Vendors EA given her our email address!

tyllwyd

pollyzanna wrote: »

We made an offer on a house and had to "confirm in writing" so we sent an email to the EA.
The EA then forwarded this email straight to the vendor without taking out our email address.
Last night the vendor emailed us direct asking us to increase our offer by £5k!!...

I think it was unprofessional of the estate agent to have given the vendor your email address without your permission. I think from his point of view it might open up a can of worms if the two of you start talking direct rather than through him, especially if it comes to negotiating offers.

If I were you, I'd email the estate agent explaining the situation, and asking him to apologise to the vendor but that you think that at this stage it is best if communication is via him to avoid any misunderstandings. And make it clear to him exactly your position regarding your offer. BUT keep it all very polite and neutral and don't say anything you wouldn't want forwarded on by mistake to the vendor!

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Running_Horse wrote: »

Does every discussion have to be invaded and taken over by nutters from the other place?

It seems so.....

This thread has been linked to from the nuthouse.

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=151683

Running_Horse

You mean the house price forum? Oh wait, the other nuthouse.

Two sides of the same coin. A plague on both your houses.

Super_Ted_2

....calm down dear.

HPC senior veteran/mentalist reporting for duty.

You might have a case of sorts under data protection but I'm not sure what material harm has or could possibly come to you due to the disclosure of your email address?

Although agents can be useful they are an extra member in the chain of comunication and are used to negotiating (on their clients behalf) unless the vendor is involved in negotiation of salesfor a living you are probably better off battering them direct.

Given the piddly amount they are asking you to raise the offer by I would suggest they want to accept but need a little ego massaging to get over the mental hurdle of taking an amount under asking price. My advice would be let the offer stand and wait for them to accept, any amount you give them wont matter a bean later and don't forget you still have post survey negotiations yet.

Good luck with the purchase.

ST

Now the rest of you coupon cutters can stop giving HPC a roasting and come play with the big boys if you are up to it.

Brallaqueen

At least you know the EA is passing the offers on and not just pretending to increase the price as some other posts suggest they do. You can now also copy in the vendors with any proof/backing up of your offer and be sure that they are aware. I think many people would agree that EAs have a reputation for massaging the figures...

neverdespairgirl

I don't quite see why the EA wouldn't pass it on. the EA is the agent for the vendor, that's all.

neverdespairgirl

the_realist wrote: »

they have a habit of not passing on low offers, it doesnt do them any favours.

Sorry, I meant the email address, not an offer.

vectistim

It was a bit dodgy passing on the email in its entirety.

_Be careful_ if you start dealing with the vendors directly. What often happens is that buyer and seller start becoming friendly and talking to each other all the time and then end up falling out over the number of lightbulbs or somesuch. Keeping all communications via the agent might slow things up a little, but it helps to keep communications professional, and if there is some sort of issue (eg: mortgage down valuation) it gives time for people to consider the options at a distance rather than fly off the handle at each other.

Jojo1daffy

Were you confirming an accepted offer in writing? When I accepted an offer on my house I got written confirmation from the EA detailing the offer and the conditions of that. They may have received written confirmation from the buyer but that wasn't passed to me. Sounds like your EA made an admin error to me, but it's not a big deal, just ring them and ask if what happened is usual and you would rather deal with the EA rather then the vendor directly. After all thats what the EA is there for.

mudshark

As some have said/implied - the agent should be treated as if they are the vendor as that is their job; the vendor is paying them for this. So passing on an email address must be fine though I am surprised the vendor mailed directly asking for an increased offer as that is best handled via the agent - again that's their job. When I bought my current house I dealt with the EA only but as soon as my offer had been accepted I exchanged email addresses and phone numbers with the vendor so we could talk directly; worked out very well.