Does commission have to be paid

I have a query. I would be very grateful if you can help me.
We placed an offer on a house through an agent and at the same time signed an agreement for the same agent to sell our house.

Even though verbally the seller had agrred to accept our offer, they did not accept our written offer and we did nothing about selling our house.

A few days later the agreement the seller had with the agent expired. The agent wrote the seller a letter threatening to sue the seller for not accepting the offer.

The house has been off the market for 10 weeks. We went to see the sellers to ask if the house was still for sale. They would like to sell it to us but are worried that they are still liable to the agent for commission if they do.

Is this correct, are they liable to the agent even though the agreement expired 10 weeks ago.

Thank you

[HomeGuru]

If the seller sold the property to you, they would still owe the agent the commission since the agent was the procuring cause.

Thanks for your input

[HomeGuru]

Easy.