EA sent bills to us without asking us if we were happy to pay!

princeofpounds

I'm amazed at the number of people here taking the EA's side in what is clearly a semi-extortion trick.

It's very similar to the game used in the old Soho clip joints - free entry, cheap drink, watch the pretty women, and then when you get up to leave hit them with the huge 'entertainment' charge they never knew existed.

In order to bill someone there needed to either have been a contractual agreement to do so, or for it to be covered by standard terms and conditions of business that were presented to the client before the course of actions was agreed.

You cannot just bill someone because you have 'done something and that deserves paying for'.

Whilst I would agree that this is the case when everything has been done properly and above-board, it is the EA who is at fault here for providing services without (presumably) agreeing contractual recompense or providing for it in T&Cs.

£150 is a rip-off in any case for quotations that would probably be provided for free or for a fairly nominal sum. They were hardly employing a quantity surveyor!

googler

sonastin wrote: »

As I understand it, they asked the EA for help in finding out how much it would cost to get work done. I would have expected it to be free, and I would certainly expect to be told if I was going to have to pay to find this out. .......
Being presented with a bill for providing a quote without being informed that that was the arrangement is unacceptable.

From the OP - "Except today we get sent 2 invoices totalling £150 for these quotes from the trades people"

They were invoiced by the trades who have (apparently) carried out the work. They're not being invoiced by the EA for arranging the quotes.

googler

but it's still not clear what is meant by

"So we recieved them and sent them off. All fine."

Was this the OP returning the quotes to the EA with approval for trades people to carry out the work, or not?

egyptiangirl

Hi all
thanks for all your replies

will try and clarify things. We're buying the property.

We sent the quotes the our mortgage company (unaware that we would be charged for them).

The bills were for 2 quotes. However at no point was there a discussion about us doing it. The conversation was literally "we have this from our mortgage company, what should we do? " reply "we'll sort that out. We have contacts" "OK thank you bye".

Maybe we shouldn't have trusted the EA :eek:

I have no issue that it is us that have the responsibility to pay, if there are charges and IF we agreed to them. I just can't believe that they didn't have the decency to warn us and then ask us when they commissioned the quotes to tell us it would cost a total of £150!
Hope that answers all the qus.

Think I might call the CAB for some advice. Happy days:mad:

egyptiangirl

googler wrote: »

From the OP - "Except today we get sent 2 invoices totalling £150 for these quotes from the trades people"

They were invoiced by the trades who have (apparently) carried out the work. They're not being invoiced by the EA for arranging the quotes.

Yes. The quotes were sent by the agent, but were from the builder/electrician.

Fatenbread

Imp wrote: »

Both the EA and the companies which quoted for the work will have had to spend time, and therefore money, on producing the quotations.

It seems fair and reasonable to reimburse them for this time, especially as it isn't a "real job" yet which is certain to go ahead.

Drivel.

If the EA intended to charge for getting these quotes they should have indicated this upfront - what exactly is their commission for if not to facilitate the sales process.

And I've never heard of any reputable tradesman charging to provide a quote. Not even lawyers charge for providing fee quotes.

Return the invoices with a letter stating that no fee was agreed for the provision of these quotes, and that they can whistle for it.

(Note: I am assuming the £150 was just for the quotes, and not for the provision of the actual services?)

egyptiangirl

googler wrote: »

but it's still not clear what is meant by

"So we recieved them and sent them off. All fine."

Was this the OP returning the quotes to the EA with approval for trades people to carry out the work, or not?

The EA sent us the quotes. I forwarded them to the building society.

We haven't got the house yet so haven't even decided we will use these trades people. We assumed naively that the building society just wanted a quote for the work not the details of who we would use, if the sale actually goes through.

MobileSaver

egyptiangirl wrote: »

We assumed naively that the building society just wanted a quote for the work not the details of who we would use,

There's nothing naive on your part, I've never heard such nonsense as charging for a quote.

I'd just send them back to the tradespeople with a one line covering letter advising that you didn't agree to any quote fee and cc the EA.

I suspect the EA/tradespeople are just trying it on.

princeofpounds

Pretty clear cut then.

Refuse all liability on the grounds that we have outlined above. The less you say the better to some degree - probably best just to say that you were never informed of such charges, would never agree to such charges and will not be paying such charges.

Tell them (verbally) that you find them trying to charge outrageous amounts for a quotation without any charges being mentioned is a very sharp business practice that would lead you to question whether they are trustable enough to proceed with the house purchase.

Also point out that should you feel forced to withdraw on such grounds you would be informing the vendor precisely why the breakdown happened, and that you would hope you never see any erroneous invoices again.

fimonkey

princeofpounds wrote: »

You cannot just bill someone because you have 'done something and that deserves paying for'.

Shame, I'd be mega rich if you could!