Foul Play/case for legal action

badaz52

What needs to be remembered TrickyDicky101 is as we moved out on the 30/08 and the buyer of ours moved in on the 31/08 a deal MUST have been reached between buyer, EA and TW weeks before completion and negotiations must have taken place without discussions with us.

The EA had a duty to inform us that there was a solid buyer and failed to do so therefore we did not get the best price for our old property and were prevented from negotiating anything off the new one so I think there is a case for a financial loss.

I agree that there may be difficulty in demonstrating exactly what loss and where the loss is but just like you can negotiate the asking price of an older property you can on a new one too but we were not permitted due to the nature of negotiations and the way the EA dealt with this.

TrickyDicky101

You agreed a sale at £140k. Property sold at £140k. No loss.

badaz52

I agreed a sale to the developer on completion for £140k. A sale was arranged prior to completion for £140k, negotiations took place between buyer, builder and estate agent even though I still owned the property. EA did not discuss with us nor did the developer but the EA marketed the property and reduced the price to what TW set, bearing in mind they already would have had a list of potential suitors so it was a conflict of interest and left us paying over the odds for the new build and all the extras we had to buy which was about £7000 in total. We could have negotiated money off the asking price or extras thrown in but were not given the opportunity so there is a loss.

dotchas

You agreed to PX your house ,thus allowing them to sell it allowing you to purchase the new build. They sold it.
I am sorry but I think you need to move on and enjoy your new house. I wouldn't touch "no win ,no fee" companies with a bargepole!

badaz52

dotchas wrote: »

You agreed to PX your house ,thus allowing them to sell it allowing you to purchase the new build. They sold it.
I am sorry but I think you need to move on and enjoy your new house. I wouldn't touch "no win ,no fee" companies with a bargepole!

But they sold it using our estate agent and for less than it was originally marketed at, plus they arranged the sale while we were still in it without informing us or allowing us to have a say. Agreeing to PX your house and PXing your house are two different things. Our EA should NOT have agreed to market it a reduced price for the builder while we still had an instruction to market it at £165k what happened to our agreement with the EA??

I'm gonna go with GDB2222 on this one, I have nothing to lose, I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks!

CapJ

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

You agreed a sale at £140k. Property sold at £140k. No loss.

Yes from one point of view, and this is why I would suggest the OP not invest too much money and emotion into this.

On the other hand the OP agreed to a sale of 140K on the basis that he had so little interest at 165K. He had so little interest because based on the provisional non binding agreement, the developer went to the same agent and marketed it. This is a clear conflict of interest on the part of the agent. No doubt they are thinking they get their fee either way + keep in with the developer.

CapJ

OP - one thing that I might have missed. Do you know that the developer sold it for 140K? It wouldn´t surprise me if they sold for example for 150K and split the extra 10K with the agent. I'm not saying that is what happened but none of this stuff surprises me anymore and I think you should find out the actual sale price.

badaz52

CapJ wrote: »

Yes from one point of view, and this is why I would suggest the OP not invest too much money and emotion into this.

On the other hand the OP agreed to a sale of 140K on the basis that he had so little interest at 165K. He had so little interest because based on the provisional non binding agreement, the developer went to the same agent and marketed it. This is a clear conflict of interest on the part of the agent. No doubt they are thinking they get their fee either way + keep in with the developer.

This is exactly it. As soon as we started the PX proceedings we basically heard nothing from our EA they didn't share any information with us, in fact the last thing I heard from them is asking me when I would be dropping the keys off. No question there has been a conflict of interest and potentially a loss because they wanted the property off their books.

I have a copy of the title info for the new buyer and she paid £140k for it for definite.

The question is where do I start? do I send the developer a letter of complaint to test the water as I'm still not 100% certain I got the terms of a PX and if I didn't I was prevented from negotiating anything on the new one too. Sure it was a PX agreement I signed on paper but the deal I actually got resembles the Easymover where you have more bargaining power. When you mention a provisional non binding agreement what do you mean by this? which agreement is non binding?

I really don't intend on pouring my heart and soul into this as we are happy with the new build its just something has bugged me about proceedings and I would like to get things clarified and checked to ensure everything was above board.

CapJ

badaz52 wrote: »

This is exactly it. As soon as we started the PX proceedings we basically heard nothing from our EA they didn't share any information with us, in fact the last thing I heard from them is asking me when I would be dropping the keys off. No question there has been a conflict of interest and potentially a loss because they wanted the property off their books.

I have a copy of the title info for the new buyer and she paid £140k for it for definite.

The question is where do I start? do I send the developer a letter of complaint to test the water as I'm still not 100% certain I got the terms of a PX and if I didn't I was prevented from negotiating anything on the new one too. Sure it was a PX agreement I signed on paper but the deal I actually got resembles the Easymover where you have more bargaining power.

I really don't intend on pouring my heart and soul into this as we are happy with the new build its just something has bugged me about proceedings and I would like to get things clarified and checked to ensure everything was above board.

You have nothing to lose in sending a letter to the developer. But it all it will get you, if anything, is information that you could use against the EA. They satisfied their deal with you (though perhaps a little immorally). Send a letter to the EA. At this point you probably don't want to be too aggressive or start talking compensation as the hope is they shoot themselves in the foot when replying.

badaz52

Thanks for your replies on my topic they have been really helpful.

To what level should my letter to the developer be on? should I put everything in there do you think including about the EA? or just query with them that I don't think they gave me the deal I signed for WRT PX/Easymover?

I haven't got a clue how to structure these things, same with the letter to the EA.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!