Estate Agent forcing to use their services when buying a property

riverboat2001

I and many other on here, have gone through the same thing!

I wouldn't trust a word the EA is saying, because i had the same as you, word for word.

They are only in it to make as much money as possible, if you keep that thought in your mind, it will help you see the wood for the trees.

timmyt

Pupnik wrote: »

Oh the other buyer mysteriously pulled out, funny that!

EAs just take the biscuit. We had the same issue with ours- they wouldn't even let us view any of their properties without seeing their broker first, and once we put our offer in they phoned us to say the seller would only sell to us if we use the same solicitor as her (different branch of the same partnership)! We thought this was odd but agreed, and it was only after we got to the EA office to confirm it that we found out that the solicitors in question were the EA's ones which they had tried to flog to us the week before. I was very uncomfortable about this but as they told us that it was the seller's decision there was not much we felt like we could do. The breakdown of the fees for the solicitors wasn't too bad but we had to pay an upfront fee of £300 and then we got sent the proper paperwork from them with the tailored estimate and although the quote itself was reasonable (not cheap mind!) we found there was a clause where if you phone them to ask any questions or if you write to them they charge you! I was seething and really feel like we have been taken for a ride because I don't feel like we can contact our solicitors at all in case they whack a massive fee on top, I would never have agreed to it if I had known that. Plus, it became increasingly obvious the the whole thing about the seller wanting us to use those particular solicitors was a complete fabrication.

We were very green first time buyers who were obviously a prime target to be taken advantage of and it has been a massive learning curve. I know next time we are buying we will know the EA tricks much more and will sort out our own mortgage and get a solicitor lined up before they have the chance to try flogging us all their stuff. EAs really do deserve their crummy reputation.

There will be people reading this that have today fallen into the same trap of being pressured by the EA to use crap conveyancers.

Goodness knows what legal mistakes were made and when they come to sell :eek::eek::eek:.

Nothing changes, not your fault, but glad it worked out for OP, that is the way to do it.