My agent's contract ended. Can they still charge a fee?

Why can an agent charge a fee after the contract has ended?

Because the fee is payment for an introduction, not rent for a period of time. An introduction is the act that first brought a particular buyer to your property, such as sending them the details, registering their interest or carrying out the viewing. If that agent introduced the person who eventually buys your home, the work that earned the fee was done while they were instructed.

This is not a loophole. It sits in the terms of business you signed, and it is one of the things a member agent is required to explain to you up front rather than spring on you later.

What exactly do the rules say?

Every UK estate agent must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, and most sales agents belong to The Property Ombudsman. Its Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents sets out what an agent has to tell you about fees after termination.

• The agent must point out and explain, in the written terms of business, that a fee may still be due if you end the instruction and another agent later issues a memorandum of sale to a buyer the first agent introduced.
• The code's stated window for that situation is six months from the date the instruction ended, where an exchange of contracts then follows.
• When your instruction ends, the explanation must include a list of the buyers the agent introduced to your property.
• An introduction only counts where the agent can evidence that they carried out an act which initiated that buyer's interest in your property.

Read that third point again, because it is the one that protects you. The list is how you find out, on the day you walk away, exactly which names your old agent could claim later.

Which type of contract did you sign?

The wording on your agreement decides how wide the agent's claim is. These four terms have fixed legal meanings and are worth checking before you assume anything.

Sole selling rights is the term that catches people out. Sole agency means you pay if the agent finds the buyer. Sole selling rights means you pay whoever finds the buyer, including yourself, for as long as the term runs.

What is a ready, willing and able purchaser clause?

A ready, willing and able purchaser clause means the agent earns their fee the moment they produce a buyer prepared to exchange contracts on your terms, whether or not the sale ever completes. Under it, you can pull out of a sale for a perfectly good reason and still owe the full commission.

The HomeOwners Alliance advice on estate agency contracts is blunt about this clause and tells sellers not to accept it. It is negotiable. Ask for it to be struck out before you sign, and if the agent will not remove it, that is useful information about them.

The contract is the one part of selling your home that you can still change with a pen. After you sign, you are reading it rather than writing it.

What should you do when you leave an agent?

1. Give notice in writing, by email, and keep the sent copy. Check the notice period and the tie-in period in your agreement first, because they are separate clauses and both bite.
2. Ask, in the same email, for the written list of every buyer they introduced and every viewing they carried out, with dates.
3. Ask them to confirm in writing the date the instruction ends and how long any continuing liability runs.
4. Give that list to your new agent before marketing restarts, so any name that appears twice is spotted on day one rather than at exchange.
5. If a name later reappears through your new agent, tell both agents immediately and ask them to agree between themselves who is owed what, in writing, before you exchange.

What if your old agent claims a fee you do not think you owe?

Ask them, in writing, for their evidence of the introduction: the date, what they did, and how that act started the buyer's interest in your property. A claim based on the buyer having once seen the property on a portal is a weaker claim than one based on a viewing the agent conducted.

If you cannot agree, use the agent's own complaints procedure first, then take it to their redress scheme. That route is free to you, and the scheme can make an award. Do not pay a disputed invoice to make it go away before you have tested it.

How do you avoid the problem in the first place?

Two habits remove most of the risk. Read the fee section of the agreement before you sign, and get more than one agent's terms in front of you at the same time so you can see what normal looks like.

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, with each agent's fees and terms shown alongside their valuation. Seeing four sets of terms together is how you spot the tie-in period, the notice period and the ready, willing and able clause before any of them matter.