Cancelling Contract

[EPalmer]

I had a contract for sole agency for 3 months from January 2009. We let the contract run on as we were in process of giving tenant notice and he actually moved out in April. We have refurbished property. Told original agent we would instruct new agent and suddely now we have instructed another agent he tells us he requires 2 weeks notice! Apparently my going into his office over a week ago and telling them to withdraw property was not sufficient as my partner owns the property not me. At that point he never mentioned 2 week notice clause? to make matters worse I told the old agent we would instruct our new agent at a lower selling price and the old agent has put the particulars back on line with lower selling price but with all the old photos etc. This is totally misleading now as the property has been refurbished to include fully rededorating, garden maintenance and even double glazing?
Any advice or comments from anyone pse?

[googler]

Does the contract specify a 2-week notice period in writing?

If so, walking into the office and giving notice verbally isn't actually giving notice......

[EPalmer]

I will check this. Thanks. My concern was that the agent should have re-stated cancellation terms when I picked up key. We naively thought that as the contract was for a specific term which had long expired, he would not expect notice.

[Darth Marty]

Also wheres the harm in leaving him advertise for an extra 2 weeks? Notice has to be written or e-mailed normally but as you are over the 3 month contract you can simply switch agents anyway, I cant see an issue really.

[EPalmer]

The harm is only that we have spent £3K doing up the property and he is still advertising it with old pictures which is misleading. Also, now we have considerably improved the property we had instructed another agent to do a new marketing campaign and now he has had to stand back for two weeks (as he will be sole agent) as we can't just switch agents until the notice is served apparently.
Two weeks is not a great problem. Just seems the first agents are acting unprofessionally and it gets my back up, they couldn't sell it in 6 months so why push the cancellation clause so hard? And when we got the work done, why didn't they take new photos?

[Darth Marty]

Good and valid points.

[EPalmer]

Yes. We accepted notice would start a week ago but we asked him to take it off Righmove and findaproperty as the details are misleading. He has not removed them from either as yet!! I am considering making a complaint about this agent as he seems to be acting unprofessionally by ignoring instructions from his client!