Regarding Deposit

[loli 0]

I'm helping my friend to ask... if there is such a thing.

Her buyer signed OTP, then placed a $1K deposit. After that, buyer decided to back out, so the 1K deposit was forfeited. Now, her agent says, 50% of that forfeited deposit must go to the agent, its the agents company policy.

Got such thing ah? Personally I have not heard of such a thing. Moreover, no agreement was signed regarding this. Sounds like the agent trying to pull a fast one on my friend.

We have come across similar experience when we were selling our house. The buyer's agent actually told us that their agency has this policy of taking 50% cut from the forfeited fees should the buyer decided not to exercise option and this is for their "leg work". We told them that we know there is NO such policy from HDB, unless they can show us that in black and white. I mean who cares about what their agency's policy are? They can have all kinds of policies but so long as they are not enforceable by law, we have absolutley no obligation to follow their house rules. Furthermore,we argued that their so called "leg work" should be compensated by their buyer, not us the seller, since the agent is working for them. Also, compared to their "legwork" , we as seller have much higher opportunity cost, as we have to stop marketing the house for 2 weeks until the option is exercised. With all these arguments, the agent became wordless, and said "it's ok if you all dun agree."

I can tell you these agents will always try their luck to screw money from you. So one must be aware of the HDB rules, so as not to be taken for a ride by these blood-suckers.

[papbestdad 0]

What for the agent want the $500 (50% of $1,000), when they can get few thousand when they succeed in selling off the house.