Sales Agreements

In October I reported on a McGrath exclusive sales agreement that requires vendors to give thirty days notice of terminating the agreement. What the vendor telling me this didn't know was that, once you give that notice, McGrath remove the sign from outside the property and take the listing off the internet! Meanwhile the agency agreement is still in force and the owner can't risk signing up with anyone else!

PS Soon after posting the above, McGrath sent the vendor a letter releasing him from the agency agreement, but including the phrase "if the property is purchased by somebody that has been introduced by McGrath (agency name) during the period (dates of the original contract) or within the next 90 days commencing (date of this letter) a commission fee of (commission in the contract) will be payable on completion of the sale."
Taken to its extreme, this allows McGrath to claim the full commission if anybody who entered their office over this entire seven month period ever buys the property at any time into the distant future!
The only redeeming feature is that the paragraph does not specify to whom the commission is to be paid, so the vendor would meet this 'obligation' by paying commission to the agency that negotiates the sale!
Even without that flaw in the wording, I am assured that this sort of open ended 'payment for nothing' clause would never be enforced by a court, but it has caused deep distress to the vendor.