Estate Agent faking viewings

fox2

Hi, I am just after some advice as it's the first time I've sold a porperty.

We have recently put our house on the market and had our first viewing cancelled and not much other interest. Our estate agent then suggested lower the price slightly, which we have and we immediately recieved 2 viewing appointments one of which was apparently a rescheduled one of the previous cancellation.

Of these 2 new bookings the first apparently ran out of time on her lunch hour and cancelled and the second seems a little odd as I will explain.

I started to doubt if there was actually a viewing so left the house and parked up over the road. I saw the estate agent arrive, enter the house and go back to their car. They stayed in their car for a further 45 mins before leaving. At no time did anyone else enter the property. This morning the estate agent called to let us know that the viewing went well, although the person viewing it was also interested in another property and would let us know later today. When asked how long the viewing lasted the estate agent went rather quiet and replied with 20-25 mins which is normal for these things.

What I am looking for advice with is are these kind of tactics common for estate agents and should I just accept it or should I challenge this?

Thanks in advance for any advice

piccybabes

You are paying ( or will pay them) £000's to sell your house.

Call the Estate Agents, demand to speak to the Manager and get yourself out of the agreement. Complete breakdown in trust.

It doesn't matter if it is normal practice - it's not acceptable.

FireWyrm

Well! If you have evidence, I'd go in person to the Manager of the EA and then accuse the woman in person. You are paying for a service and patently, you are not getting one. A call to Trading Standards should also be mentioned along with various letters to whatever oversight committee is responsible for controlling EA's. I would demand my money back from the EA Manager and that the EA in question is disciplined. You have every right to complain and I would do so, vigorously!

SAHD_Jim

Sounds very dodgy to me. The agent could me making up appointments to keep their boss happy, or more cynically, some agents are corrupt and have "contacts" (developers etc) to whom they try to sell properties for less than they are worth. Either way, I'd speak to the manager of the firm and demand to be released from any contract and look for a new agent.

King_Of_Bling

Who would have thought Estate agents could be deceptive, dishonest and sneaky.

SAK45

Now it actually makes me wonder what our agent was upto

one viewing over 2 viewings over 4 months, rest got cancelled or no show last minute..

Brodiebobs

we had friends who had kind of the opposite problem, tried to view a house EA said they muct see in house advisor before viewing, they gave their details but politely declined the mortgage interview, agent said no view then!
So they put a note through the door a few weeks later as it hadnt sold and price reduced, with her name and number, vendors phoned her and said agents had told them she had viewed a few weeks ago and offered £30,000 less than asking, which they wouldnt take, but EA had used this to make them reduce the price. Distgusting!!

FireWyrm

King_Of_Bling wrote: »

Who would have thought Estate agents could be deceptive, dishonest and sneaky.

There's sneaky and then there's downright dishonest and fraudulent. Sneaky is part of the game, what this one did was illegal. It's called 'obtaining money under false pretenses'. She's masquerading as an EA, taking money for providing a service as an EA and then completely fabricating the work she does. I'd nail her a$$ to the wall, or have her manager do it. Either way, I'd stand there and watch

bob_a_builder

And if you're going in there, why not give them the opportunity to dig a bigger hole for themselves.

Before you give 'em both barrels, ask them again, face to face, how the viewing went, so you can see/feel them squirm

fox2

Thanks for the replies so far. Looks like its time for a face to face chat, but they are calling later to let us know the viewer's response (time to let them dig that hole a little bit deeper!).

gotta say the 2 examples above worry me! Last minute cancellations and the comments that they vet all potential buyers before allowing them to view a property are all things that have happened to us.

We have been dealing with one of the directors, which now worries me even more, although the estate agent that did the viewing was not the director! It's not like they are a particularly small estate agent either.

casper_g

fox2 wrote: »

It's not like they are a particularly small estate agent either.

If anything, I'd be more inclined to trust a small local independent EA than a big chain (well, less inclined to distrust, then). With a small agency, the staff will have more of a stake in how well the business does, and will know that such a business lives or dies by its reputation in the local area.