Cases - Lady Manor Ltd v Fat Cat Cafe Bars Ltd

Record details

Name
Lady Manor Ltd v Fat Cat Cafe Bars Ltd
Date
[2001]
Citation
2 EGLR 1
Keywords
Estate agency - commission
Summary

The claimant estate agent sent a letter to the defendant ('cold mail') with information about a property that the claimant thought the defendant might be interested in acquiring. The claimant was not retained by the vendor. The letter set out the fee payable to the claimant in the event that the introduction led to a successful transaction. The defendant, believing that the claimant was retained by the vendor, asked his own agent to arrange to view the property. This resulted in a sale of the property to the defendant, so the claimant sought commission.

The county court judge held that no commission was due. Conferring an unrequested benefit cannot require payment to be made, otherwise a contract could be imposed upon the recipient. The information provided was past consideration. For a contract to be created, there would need to be a promise of further information in return for a fee. On the facts, the letter was ambiguous and was not a clearly expressed offer of further information which could be accepted by the defendant.