I own a newsagents/off licence in Leeds in April 2006 we put it on the market with RTA, we paid an up front fee of £750 + vat.
My Wife initialed all the monetary obligations on the contract with the representative but he never mentioned the withdrawl fee and never asked her to initial it in the contract. We where told it was a 1 year contract and that we could cancel after that period if we wrote giving 1 months notice that was ok.
From that point until August 2008 we had about 4 viewings and we where only contacted once after the first viewing with any feed back. We decided to take it off the market in August and wrote to their Leeds P/O box (we have the proof of postage).
We didn’t hear anything from them until April 2009 when they rang us to arrange a viewing i informed them that we had cancelled our contract in the previous August, they couldn’t find any trace of this and told us we would be in breach of contract i allowed the viewing and asked what address i needed to send the cancellation to never did they tell me there was a withdrawl fee.
I duly wrote to cancel on the 24/4/09 cancellation date 24/5/09 this time keeping a copy of the letter sent and proof of postage.
In late May around the 27/28th i was telephoned again with a possible viewing i spoke to the lady i spoke with in April and she confirmed it had been cancelled, NO mention of the withdrawl fee!
We had a buyer which was due to complete in August this year but it fell through.
In September we received an invoice for £500 for the withdrawl fee i telephoned them and after a heated conversation we agreed on £100, which we duly sent in November they have cashed the cheque.
Now in March 2010 we have been issued with a small claims summons for £5000 due to us selling in August I have submitted a defence outlining the above events and sent this to the court and also to RTA asking for a copy of my file and any taped conversations.
I have had a lovely letter from Mr O’Reilly which doesn’t answer any of my questions or requests but he does inform me that i have NO PROSPECT OF DEFENDINGTHIS CLAIM WHATSOEVER.
Martyn Brown April 2010
RTA withdrew their claim against Martyn in June 2010
