EA fees

estherht

Hi there,
My house has been on the market for 16 weeks and although over 25 viewings, we have had no offers.
We have decided to change EA's due to a lack of communication from our current one. We paid a £150 start up fee and now that we are terminating our agreement with them, they are trying to charge another £150 to 'cover costs'.
Because we receieved a poor service from them, we do not want to pay the £150 termination fee.
Does anyone have any experience or advice on how to get a well known EA to waiver the fee?

When I say 'poor service', despite over 25 viewings, the EA has failed to contact me with feedback for about 20 of the viewings. I have rung them a week later to get feedback and often they say they will return my call with the feedback I have asked for, but fail to. They often would 'pencil in' a viewing and fail to confirm/cancel. And they have never returned my calls. I rang their Head Office last weekend as they had a viewing 'pencilled in' but had failed to confirm and were not answering the phone. Head Office said this was unacceptable and rang the branch. The branch rang me back saying they hadn't contacted the client and if they did turn up to my property, would I be able to show them round!?!

Do you think this is enough to complain and get the fee waived?
Thanks for your help!
esther

ILW

25 viewings seems pretty good, did you ask any of the viewers if they were going to make an offer?

estherht

We only had 1 second viewing. A number of the people that they showed around our property couldn't afford it. Our property is not overpriced - rather, it is on the market for slightly less than other properties of the same size in our area. There is nothing wrong with the property either.
Please don't misunderstand why I want to complain - 25 viewings is fantastic, but the EA's lack of communication/failure to confirm bookings/return calls has been very frustrating indeed and in my opinion, doesn't warrant a hefty £150 fee to terminate a contract which has come to an end anyway.

zaksmum

estherht wrote: »

We only had 1 second viewing. A number of the people that they showed around our property couldn't afford it. Our property is not overpriced - rather, it is on the market for slightly less than other properties of the same size in our area. There is nothing wrong with the property either.
Please don't misunderstand why I want to complain - 25 viewings is fantastic, but the EA's lack of communication/failure to confirm bookings/return calls has been very frustrating indeed and in my opinion, doesn't warrant a hefty £150 fee to terminate a contract which has come to an end anyway.

Why on earth does anybody waste a vendor's time by viewing a house they can't afford??

estherht

you seem to be missing my point. I am wishing to complain and hope for the fee to be waived due to the extremley poor communication from the EA.

hazyjo

I don't suppose there's a legal 'yes or no', I think it's more a case of you thinking you have a point and letting them pursue you for costs if they think you're wrong.

My hubby had a flat up with one agent who sent round zilch viewers, were utterly useless, we had no feedback, no returned calls, nobody was ever available when you called... they were just awful. We basically sacked them with no notice and said if they wanted to sue us, fine. Do so. Changed agents and, although didn't end up getting a sale through them, had a lot of viewers through the door.

A lot of people aren't giving feedback. I don't know why, maybe they think they've got the upper hand in the market and don't need to bother going back to agents. We had it with most of the viewers for my house, yet the EAs have been great. They said '3 strikes, then they're off' - ie they chase 3 times for feedback, then dismiss them as timewasters or whatever. Would be nice to be told they'd chased them 3 times, but there you go. Was like getting blood out of a stone, getting feedback from anyone.l Maybe it's just the London market, I dunno.

Personally I think it's rude not to give some sort of feedback, even if it's to say you're not interested, but hey maybe it's the agents the viewers aren't happy with... did you think of that? Are they exceptionally pushy? Are they making demands on viewers that they have to see their mortgage/financial adviser before they'll put any offers forward? Maybe you could get a friend to view yours and see how they're treated as a viewer. Get them to phone about an offer saying there's that or another one they're interested in, and to see if you're open to offers - and see what the EA's telling them.

Is it a well known chain of EAs per chance? London, or elsewhere?

Jx

MX5huggy

What does your contract say about cancellation? That is all that matters, then you have to decide if you want to break that contract (ie not pay the £150) and risk them taking you to court, then you need to decide to defend that case or not in court. Your complaint has noting to do with it until you are in front of a judge, and even then they may not care.

flora48

I never got 25 viewings in 16 months let alone 16 weeks so the EA must be doing something right! I have to agree that to 'pencil' in viewings then to neither confirm or cancel is unacceptable, as is expecting you to show people pound if you have specified accompanied viewings. I found after a while the feedback was unecessary, I didn't want to hear what someone who was not interested in buying had to say, not least the viewer who 'didn't like the flow of the property'. Not much I could do on that one.
I would probably stick with this EA as they are generating viewings but would certainly let them have my complaints in writing, perhaps then they would sharpen up their act. Good luck at this stressful time.

G_M

MX5huggy wrote: »

What does your contract say about cancellation? That is all that matters, then you have to decide if you want to break that contract (ie not pay the £150) and risk them taking you to court, then you need to decide to defend that case or not in court. Your complaint has noting to do with it until you are in front of a judge, and even then they may not care.

8 posts but only one is relevant to your question. "What does the contract say".

Since you don't tell us, we cannot give legal guidance on whether this fee is chargable.

Dig out your contract.

googler

Pick up your copy of the contract.

Read the contract.

If it says you have to pay £150 on terminating the contract, then pay it. You agreed to pay it when you signed the contract.

ohcomeonpeople

Crikey, I am looking for house and every agent I go to jumps on me and trys to sell me a mortgage, and to go to some really big conveyancing firm who will do us a deal - will they be that attentive if I sell through them too. All exciting for us.