to tell you what you are signing, you signed off agreeing to the entire agreement that was in the English language. Just pay up now to make it easier. You’ll end up paying their legal expenses and probably interest as well. Certainly a whole lot easier to pay now IMHO.
Check out the subreddit legal advice Canada
Had to read this a few times, but I agree that it seems odd that he is paying commission as a buyer. The commission should have come from the sale, split between both agents. The issue is that there was no selling agent, and the seller obviously refused to give the buying agent any money. Which then circles back to the contract he signed, covering the agent commission. Buyer should have negotiated better. I.e 4% lower price to cover agent fees. A seller trying to shaft the buying agent is going to have a very hard time selling their condo. I would guess this is the negotiation his agent tried. Probably advised him of this, and he ignored and bought the place anyway. And here we are.
This was a reasonable solution. If my agent had informed me, I could have sought a discount from the seller or asked my bank to cover the agent's commission. But my agent acted as if there was no contract between us.
You’re going to court without a lawyer ?
I'm going to small claims court, but I'll definitely consult with a lawyer beforehand.
Just pay what you owe him. You’re welcome!
“I feel taken advantage of” despite taking advantage of a realtors services without paying them and now coming to Reddit to seek free legal advice so they don’t have to pay a lawyer. “I feel taken advantage of” because I signed a contract without reading or understanding it, and now I’m obligated to honour it.
Canada has a verbal agreement, so you can fight it. But of course it could be tough.
Lesson learned: never sign a contract with anyone without reading terms and conditions. As tempting as it is to continue pushing the blame onto your former realtor it will not help you in the future. I’m no lawyer… but from my understanding unless if you can provide some sort of proof that your former realtor actively deceived you then you really don’t have a case. Not reminding you of the terms that you signed during your purchase is not them being deceitful. As for now the best thing to do is probably reach out to a lawyer, bring the contract for them to review and let them advise you the best way to handle your case.
So that’s one side of the story. I assume this is the one you will provide to your lawyer. “I’m a person that doesn’t read what I’m signing” generally doesn’t work well for people in the court system. However, depending on your province, agents have various levels of disclosures they have to provide to you about commissions. In BC, it’s basically impossible for this to happen unless you are completely blind or don’t speak English. Your story is, however, just a story. On the flip side, it’ll likely be construed that you used your agent for negotiations, which probably means they drafted the offer, then went behind his or her back and tried cutting out the agent. Considering this is more common than anyone realizes, this is going to be the narrative that the plaintiff will make. Court cases are decided on the details - probably many that you have left out here. Good luck.
As some others have said…. Your best bet is to negotiate a deal before your court date. Going to court is expensive and a waste of time.
Depending on how much of a language barrier you're dealing with you might have a leg to stand on here, but courts do not side with people who claim "I didn't read what I was signing" under normal circumstances. Your grasp of English seems pretty good here though, so I doubt that your English is so poor that this will be a useful defense. Also the fact that you ended up keeping the agent in the loop and quite likely asked him for advice while going through with the private sale would lead me to believe that he did likely offer some professional advice with regards to the sale, even though he did not handle the contracts on it. Fact is is that you signed a contract on this, and are likely liable to pay the commission. Cheapest way to handle it might just be to go ahead and pay the commission depending on your jurisdiction and what the percentage you signed for was.