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Has anyone complained to EA's for breach contract?
lilyann1
Posts: 514 Forumite
Has anyone successfully complained or sued EA's for breach contract?
Our existing EA is wonderful,but our previous one whom we had a 6 week contract with,put up a sale board without our permission and we expressly didn't want one .
Then sent round prospective buyers when they weren't even on the market ,when we expressly said we didn't want these people and cancelled appts,but the EA's ''forgot'' to tell them and didn't cancel.
Then kept pestering us when we went with another agent,to ask if they could still send people round and do a deal.
Unfortunatley we have nothing in writing ,it all happened over the phone
Our existing EA is wonderful,but our previous one whom we had a 6 week contract with,put up a sale board without our permission and we expressly didn't want one .
Then sent round prospective buyers when they weren't even on the market ,when we expressly said we didn't want these people and cancelled appts,but the EA's ''forgot'' to tell them and didn't cancel.
Then kept pestering us when we went with another agent,to ask if they could still send people round and do a deal.
Unfortunatley we have nothing in writing ,it all happened over the phone
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lilyann1 wrote:Has anyone successfully complained or sued EA's for breach contract?
Our existing EA is wonderful,but our previous one whom we had a 6 week contract with,put up a sale board without our permission and we expressly didn't want one .
Then sent round prospective buyers when they weren't even on the market ,when we expressly said we didn't want these people and cancelled appts,but the EA's ''forgot'' to tell them and didn't cancel.
Then kept pestering us when we went with another agent,to ask if they could still send people round and do a deal.
Unfortunatley we have nothing in writing ,it all happened over the phone
Nothing in writing? I take it you don't mean you didn't have a written contract...
All classic EA tactics to get their money, in my experience. Why avoid those not on the market? Chances are if they want your house they'll market very soon! Unless you have the perfect house in the perfect area that's sell in days (not still be around after 6 weeks, admittedly with a rubbish sounding agent) can you afford to be so picky?Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery0 -
We did have written contract with them.The viewers they tried to send round,who weren't on the market yet, were on the last day of our contract before we moved agents,so they knew if they did this anybody of those viewing it again in the future and then they'd get their fee???0
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My experiences are even worse. Most recent was gf selling house via large chain of Essex EA's. They never sent copy of house particulars despite repeated requests, picking copy up from their office revealed several fundamental errors which meant house was incorrectly described.
Eventually found buyer the day before contract due to expire after we had given notice. Sale price reduced in exchange for promise of completion by (last) Christmas which never happened. Buyer came back with £500 lower offer which gf refused, agents got extremely rude with her that she was compromising deal for the sake of £500. "Then you deduct £500 from your fee and we can all go ahead" she suggested.
On completion, agent charged 0.5% more than her contract stated. It turns out agent had crossed out printed figure and written lower rate on her copy but failed to do so on their office copy.
Agent wouldn't budge, refused to hold a meeting in their office so we could compare notes and get to bottom of issue. Referred to OAE who, for the 2nd time in my dealings with them, complete waste of time and suggested £40 reduction in agents £2,500 fee for hassles and stated that "it cannot be ascertained who modified the % figure on gfs copy of contract", suggesting she was a liar and had changed it herself.
Almost all my experiences with EA's have shown them to be deceitful people not acting at all in the interest of the vendor but merely their own profits. When it's time to move again, I will not be using an agent to sell my house. The internet has matured sufficiently to be an acceptable medium for sellers to offer their houses privately but the national sites like fish4 and propertyfinder have responded to pressure from the HSS (High Street Scum) to prevent private sellers easily placing their properties on their sites.
As anyone who has been through the buying/sales process a couple of times (I've bought/sold around 10x in 30 years) knows that the agent really plays very little part in the technical side of the transaction and many are actually more of a hindrance to the process underway.
As fewer people are moving and the property market really is in the doldrums, it would give me pleasure to see some of these low lifes out of work. Did anyone see the programme about the large London agents and their schemes to maximise profit at the expense of vendor and purchaser to keep their staff in Mini Coopers?
Because property transactions are surrounded by "black art" professionals that we don't usually come into contact with on a day to day basis (mortgage lenders, solicitors, surveyors etc), many people make the mistake of thinking the cheap suit worn by the EA also makes him one of the professionals they are dealing with in the whole process. Talk, off the record, to any conveyancing solicitor and see what a professional really thinks of the EA process in England.
The Ombudsman? Forget it, they are funded by the estate agents themselves, how can they ever find in the favour of the complainant?Signature on holiday for two weeks0 -
Oh dear.I hate this business. I thought of complaining to the Ombudsman,but after what you said.
We too didn't receive copy of our details and most of our viewers were not given copies and when i found it on rightmove all the particulars were wrong and the room sizes were wrong too!!!! VAstly overestimated.
What i haven't liked though which has stressed me most is the harrassment when i went with another agent and also whilst I was with that agent.
But what can we do?0 -
Be careful going to another agent as well. I did exactly that a few years ago when Agent One had failed to find any interested buyers after 6 months. Their "sole agency" period had long expired but their contract had a clause "if at any time the property is sold to a person introduced by us, then our fee is applicable". Introduction, in their terms, can be as simple as someone seeing their sign outside the house!
I terminated the agreement with the agent and asked them to provide me with a list of names whom they regarded as persons introduced by them. They refused and claimed it was against the data protection act. It isn't.
I asked them to provide just a list of surnames, nothing else, so I could protect myself against this open ended clause. Nothing.
Placed property with Agent Two who sold it in a week. Some weeks later, Agent One submitted an invoice for their fee. Discussed this with Agent Two and they offered to return the sale process back to Agent One (they were both in the same High Street). Agent One refused to accept the deal I had negotiated with Agent Two.
It turned out the buyer had viewed and made an offer for the property some months earlier but Agent One had never informed me of the viewing (they had keys) nor the offer.
A clear cut case for the Ombusdman? No chance, they found in favour of the agent as I had signed the original contract. Decided to let Agent One take me to court. I had the case moved 100 miles nearer to my home and on the day of the hearing, I defended myself, the agent came with 3 other support staff & solicitor. Big firm against little guy in court.
The judge listened to the whole thing for an hour then said unfortunately a contract is a contract and I lost and had to pay Agent One their fees, plus interest plus costs.
Later I learned that Agent One, part of Countrywide, has a specific department that reviews all Land Registry transactions and checks if any of their agents have ever had that property listed on their books. Once a client signed an agreement with them, there is no getting out. I have a judgement against me to prove it.
If there are any agents reading this, you should be ashamed your industry is populated by such scum.Signature on holiday for two weeks0 -
Mutton_Geoff wrote:Be careful going to another agent as well. I did exactly that a few years ago when Agent One had failed to find any interested buyers after 6 months. Their "sole agency" period had long expired but their contract had a clause "if at any time the property is sold to a person introduced by us, then our fee is applicable". Introduction, in their terms, can be as simple as someone seeing their sign outside the house!
I terminated the agreement with the agent and asked them to provide me with a list of names whom they regarded as persons introduced by them. They refused and claimed it was against the data protection act. It isn't.
I asked them to provide just a list of surnames, nothing else, so I could protect myself against this open ended clause. Nothing.
Placed property with Agent Two who sold it in a week. Some weeks later, Agent One submitted an invoice for their fee. Discussed this with Agent Two and they offered to return the sale process back to Agent One (they were both in the same High Street). Agent One refused to accept the deal I had negotiated with Agent Two.
It turned out the buyer had viewed and made an offer for the property some months earlier but Agent One had never informed me of the viewing (they had keys) nor the offer.
A clear cut case for the Ombusdman? No chance, they found in favour of the agent as I had signed the original contract. Decided to let Agent One take me to court. I had the case moved 100 miles nearer to my home and on the day of the hearing, I defended myself, the agent came with 3 other support staff & solicitor. Big firm against little guy in court.
The judge listened to the whole thing for an hour then said unfortunately a contract is a contract and I lost and had to pay Agent One their fees, plus interest plus costs.
Later I learned that Agent One, part of Countrywide, has a specific department that reviews all Land Registry transactions and checks if any of their agents have ever had that property listed on their books. Once a client signed an agreement with them, there is no getting out. I have a judgement against me to prove it.
If there are any agents reading this, you should be ashamed your industry is populated by such scum.
You are not going to like what I say BUT Agent One introduced the buyer, therefore, they are entitled to their fee. Why should Agent Two benefit from a buyer that wasn't introduced by them.
I do agree that it's wrong that you were not informed about the viewing or the offer, I find this extraordinary as part of the OEA Code of Practice for member agents is that vendor is informed about all viewing and offers within a specified time period.
I'm offended that you call us EA's "scum". We are providing a service and many of us, myself included aim to provide the highest level of customer service.
Like I said before.....there are good and bad in EVERY profession, please do not tar us all with the same brush!My home is usually the House Buying, Renting and Selling Forum where I can be found trying to (sometimes unsucessfully) prove that not all Estate Agents are crooks. With 20 years experience of Sales/Lettings and having bought and sold many of my own properties I've usually got something to say
Ignore......check!0 -
I agree with miss motivation, there are definately good and bad in every part of life. The thing with buying and selling property is that for the person involved with it it is the biggest thing in their life at that moment, and rightly so. For the person who is on the other side of the coin and either buying or selling to the other person it is also the biggest thing in their life at that moment. Both people want to get the best price but to each the best price means the opposite, best price for a vendor is the worst price for the buyer and stuck in the middle is an EA, so they are never going to win everyones approval in any one transaction.
With regards to the thread, the EA has been incompetent, but has not broken their contract, neither have you paid them any money, so to be honest there is no where to go on that one. You have done what you can by moving EAs and therefore ensuring that all of the expense associated with having your property on their books has gone to waste. Tell everyone you know in the area about your experience with them, and to be honest that is damaging enough.
Mutton Geoff, what you have described is a totally normal contract with an EA, and to be honest even if it isn't written in a contract it is what all EAs work to, the EA who introduces the buyer is the EA who gets paid. Most EAs (well actually it depends the chains definately do not, but the independants generally do), share the commission if the buyer is introduced by one and the other then does all of the work getting it to completion. But, that is an agreement between the EAs and of no consequence to either the buyer or the vendor.
The reason the money goes to the introducing EA is that this is the fairest way in the majority of cases.0 -
Yes Mutton geoff,the previous agent is part of countrywide too and also said about anybody introduced to us through them and they'd get their fee.A very thretening phone call from them I must say.
We were given a surname of a viewer on the last day of our contract with them and we said no cancel the appt,they said they would,but didn't or ''forgot''.
The people never viewed the house and did not set foot in my property,but then went on to find it on rightmove thru other agent and its been 7.5 mths and now offered on our house.
We are worried first agent will pursue even tho we cancelled the first appt and its been over 7 mths.
Its a common surname and we never realised til just now.
How can they get away with saying we want to send Mr Smith around and then in 7 mths time we get another Mr Smith who buys it???
Miss Motivation is right there are good and bad in this profession and I am with a good agent now!!!0 -
So there you have it, a confirmation from the agents that there is a common clause in their contract that states they will always receive their fee, without time limit from anyone who has every walked through their door. They need not bother about forwarding offers to the vendor as it matters not a jot to them, one day the house will be sold and the fee will be theres.
A period of 8 months passed from my first instruction to Agent One to the eventual buyer coming back through Agent Two. I have it in writing from the buyer that he made several phone calls to the offices of Agent One to check on progress of his offer to me and they never returned his calls. Agent One at no point until after sale via Agent Two came forward with the prospects name despite requests.
I don't understand how any reasonable person can say this is right. I appreciate some vendors try to avoid paying agents fees through one method or another and so contracts must be watertight. In this case, I lived far from the property and had no intention of trying to sell myself, an agent was always going to get their fee, and indeed Agent Two got paid (as well) for selling the property.
The buyer told me that after the agent had failed to contact him it was only when the new agent placed their sale board on the property and he realised it was available did he approach, through Agent Two, and make his offer.
Agent One did f-all, failed to follow up a genuine offer (the guy who actually bought my house) and insisted on testing their contract in court to extract their fee rather than admit any fault. It's a very dirty way to earn a living in my opinion and my view of agents will not be changed.
If the agents got out and did the work I contracted them to do, then there wouldn't have been an issue. To apply gross negligence and pursue your fee through the letter of the law is scandalous.Signature on holiday for two weeks0 -
Mutton_Geoff wrote:So there you have it, a confirmation from the agents that there is a common clause in their contract that states they will always receive their fee, without time limit from anyone who has every walked through their door. They need not bother about forwarding offers to the vendor as it matters not a jot to them, one day the house will be sold and the fee will be theres.
A period of 8 months passed from my first instruction to Agent One to the eventual buyer coming back through Agent Two. I have it in writing from the buyer that he made several phone calls to the offices of Agent One to check on progress of his offer to me and they never returned his calls. Agent One at no point until after sale via Agent Two came forward with the prospects name despite requests.
I don't understand how any reasonable person can say this is right. I appreciate some vendors try to avoid paying agents fees through one method or another and so contracts must be watertight. In this case, I lived far from the property and had no intention of trying to sell myself, an agent was always going to get their fee, and indeed Agent Two got paid (as well) for selling the property.
The buyer told me that after the agent had failed to contact him it was only when the new agent placed their sale board on the property and he realised it was available did he approach, through Agent Two, and make his offer.
Agent One did f-all, failed to follow up a genuine offer (the guy who actually bought my house) and insisted on testing their contract in court to extract their fee rather than admit any fault. It's a very dirty way to earn a living in my opinion and my view of agents will not be changed.
If the agents got out and did the work I contracted them to do, then there wouldn't have been an issue. To apply gross negligence and pursue your fee through the letter of the law is scandalous.
I can see that you are very angry about the situation you have been in, and perhaps I am missing the point you are trying to make, sorry if that is the case. But, is your issue purely revolving around the fact that you had to pay EA1, rather than EA2? As surely the situation you have documented above would ahve resulted in you having to pay someones fees?
So, were you just fighting on behalf of EA2 to get the right to pay their fees? I can't imagine that is the case after descirbing all EAs as scum, but I really can't see the clue in what you have written as to why you had such a preference to paying EA2s bill over EA1, surely to you a bill is a bill and which 'scum' it goes to is of no consequence?
Ok, I just re-read and I have spotted your mistake. Your mistake was to pay EA2, that is not the norm at all, only the EA who introduces the buyer gets paid, which in your case is EA1. Why the hell did you pay EA2?
YOur arguement that EAs dont put forward offers, is firstly against the regulations for EAs, and secondly is a very very risky for an EA to not acknowledge an offer, especially a good one. If the offer is ignored, the potential buyer generally carries on looking at properties, and may then change their mind about the original one through them or another EA. No EA in their right mind would actually ignore an offer intentionally, as there is always the risk that they will end up without a penny.0
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