(BAILII entry available here)
The Supreme Court considered whether an oral agreement between
vendor and estate agent was sufficiently certain as to be
binding.
An estate agent brought proceedings against his client for
non-payment of commission. Following a telephone call between them,
the agent had successfully found a purchaser for the client’s
flats. In that call the parties had agreed that the agent’s
commission of 2% plus VAT but the trigger event for payment had not
been discussed.
The vendor argued that the absence of this information made the
relationship too uncertain for the obligation to pay commission to
be binding.
The Supreme Court held that as a matter of interpretation the
commission was payable on completion of the sale. Although
interpretation disputes usually turn upon drafting the context and
conduct of the parties could also be relevant. In this case a
reasonable person would have understood the parties to have meant
for completion to
