Tops Estate Agents, goes into administration

Cannon_Fodder

One of East Anglia's biggest estate agents has gone into administration as the housing slump continues.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7857121.stm

although their website still says (http://www.tops-property.co.uk/)

"TOPS is Norwich's most successful estate agent, selling twice as many homes as any other.[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We can currently show you details of over 500 properties in the area."[/FONT]



Including several commercial offices coming onto the market, unexpectedly?

poppy10_2

Naughty - they waited till payday before going into administration.

lilminx1

The brilliant part of this is that Tops have not informed the people who have their houses on the market that they have gone into administration. So we have a very pretty For Sale sign in our garden, but even if someone were interested in buying, the number is not contactable. Were they ever going to let us know, I wonder?

clobber_2

When I bought my house I went into Tops and asked if they had anything I might be interested in. On being asked the budget I said "about 100K" and the woman on the desk almost spat, said "well you won't find anything decent at that sort of price round here, just look at this" and threw a booklet of FTB property details at me.

I never went back, funnily enough.

John_Brown_4

poppy10 wrote: »

Naughty - they waited till payday before going into administration.

That's the best time, so the banks can get MORE of their overdraft returned.

GDB2222

clobber wrote: »

I never went back, funnily enough.

That may have been their intention, unwisely enough.

SamIAm_3-2

clobber wrote: »

When I bought my house I went into Tops and asked if they had anything I might be interested in. On being asked the budget I said "about 100K" and the woman on the desk almost spat, said "well you won't find anything decent at that sort of price round here, just look at this" and threw a booklet of FTB property details at me.

I never went back, funnily enough.

I totally empathise with you.

I had a conversation with an EA 18 months ago which went along the lines of:

Me: [edit: i'm an FTB and] I'm interested in property X
EA: That's had an offer from a cash buyer for the asking price. Are you sure you're still interested?
Me: Errrr...yes
EA: I don't think you understand. There's a cash buyer, are you sure you're still interested?
Me: Yes
EA: I don't think you understand. There's a cash buyer, are you sure you're still interested?
Me: Yes
...
...
...
...
EA: I don't think you understand. There's a cash buyer, are you sure you're still interested?
Me: Yes
EA: Look, I don't mean to be rude but you don't understand
Me: I think I do but you're not asking the right question

EA hangs up on me!

I was being deliberately annoying but I was fed up of EAs being rude all the time because I could only afford the bottom end of their portfolio and I wasn't going to make them much money.

thriftybabe

Where is it going to end? I feel like I am the local Job Watcher! How are we going to get out of this mess?

Robert_Sterling_3

thriftybabe wrote: »

How are we going to get out of this mess?

With difficulty.

gringo69

I am waiting for feedback on a positive viewing I had through Tops on Wednesday, after apparently the company had ceased trading. I am still down for sale on right move and tops.uk.net but no one can view my house or give feedback, and yes I too have a for sale board that will probably stay there for ever.
Tops would always bombard my letter box with first class stamp mailing showing they had sent particulars to the same people as the previous week but they can't waste a stamp advising their vendors that arms of their group had been sold off or that on Monday they had applied for administration.
There has been no direct contact to the vendors and no official notification on who the administrators are
I was advised by my new estate agent that I might have needed a HIP due to Tops ceasing, but fortunately as I am for sale according to rightmove I Don't need one.

clobber_2

SamIAm wrote: »

I was being deliberately annoying but I was fed up of EAs being rude all the time because I could only afford the bottom end of their portfolio and I wasn't going to make them much money.

I wonder how much you have to spend for them to be polite. We looked at a few last year in the 250-350K price range and they were unfailingly rude to us too, despite the fact we are chain free with a big deposit and a pre-arranged mortgage.

I'm not going to bother again until they learn some manners, so i may be in rented for a loooooong time...