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Hello, my name is***** am a qualified lawyer and I will be assisting you with your question today.
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Many thanks for your patience. From a legal perspective it is highly unlikely that they would have any sort of claim against him. First of all they had formally agreed at the start that he had the option of removing the boat and not selling it until certain conditions had been met. These conditions have not yet been met so from a contractual point of view they are acting in breach of contract by not adhering to the terms that they had agreed to.
Secondly, it does not appear that they had agreed to any commission terms or when they would become payable. Usually that would only happen if the boat sales and they would be due commission for the work they did on selling it. If there was no sale and no discussion or agreement about being liable for commission before a sale they cannot just enforce that now.
So they may threaten him with pursuing him for commission but in the circumstances that would be a rather difficult claim and one which is unlikely to succeed.
This is your basic legal position. I have more detailed advice for you in terms of the rights you have should a claim be made against him, which I wish to discuss so please take a second to leave a positive rating for the service so far (by selecting 3, 4 or 5 stars) and I can continue with that and answer any further questions you may have. Don’t worry, there is no extra cost and leaving a rating will not close the question and we can continue this discussion. Thank you
ok so the commission is still conditional on several things happening first, which have not yet happened. As a conditional contract, the conditions must be satisfied for the commission to come into effect. As they have not, they cannot realistically ask for it at this stage.
As mentioned, I have more detailed advice for you in terms of the rights you have should a claim be made against him, which I wish to discuss so please take a second to leave a positive rating for the service so far (by selecting 3, 4 or 5 stars) and I can continue with that and answer any further questions you may have. Don’t worry, there is no extra cost and leaving a rating will not close the question and we can continue this discussion. Thank you
Thank you. As mentioned they cannot force him to pay anything unless they actually go to court, make a claim and manage to win. Considering the circumstances of the case, that may be difficult for them to do. However, there is nothing stopping them from actually proceeding with making a claim. Assuming that the commission they are after is below £10k then this matter would go to the small claim court. This is a relatively low risk option because even if he was to lose, he would not be responsible for the other side’s legal fees and then at least he would know that a court of law has ruled that they are in the right. Also if he cannot pay the commission at once he can try and get the court to order a staggered payment over time.