Lhe owner who is unable to sell a property overestimated by his real estate agent can have it condemned. The magistrates, in fact, compare “The price offered by the agent to that of similar goods sold recently”. The Rouen Court of Appeal thus observed, March 25, 2021, that a company, Tristant Immobilier, had “Provided no specific information” allowing to do so. She judged that the latter had overestimated a good and thus failed in her “Information and advice obligation”.
The X, former clients of Tristant Immobilier, at the origin of this decision, are not satisfied, however: the compensation they have obtained is far from meeting their expectations. In 2012, the agency valued their property at a price of 400,000 euros. They then decide to buy, without delay, a smaller house, sold for 309,000 euros, which she showed them around. To have the necessary advance, they obtain a bridging loan, repayable within eighteen months, of 331,000 euros.
However, for more than two years, their property does not find a taker: they must extend their bridging loan and pay 6,500 euros in additional interest. After having, finally, sold, at the price of… 242,000 euros, they sue Tristant Immobilier: they accuse it of having pushed them to buy the second house, in order to receive on its sale a commission of 22,000 euros. They hope that the agency will be ordered to pay them the approximately 90,000 euros they lack.
“Loss of luck”
But, in this kind of litigation, the magistrates consider that the damage of the client consists only of ” a loss of luck “ for not having purchased the second property. The tribunal de grande instance of Le Havre, which considers this probability to be high, allocates to the X “90% of the difference between the advertised price and the purchase price of their new property”, or 82,638 euros.
An amount that the Rouen Court of Appeal just reduced at 28,500 euros, corresponding to reimbursement of commission and bank charges. The company’s lawyer, Me Claude Aunay, yet judge this sentence “Unusual”, and to be the subject of“An appeal in cassation”.
The study of case law shows, in fact, that, more often than not, the magistrates condemn the agent to pay only the equivalent of his commission. The following decision even astonishes by its extreme leniency: February 5, 2015, the Lyon Court of Appeal considers that the owners of a property estimated at 450,000 euros in 2006 and sold for 263,000 in 2008 suffered only “Moral damage of disappointment, due to the fact that the operation was not carried out in the tranquility that they had hoped for”. It allocates them… 2,000 euros. Besides, the Xs can consider themselves happy!
Some examples of compensation
- On October 27, 2010, the Rouen Court of Appeal (n ° 09/05792) condemns FIM to pay its customers the sum of 10,000 euros. Their house, estimated at 213,428 euros in 2004, was sold for 175,000 euros in 2007.
- On September 29, 2011, the Rennes Court of Appeal (n ° 09/08238) condemns the real estate agency Acovim to reimburse its clients for the penalty clause they had to pay to their seller when they gave up buying (23,000 euros). She considers that her commission (11,500 euros) is not due. Their house, estimated by Acovim at 260,000 euros in July 2007, was valued in October 2007, “ between 190,000 and 200,000 euros By three other agencies.
- January 14, 2021 (n ° 19-24.893), the Court of Cassation rejects the appeal of the company IFB France against the judgment which ordered it to pay 33,940 euros in damages to the X, after noting that ” the property acquired for 169,700 euros on August 12, 2005 was only worth, in August 2013, between 85,000 and 90,000 euros ”. The X “Justified damage which could be analyzed as a loss of opportunity to contract on fair terms”, estimated at 20% of the sale price.