EA won't put our offer forward without...

ado

We have sold our house and want to make an offer on another property but the agent won't put our offer forward without knowing the full details of our purchaser (name, solicitor, method of payment). I can understand why they need that AFTER the offer has been accepted but I am perplexed and annoyed as to why they want it even before putting the offer forward. Other agents we have recently dealt with haven't done that.

In general though I am surprised how poor the service has been from many of the agents we have been dealing with during the last six months. Its as if the market is booming and they don't have to make an effort to sell houses! Agents don't phone us back, they don't chase vendors to make appointments, they forget to confirm appointments, they don't ask us for feedback, they get the particulars wrong (offering cash back when the vendor didn't know about it), sending us details for properties which don't match our requirements.

getmore4less

Pop a letter round to the vendors

"We were interested in offering but your agent has refused to pass on offers so we have not bothered, if you would like us to offer then decide if you want us to do this directly or still through the agent".

KittyLady

I'd be sending a letter to the vendor to let them know that the estate agent is refusing to pass on offers, they won't be impressed.

*not as fast as the above*

hazyjo

As far as I know, they're legally obliged to pass on offers... definitely put a letter through the vendors' door. I'm sure they won't be aware of the fact the EAs are putting all these restrictions on offers. They'll wonder how many others they've missed out on...

Jx

ado

As a postscript to this the agent called me yesterday (10/12/10) to introduce a new property to me and to explain why our offer had not been put forward. His explanation was that they only have an obligation to put proceedable offers forward and he could not say if ours was in that position without all our buyers details! I pointed out that according to the NAEA codes of practice (and the above advice) they have a legal obligation to put all offers forward, but he refused to accept that. Also no other agent we have dealt with recently wanted our buyers details before putting offers forward.

To confuse matters a bit more I received a letter from the agent today but posted 10/12/10 confirming our offer of the 1/12/10 but stating that we had not provided solicitors details i.e. making it look as if we were being obstructive.

I'd love to write to the vendor to tell her about the problems we are having but I don't know where she lives as she seems to have started doing the property up but lives elsewhere.

We have found two houses which we like, one of which we have made an offer on, so hopefully we won't be dealing with this particular agent any more.

Googlewhacker

send a letter to the house you want marked private and confidential for the attention of the name of the person and if you don't have that the House Owner

moromir

Has it occured to you that the Vendor themselves have said to the EA don't bother wasting our time showing us offers if you don't know whether they can proceed? Its possible they've been burned in the past and now proceed with caution.

G_M

You can find the name and address (though it might be the property you wish to buy) of the owner from the Land Registry here for £4. Write direct to them. As suggested above they might have instructed the agent to act in this way (agent has to follow their instructions) or they might be horrified to be missing out on offers.

DVardysShadow

G_M wrote: »

As suggested above they might have instructed the agent to act in this way (agent has to follow their instructions) or they might be horrified to be missing out on offers.

And it could be that they have instructed the Agent and then they are horrified to discover that this means that they miss out on offers.

This keeps coming up. It actually looks daft to allow the agent to kick offers into touch - the sellers would do better to hear ALL the offers and then get the Agent to do the filtering as part of the negotiating phase.

Nuttyneddy

In all honesty, it doesn't matter who your buyer is etc - so much can go wrong until exchange happens that nobody really knows if they are proceedable or not unless they are living in rented and have the whole purchase price in the bank!

paddy's_mum

Under data protection legislation, is the person wanting to make an offer even allowed to give other parties the details of their purchaser without the express permission of those prospective purchasers?