Estate Agents and the Data Protection Act

jassco

Hi all,

I've got a query about estate agents. We had the homebuyer's survey completed and it said that the valuation was equal to our offer. However it raised a couple of urgent issues that needed immediate attention (flat roof likely to fail at any time and damp). This is going to cost £980 to rectify. Although the house is mortgageable without the work doing, when we put in our original offer, it was the highest we could go under the assumption that no work needed doing. So when this quote came in, we thought to ask the vendors to pay for the work to be done.

The builder that quoted us the price was through the estate agents, and so they asked us to pass them the survey so they could show the builder what needed looking at. No problem I thought, as I got written confirmation from the EA that they wouldn't pass the survey on to the vendors after specifically requesting.

However now that we've got the quote, I just got an email from the EA saying:

i have spoken to the vendor who
has already said he is not negotiable on the price at all as its not
condition of the mortgage you get this work done.

So what I'd like to know, is how the vendor knows that its not a condition of the mortgage, and what I can do about this?

My own thoughts are that the EA has broken the data protection act by revealing details of the survey/mortgage offer to the vendor, and as such they should be liable for the £980. I'll be going into the EA first thing to demand an explanation. Also remember that I have all of this in writing from the EA.

Thanks,

J

Doozergirl

This is negotiation. Your reply is what you have told us. That your offer price is as much as you can afford to spend on the house right now, including work. That your offer was always going to be subject to survey.

Keep trying. They probably asked whether it was a condition of the mortgage, asi t's quite a poignant question for a vendor to ask. I doubt very much that they have read the report.

jassco

Doozergirl wrote: »

This is negotiation. Your reply is what you have told us. That your offer price is as much as you can afford to spend on the house right now, including work. That your offer was always going to be subject to survey.

Keep trying. They probably asked whether it was a condition of the mortgage, asi t's quite a poignant question for a vendor to ask. I doubt very much that they have read the report.

Thanks, so would you say that the EA is just bull****ing to try and discourage us from trying to negotiate on the price?

When I spoke with the EA earlier today (before this email) I was told quite strongly that I should stop pestering them, and all negotiations need to go through solicitors now that they've done their job. Is this normal, or should I still try and negotiate through the EA? I'm concerned that involving the sol's in negotiations will slow things down so we can't move before Christmas.

New to all of this so much help is appreciated!

sem9999

May not be a condition of mortgage, but as long as you have not exchanged contracts then negotiate (through EA). If you have exchanged contracts basically you do not have a leg to stand on.

jassco

Ta, and nope we've not exchanged yet

the anger is slowly subsiding now

Doozergirl

jassco wrote: »

Ta, and nope we've not exchanged yet

the anger is slowly subsiding now

It does tend to!

It might actually be better to do this through solicitors - it will go in writing and they have a habit of sounding much more scary than EAs do.

DVardysShadow

jassco wrote: »

... My own thoughts are that the EA has broken the data protection act by revealing details of the survey/mortgage offer to the vendor, and as such they should be liable for the £980. I'll be going into the EA first thing to demand an explanation. Also remember that I have all of this in writing from the EA.

My thoughts on this are that you can try, but you won't get very far. Agent is a legal term which means that he acts for someone - your vendor. If you thought he was a neutral person, you are mistaken - anything which you tell the Agent, you have effectively told the vendor - if the Agent learns anything which is relevant, he is obliged to tell the vendor.

So, at worst, you have been tricked into putting your survey into the hands of the vendor. Next time, you could try a non disclosure agreement with the Agent, but frankly, I would not bother. I just assume that what I tell the Agent, the vendor will know.