More than fed up with Estate Agent

tesuhoha

Thanks guys! the response has been overwhelming. All help and input gratefully received but more needed. You wont believe the latest.(By the way yes it is Ward & Partners of Kent). My husband received another call from them today stating that the offer of £175,000 was still standing and were we going to accept it. DH replied that we wanted £180k and their fees were too high. She then said again that the fees were fixed and were not negotiable and that by dropping £20k we might get a couple of hundred off but no more than that. She said that their prices were not a percentage but were fixed within a certain price range and the two prices £195k and £175k fell into the same range. DH said that we had had a quote of 1.25% (which we have from one of the 3 EAs he contacted today) and she replied that at that price it would be a crap estate agent and that they (Wards) give a really good service. She got quite upset at one point. So DH asked once again if they were willing to negotiate and she said no and once again started going on about how much money they had spent on the sale so he said we would go elsewhere. To this she replied that we couldnt do that because we had to give them 28days notice. She also said they would have to 'cut their losses' with us. He left it up in the air at this point as he wasnt sure of our position, whether we are under some kind of unwritten contract with them.

The background to this is that we originally put the house on the market with them last May and signed up for a period of 16 weeks. Once thie 16 weeks ran out we made sure that we didnt sign up again but they kept sending people around until eventually we got a buyer. Then last week when the sale fell through they contacted us and sent around another couple of people, one of which made the current offer. I tried to talk to Wards about fees before they sent anyone round but they wouldnt discuss it. My husband thinks that as we allowed them to provide a service we are under some kind of obligation to them and they might have grounds to take us to court for compensation. Does anyone know if we are obliged to give them 28 days notice even though we havent signed up with them?

robwend

no you are not obliged to give them jack sh... you have no contract. there word against yours, if u ev er here from those potental buyers again id get them to come round for a secpnd view and give then a contact number and talk to them direct on what your prepard to except

tesuhoha

thanks. would like to do that but have a feeling wards will tell them its off the market out of spite. i wouldnt put anything past them now.

tomstickland

I think the best thing to do is to clearly tell the EA that you are dissatisfied with their service and do not wish to have any more contact with them.

tesuhoha

Yes its come to that. We can hardly believe that they would prefer to lose a potential sale rather than negotiate their fees.

mistyarthur

I think even if you changed EA now that the potential buyer would not be allowed to buy through your new EA becuase they did not introduce them, this is to stop people using more expensive ones and then changing to a cheaper one when they have a buyer. Not entirely sure though but it would make sense.

Ian_W

tesuhoha wrote: The background to this is that we originally put the house on the market with them last May and signed up for a period of 16 weeks.

Be careful with this. Most EA's contracts I have seen are for a minimum period [ie: the 16 weeks] and do require a notice period to terminate it [the 28 days] otherwise they just continueuntil you've sold. If you "signed-up" check the contract that you signed then, if you don't have a copy ask the EA for one and if there is a notice period give them written notice you're cancelling and walk away.

tesuhoha

I think that if the potential buyer tried to contact us privately the EA would have something to say about it. Regarding the 16 week contract, the EA repeatedly contacted us to sign up again so surely that would indicate that the contract had expired?

Ian_W

Might be the case but I wouldn't take it for granted. Getting you to sign up again would have tied you in for another 16 weeks, instead of a minimum 28 days. If poss I'd go into the EAs and insist on seeing [if you don't have a copy] the contract that requires you to give 28 days notice. That will sort it one way or the other, they either show you the contract that requires notice or they don't. Either way I'd have a letter giving notice with you to give them.

Last thing you want is to market it with another EA and end up with 2 lots of fees as you're still under contract with the 1st!! BTW if they're in the NAEA or ombudsman scheme consider if you have a complaint to them, but sort out the notice period first, IMO.

BoL.

davilown

tesuhoha wrote:

thanks. would like to do that but have a feeling wards will tell them its off the market out of spite. i wouldnt put anything past them now.

You sound like you're not desparate to sell?
If I were in your situation and do not have to sell fast, I'd take the hous off the market for 28 days. In the meantime, you could get quotes from various EA and contract etc sorted for the end of the 28 days. New EA could always say that yor house would be on the market at the end of the month there fore bypassing and old contratual obligations you had with your previous EA.

Sod the. Why should you pay for shoddy service?

Good Luck

:beer: monster