Thwarted by the dreaded written notice period in a competitor’s contract

I’ve just been asked to help a rather nice lady from Ware sell her buy to let terraced house in Hertford. The property has been on the market for a good few months but she has had no luck selling the property and she’s not very happy with the current agents. She has instructed me and I have got the details ready to put on the internet – within a couple of hours of meeting her (we don’t hand around!) – but she has just called to say that when she called her agent to terminate the contract she was told that she has to give them two week’s notice. The result is that my new client wants me to start marketing straight away but has to wait for two weeks before I can begin. That’s why I’m so against the restrictive contracts so prevalent in our industry. As far as I’m concerned, if you own a house and decide you want to try a new estate agent you should be allowed to do so, not have to wait for some notice period to run out. If you work with us we do have a contract as you’d expect but if you are not happy for any reason we’ll shake your hand, thank you for the opportunity, and move on. And that means you are the boss, not us. Which is exactly how it should be!