What do you do when your estate agent is rubbish?

Jacks_xxx

My Mum and Dad are selling their home to move to a retirement bungalow after ill health, operations, hip replacement surgery and cancer -- but sadly their Red Homes estate agent is a git quite frankly. And an incompetent one at that.

He "yeah yeah yeahs" them on the phone all the time without even turning the tv down to speak to them but does nothing about their concerns - and his wife / business partner doesn't even try to pretend to give a monkeys and is monosyllabic and borderline rude.

Meanwhile, their listing on RightMove is full of factual mistakes and typos (including until very recently the wrong post code - which means the wrong map reference) and no pictures - even though the agent took them two weeks ago.

We have emailed 4 times and phone 4 times but the best we have achieved is that he has corrected the post code and the spelling of the town the property is located in.

The agent says it's all the site's fault but I don't see how. His other listings added since all seem to have pictures although many of them are also littered with typos.

What should Mum and Dad do?

Love Jacks xxx

googler

Why did you or your parents pick him in the first place?

Step 1 - Write to, don't phone, the manager of the firm or branch concerned, and if it's a branch, send a copy to head office too. Outline the faults so far, and insist that if these aren't rectified within a certain timescale (you choose) that your M&D will consider their contract with the agent to be null and void with effect from a date of your choosing, due to the agent not fulfilling their side of the contract (incomplete and incorrect listing, poor client service, etc)

Step 2 - If the agent is a member of the OEA or NAEA, look up their codes of practice for members on their websites. If they failed to adhere to these, make another complaint or include these failings in the above complaint. If the agent has a formal complaints procedure, you must adhere to this before involving the OEA or NAEA.

If no result from this, write to the OEA or NAEA to say that you've been through the agent's complaint procedure without satisfaction and ask for their assistance.

chickmug

0.75% commission means you are getting a cheap commission deal and by the sounds of it cheap service. I feel sure they work from home - no branchs - and are very small as they have very very few houses on their web site. I am not impressed by what they do.

Try adding Tradings Standards to the list. If you can find errors on the sales detailsthat may infringe the PMA act that may help.

ciano125

Just sack them. Simpols!!

Robert_Sterling_3

The commission is certainly low.

Why did you choose them in the first place?

googler

You get what you pay for.

You don't get what you don't pay for.

Jacks_xxx

Thanks ever so much for your replies.

My parents chose this agent because of the low commission, and because on a drive around the local area he seemed to have sold - or be selling - lots of homes like theirs.

They live on the edge of a country park and most of their neighbour's properties have sold via "looky- loos" just taking a drive past and seeing a For Sale sign.

(My parents don't even have one of those, but they have put a For Sale notice in their front window.)

The logic being that if the sale is not likely to happen because of anything an agent does it's best to have to pay one as little as possible. My parents expected the listing to be factually correct, contain photos and and be typed competently - even on a no frills basic internet only service.

My Mum is recovering from surgery for cancer just two weeks ago and my dad is in constant pain despite his double hip replacement so I want the sale to be as stress free as possible for them - but with this company it seems to be such an uphill struggle.

Part of me wants to swoop in and kick @r$e but my parents value their independence and I certainly wouldn't want anything I did to increase their stress or worry.

I'll speak to my Mum again and maybe show her this thread and see what she says.

She really doesn't need the aggravation.

Thanks again guys,

Love Jacks xxx

MissMotivation

You pay peanuts.......you get Monkeys! Simple!

poppysarah

MissMotivation wrote: »

You pay peanuts.......you get Monkeys! Simple!

Sometimes it doesn't matter how much you pay you still get monkeys.

MissMotivation

Thanks Poppysarah, you know, they do say that imitation is the highest form of flattery!

lynzpower

MissMotivation wrote: »

You pay peanuts.......you get Monkeys! Simple!

this is a moneysaving site- surely youve learnt by now thats not entirely true!! :beer: