Connell Estate Agents v Begej
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 08 March 1993 |
| Date | 08 March 1993 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Butler-Sloss and Lord Justice Hirst
Estate agency - sale on commission - part-exchange
A part-exchange was capable of being a sale, provided that the cash element of the transaction was not merely nominal.
The Court of Appeal so held in allowing the appeal of the plaintiffs, Connell Estate Agents, against the order of Judge Crane at Northampton County Court on March 6, 1992 giving judgment for the plaintiffs in the sum of £1828.50 against the defendant, Mr J Begej. The defendant's cross-appeal was dismissed and judgment was entered for the plaintiffs in the sum of £3760.50.
Mr Andrew Davies for the plaintiffs; Mr Jeremy Pendlebury for the defendant.
LORD JUSTICE HIRST said that a sale of the defendant's house had been negotiated to a purchaser introduced by the plaintiffs, who were estate agents. It had not been an outright cash transaction, the defendant had been paid £53,000 and had received another house in part-exchange.
The written agency agreement between the plaintiffs and the defendant had stipulated a commission of 3 per cent plus value-added tax on "the purchase price … on the completion of the sale". The estate agents had claimed commission on £109,000, being the aggregate of the purchase price and the value of the part-exchanged house.
The judge had held that the agreement was applicable to the transaction but that "purchase price" referred to the cash element alone.
The defendant had submitted that the judge's conclusion that a part-exchange agreement constituted a sale was wrong, in everyday language a sale connoted a sale for cash.
His Lordship fully accepted that an outright exchange of property without any cash element could not properly be called a sale. However, his Lordship thought that in the 1990s a part-exchange transaction would be...
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Concourse Initiatives Ltd v Maiden Outdoor Advertising Ltd
...event, and would not comprise "directly related other revenue". 120 Concourse relied on the decision of the Court of Appeal in Connell Estate Agents v Begej [1993] 2 E.G.L.R. 35. In that case, an estate agent was entitled to a commission of 2% on "the purchase price" following a sale. The e......
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Hung Ip Shing v Collector Of Stamp Revenue
...obligations of the owner of the second property to pay the price for the first property (Connell Estate Agents (a firm) v Begej [1993] 2 EGLR 35[14]). 29. Technically, an exchange of immovable property is also a conveyance[15] but not a conveyance on sale (Encyclopaedia of Hong Kong Taxatio......
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Ngai Sau Ying v Collector Of Stamp Revenue
...obligations of the owner of the second property to pay the price for the first property (Connell Estate Agents (a firm) v Begej [1993] 2 EGLR 35[14]). 29. Technically, an exchange of immovable property is also a conveyance[15] but not a conveyance on sale (Encyclopaedia of Hong Kong Taxatio......