Am I being lied to by my estate agent?

Burnley_Lad

I've been waiting now for over a week for a surveyor to contact me to arrange access to my house. I went into my estate agents this morning to ask them if they had heard anything, and they had some notes on the computer, with words to the effect of 'spoke to vendors on 30th March, survey to be done Tues or Wed next week'.

Surely I would need to be told this, so they can arrange access to my house? It's only because I went in this morning that I found out! When were they planning on telling me?? They knew I was keen to find out when the survey was going to be done, so why didn't they phone me to let me know?

Also, does 'Tue or Wed' sound a bit vague - surely there should be a specific date and time for the appointment?

May I'm being paranoid, but at the moment I feel like I'm being 'fobbed off' for a few days, just to keep me quiet.

What does everyone else think?

Doozergirl

It's certainly in the interests of your agent to sell your house. Lying about the date of survey isn't going to help them and it's also not going to make that surveyor call any quicker. I'm afraid I waited four weeks from accepting the offer to survey and I had to ask my agent to make vague threats to our purchasers in order to get their lender into gear. The call from the surveyor came the next day, immediately after they had been instructed, having been marked 'urgent' by the lender.

The surveyor will contact you directly, so whilst your agent may have had some indication of when the survey will take place, you're going to be the first to find out exactly when it's happening. There's not much your agent can do except chase.

I think sometimes agents type as they're calling, and sometimes if they can't get through, they don't delete what they've written. I had an apology from an agent on another house yesterday because someone had written that they'd spoken to me on Sunday with feedback, when in fact I knew that I'd had a 'missed call' from them.

Relax a bit - they're not being malicious

Jorgan_2

Don't forget some surveyors do drive by valuations when the buyer is only having the basic mortgage valuation. Some people only become aware of this when they see a camera flash from a car thats been parked across the road for 5 minutes. This may explain the vagueness of the days, the surveyors office may have said that the surveyor will be in the area on Tues/Wed of next week so will be doing the valuation then. Try to get your agent to establish what type of survey your buyer is having.

Lady_Pink

Doozergirl wrote:

Relax a bit - they're not being malicious

You're probably right in this instance but I still don't think you can be too careful. We're (hopefully) due to complete on our house purchase this friday. We were told by the estate agents - via our mortgage broker AND in print - that we had been put on a 28 day exchange and had to complete by 7th April. We got things in order and moving quickly. Then we got a call from the Esate Agents saying the couple wanted to complete on 27th April. After much toing and froing we finally managed to get the couple's phone number off the estate agents - only to find that the first they'd heard of the 28day exchange was when we mentioned it to them! The Estate Agents had put this in place themselves to push the sale through - they's also told the couple that if they hadn't completed by May we were threatening to pull out - this was news to us. In fact, I couldn't list all the lies, mis truths and twisted truths that we've been told cos I wouldn't have enough space! Also interesting was the fact that they withheld the seller's contact number from us even though they had specifically told the Agents to pass it on to us. The Agents knew we wouldn't just drop round as the sellers would only take viewings with the estate agents in tow (she had a small child). I'm sure not all Agents are the same but we've learnt - at our cost - not to believe them and very little that they do is in your interest, it's in theirs !

I shall get off my soap box now, sorry!

BobProperty

Burnley_Lad wrote:

...Also, does 'Tue or Wed' sound a bit vague....

That'll be because he hasn't booked his Tee-ing Off time yet

shockingmoment

Its easy to spot when an EA is telling fibs... their lips move. Treat them with suspicion and verify what they say.
We submitted sealed bid for a house, only to discover that the EA opened them all before sending to solicitor. Needless to say, a local builder got the house, for 8500 less than we'd offered (nethouseprice)!

Doozergirl

shockingmoment wrote:

Its easy to spot when an EA is telling fibs... their lips move. Treat them with suspicion and verify what they say.
We submitted sealed bid for a house, only to discover that the EA opened them all before sending to solicitor. Needless to say, a local builder got the house, for 8500 less than we'd offered (nethouseprice)!

Sometimes highest offer isn't always the best offer. I know for a fact that we've won sealed bid situations where we haven't made the highest offer; A cash buy which isn't subject to survey, backed up by the bank manager and a waiting solicitor is more likely to complete on time and at the right price still, than a regular offer with a mortgage or survey.

You win some, you lose some.

UK_Landlord_2

you always win them if your sealed bung is the biggest!

shockingmoment

Doozergirl wrote:

Sometimes highest offer isn't always the best offer. I know for a fact that we've won sealed bid situations where we haven't made the highest offer; A cash buy which isn't subject to survey, backed up by the bank manager and a waiting solicitor is more likely to complete on time and at the right price still, than a regular offer with a mortgage or survey.

You win some, you lose some.

Thanks for that. You do indeed. And sometimes the bitter taste of defeat stays with you for a long time.

2 things to clarify:
1. We had a clear cash offer so no delay in completing
2. EA opened the bids

Not even sure our bid got as far as the solicitor. EA wouldn't tell us who the solictor was.... Why ask for sealed bids for midday?
Bids should have been posted unopened to the solicitor. Who's to say that the EAs best buddy builder wasn't in the shop, with a letter with just the amount needing to be filled in?

Our opinion now is that EAs are bent.