Has anyone complained to EA's for breach contract?

Mutton_Geoff

Lush, thank you for putting across another view. I perhaps didn't make myself clear enough.

When Agent One failed to sell the house, and I had stuck with them for around 8 months through a couple of failed purchases, the final one being a person in a chain that kept breaking despite them telling me the buyer was a first timer with money lined up (that's another story). I terminated the agreement with Agent One, in writing, asking for a list of anyone whom they would regard as "their" client to pass to Agent Two before instructing them as I was fully aware of their clause that seemed to have no time limit. Agent Two had the same clause but time expiring after 6 months.

Nothing was heard from Agent One, they were completely uncooperative and so Agent Two was instructed.

The house was sold, for close to the asking price, very quickly via Agent Two who was duly paid for doing their job. Agent One only submitted their invoice on completion which is when the problems with them began.

As they had been so blatantly negligent, and I felt I had done everything by the book, I felt confident to defend their claim in court armed with the written statement from the buyer that Agent One failed to return his calls after he'd submitted a verbal offer.

Neither myself nor the buyer (he owned several local properties which he lets) were inexperienced but Agent One failed to communicate with either buyer nor seller on the offer or the subsequent fee and took it to court armed with the might of Countrywide PLC's lawyers behind them.

I am very bitter because it proved the clause was open ended and needed the agent to do absolutely nothing once I had signed a contract. If the house was ever sold to someone they had any dealings with, then I would be liable to pay their fee. Duty of care etc doesn't come into it, not in the eyes of the OEA nor courts, the contract is the only document to rely on. Hence I will never sign another agents contract in my life and I tell anyone that will listen my experiences with Countrywide PLC and their agents.

In my experiences with EA's, more than 50% of the dealings have not been straightforward and the agents have proved that they operate purely in the interest of revenue, not their clients interests.

lilyann1

So would that happen in my case where agent 1 called me to give me name of person who wanted to view,thats all i was given.
A few hours later i said its not worth having the viewing because we are off the market with yourselves tmrrw and the viewers are not even on the market yet so i do not want the appt.
They said they would cancel it,but told me even tho' they had given me a name(who they could have made up),i would be liable for their fees if anybody with that name went on to purchase my house,even tho' they had never viewed my property.
I never even write the name down ,so when it came that agent 2 sent round these viewers,i did not know that they had orig phone the agent 1.
I find it hard to believe that if the people never viewed my property thru agent one that they could claim???
Its big guy against little housewife here.
I would say never ever deal with countrywide!!!
As it happens our sale may never go thru anyway as our vendors cannot find anywhere and people are always backing out in our chain.
But really do not want the worry of this aswell.

Mutton_Geoff

Lilyann, if you've signed an agents contract like I did, yes it's very risky. Another scenario is that you decide not to move, take your house off the market, live there for another 5 years, sell it through another agent but your buyer was at one time registered with the first agent, you'll have to pay their fee despite not instructing them! Think the Ombudsman or courts would support the little person against the big corporation? Think again, I found out the hard way.

Unfortunately, as agents generally run a localised business, anyone looking to buy a house, if they have any sense, will be registered with all the local agents. That means once you've signed a contract for one agent to sell your house, there really is no escape from that agents greedy clutches. If your buyer was ever registered with the first agent, they don't need to have ever made an enquiry or booking to view your house, seeing that agents sign outside of your place is enough for the law to consider that that agent introduced them to your property and that they are entitled to their fee. Tread carefully, agents contracts are extremely restrictive.

My suggestion, if you must deal with agents, is to amend that clause in the contract to have a reasonable time limitation, say 6 months. To have an open ended clause on your liability for fees to them is, imho, very unreasonable. As Countrywide, and others, have a department specifically set up to collect fees in this way, doesn't that tell you more about the way they operate?

lilyann1

Yes I don't see why anyone would ever ever use Countrywide if they knew this,wish I knew it before i did.
They were nothing but trouble all the way through.
I definitely will not ever use them again and will tell everyone i know not to use them.

Milky_Mocha

lilyann1 wrote:

Then sent round prospective buyers when they weren't even on the market ,when we expressly said we didn't want these people and cancelled appts,but the EA's ''forgot'' to tell them and didn't cancel.

I didn't realise there were vendors who would not want viewings from ppl not yet on the market. I believe in, and have done, viewings in order to get an idea of which area I would like to move to; to see how far my budget would go in one area vs another. Only when I've homed in on a particular desirable area would I put my house on the market to reduce searching time (and money) after I've exchanged contracts. This also gave me a realistic figure to base my 'mortgage in principle' application on. In my case one of the houses I viewed in the area I chose is the one I hope to move to. My house is now on the market and that house is still available as properties in that price bracket tend to move slowly.

Am I the only one who does this? Vendors might want to consider this when instructing EA about viewings.

fimonkey

As a potential FTB I wouldn't dream of looking at property without being 'serious'. i.e. I'd have a full idea of the price I want to pay and the area I want to live in and wouldn't go for a 'look see' round other peoples houses/flats to gain this information. I feel as a viewer it's a HUGE intrusion into the vendors space if they are still living there and I don't want to a) raise their hopes unecessarily, b) interrupt their day.

Of course with already empty properties I would look if I wasn't immensley serious, it's just the intrusion of privacy I feel awkward with, and understand completely why vendors would feel this too and therefore ask that viewings are only done with serious potential purchasers.