fed up with new agent!

david29dpo

having changed agents recently, i think i have gone from bad to worse. instructed new agent 6 weeks ago, two weeks later took photos and floor plans. another two weeks to get draft details. its now on the web and first ad went in the paper 2 weeks ago. nothing. they said have loads of viewers waiting! nothing. the man who did all this has now been sacked. still waiting for the sale board to go up! the thing is this is suppose to be a very respectable company. i have been lied to from the start, delay after delay. at this rate it will be winter! i am very tempted to sack them and not pay the bill!

silvercar

bill? there won't be a bill if it doesn't sell!

david29dpo

have to pay for advertising and brosures.

silvercar

!!!!!!?

bad idea, most estate agents are no sale, no fee. This arrangement makes them work.

Jorgan_2

Many of the higher end Agents charge for brochures, virtual tours, floorplans etc. OH boss recently sold his place in the New Forest for about £600,000, negotiated the fee down to 1.5% but had to pay extra for all of the above.

david29dpo

Jorgan wrote:

Many of the higher end Agents charge for brochures, virtual tours, floorplans etc. OH boss recently sold his place in the New Forest for about £600,000, negotiated the fee down to 1.5% but had to pay extra for all of the above.

yes. this is the case.

lush_walrus

silvercar wrote:

!!!!!!?

bad idea, most estate agents are no sale, no fee. This arrangement makes them work.

Yes, but most EAs do also have a clause in their contract that covers their costs, if you break the contract, which is what seems to be being proposed.

david29dpo

lush_walrus wrote:

Yes, but most EAs do also have a clause in their contract that covers their costs, if you break the contract, which is what seems to be being proposed.

very true. i will be getting on to there head office about the incompetence of this local office to discus what happens next. if they wish to keep there reputation. contracts work BOTH ways.

silvercar

I stand corrected. Round here I've only heard of people paying for brochures and advertising above about £2m!

lush_walrus

david29dpo wrote:

very true. i will be getting on to there head office about the incompetence of this local office to discus what happens next. if they wish to keep there reputation. contracts work BOTH ways.

Yep definately chase it up and see what you can do to break the contract, as even if the person dealing with the property has been sacked, you still had to suffer under their incompetence and have rightly lost faith in the company.
Most EAs will in reality let you drop out of their contract should you wish as in these circumstances where the client is unhappy with the service trying to keep hold of them or trying to charge them for costs will only result in the small claims courts, and most EAs really won't bother with that.

courtjester

You don't want to 'break the contract' unless you give the agent the chance to put things right and deal with your complaint in a professional manner. Otherwise, you risk being in the wrong. Clearly, your complaint must be couched in terms of providing a deadline for corrective action, but you need to try and get them to agree to 'let you go' as it were.

Unfortunately, until such time as there is proper regulation of agents contracts, most are drafted firmly in the favour of the agent and will almost certainly give you no viable get out.

Have you considered advertising privately? - if you have a standard sole agency contract, there is nothing to prevent you from selling the property yourself and you will at least avoid the agent's commission if you achieve this and it doesn't mean you have to wait until the contract expires.