E. Agent expects us 2 pay HIP- we were only on market a wk,-searches not commenced!

Miraclemummy08

Please advise, where possible. We recently put our property onto the housing market, because we had seen a property that needed modernisation and thought it had potential for a family home.
We put in a offer on the above property, which was neither accepted or rejected, since it was a probate sale and solicitors had to decide whom to accept an offer from and how much for, due to the deceased leaving all her estate to charity - 20 different ones! - we later learnt.

In this time we had paperwork for our sale, signed with the agent we were to use, from a previous period which we had filled in ready, but decided to archive until we considered moving and saw a property of interest. This same paperwork was used when we put the house on last week, but re dated.
We have NO copy of this paperwork - it's all with the agent.

We viewed the property we were offering on, again, several times and decided that it really needed TOO much work, and currently the time wasn't right,( as we have a young child to consider with all the dangers of modernising a home). We were also concerned about escalating costs involved, so pulled out a week later. All this BEFORE a board went up, before searches had been done and only the EPC ( efficiency rating certificate) had been been preformed - of which we are informed is only about £60 of the cost of the HIP.

The day before the Abolishment of the HIP was announced, I called the agent FIRST thing, and said we weren't wanting to pay for something that we didn't need, and since this was all up in the air at the time, with government decision on it, could he halt the proceedings?. He told me 'yes' to the searches and not to the EPC, that he was receiveing updates everyday by email regarding the HIP situation, and would call me back - which we accepted, until further notice that we knew what was happening.

I called at 7.18am to the office, the falling morning hoping to leave a message, but the agent picked up! -And was informed we would need to pay in full for the HIP!!! - We had opted for the 'deferred payment scheme' whereby you pay on completion of the sale, but if we were not for sale, and therefore not completing, how can we be expected to pay??!!.....I have also been told if we cancel the deferred payment scheme we will incur a £250 fee!!:mad: ..............the HIP payment is over £581 inc VAT!!!

We were informed but the same agent, at the time of instruction that they aren't supposed to market the property without a HIP in place, BUT we had 7 viewings in a week, 4 in one day, so they were actually not following protocol anyway, although we had agreed to the early viewings, because we needed to act fast on the possible purchase of the probate property. We also informed our agent that we would only be selling our home for THAT property, and if we couldn't get that or something happened to that decision, we would be pulling out, so all was up front and agreed!

I am now running around contacting the finance company about the HIP, and the conveyancing team, whom don't deal with the HIP but agree I shouldn't have to pay, and have actually refunded our conveyancing fee of £60 without question, and without us expecting it! SO WHY are the agents and finance company insisting we pay for something we don't need and haven't had??!!...........HELP please.

There must be lots of people in this position???
Miraclemummy08.

Nosht

Let them sue.


N.

Cannon_Fodder

Just because you have not received something yet, does not mean somebody has not begun work on it.

At least a partial cost is to be expected.

Unless you got your HIP contract re-written to cover all the caveats that you discussed with the EA (that house only etc) - which obviously you did not, and verbal doesn't supercede written - then you will be bound by the Terms and Conditions applicable.

Read them.

clutton_2

""I have also been told if we cancel the deferred payment scheme we will incur a £250 fee!!" ??????

who ARE these shysters....

send them what yhou think is fair with a letter which includes the phrase ""please accept this cheque in full and final settlement" - if they cash it without responding they dont have much of a legal case to then take you to court with.....

M.Holloway

"£581 inc VAT!!!"

Is this the fee for your HIP??

That is about £300 too expensive. Which means, as the EA resold it to you, that the Estate Agents have just lined their pockets with your money.

Also a £60 conveyancing fee????!?!?!??

WHAT!

They're insisting because this change caught everyone off guard, they're out of pocket and they hope that you'll just fold. Don't.

They need your money more then you need ANYTHING from them. Say "I would like to be able to work with you guys, but if you're being so dishonest about these fees i'm going to have to go with another estate agents"

Any estate agent with half a brain cell will realise that £200-£500 is much less then their sale fee.

ALSO, as they are essentially resellers it is very unlikely that they actually paid for a HIP. And if they did they could probably get their money back.

So ask for evidence

1) how much did you (estate agents) pay for the HIP? Receipt?
2) written evidence that you tried to get a refund?
3) the Hip providers response?

etc etc.

GDB2222

One step at a time:

1. Get a copy of whatever it is you signed back from the EA.
2. Read it.
3. If the way out of your problem is that the EA continues to market your property - forever if necessary - well, that's fine. They'll give up soon enough, once they find that the house is never available for viewing, etc.

timmyt

the law is that HIP startd before the new law must be carried through when marketing began.

Not to mention that a hip had to be 'ordered' to allow legal marketing - so 'pay' would have been pressed for the searches. Too late to cancel. People have done work.