Complaining about Estate Agents.

lita

They are very clever for idiots aren't they!!
Thank you so much for all your advice

tbs624

Whilst I absolutely agree with DVS's take on this in that the OP should have contacted the Court/sent in the defence straight away I would still write a formal complaint. OP - are they members of say NAEA, RICS etc?

The EA erroneously claimed that payment had not been made, issued court proceedings and then compounded that by failing to correct that error when notified by the OP. Looks like their book-keeping is pretty poor.

OP - this will have been a learning curve for you. Two things -

(1) join the ranks of those of who would never wholly trust an EA or an LA to be fully competent and
(2) if notice of any legal proceedings come your way then seek advice from a CAB, law centre or court staff pronto rather than bawling to poor old mum or relying on an office numpty to sort it out on your behalf.

SouthCoast

Advice from CAB

Creditor takes you to court for debt.


http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/money_management_index_ew/action_your_creditor_can_take_index_ew/creditor_takes_you_to_court_for_debt.htm

newhome4us

DVardysShadow wrote: »

As I see it, you must have received all of your paper work from the court. Now like you, I have never had to deal with a court claim against me, but I know that among what you received was a form for you to provide a defence. You will have recieved this, so you ought to know this better than me!

Also, you were sued for money which you knew damn well you had paid. So you knew equally well that the agent was either incompetent or malicious. And a little bit of thought [or coming on here] would have told you that the agent would not drop the case or lift a finger to undo the damage to you because that would result in them losing their court fee.

Loving you more by the minute DVS - so coming on here for advice the OP would get valuable advice straight away and she could then go off and do it all by the book, right? :T More like she would end up being bombarded with useless questions that diverted from the real issue by the likes of you, and that is if she was lucky enough to escape good old simple mockery instead...
And may I add, for someone who has never

had to deal with a court claim against me

you seem to know rather a lot about it.
But than, you know rather too much about everything, right

SouthCoast wrote: »

Advice from CAB

Creditor takes you to court for debt.


http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/money_management_index_ew/action_your_creditor_can_take_index_ew/creditor_takes_you_to_court_for_debt.htm

Useful advice that is relevant to the OP question (take notice DVS!), which suggests that the EA didn't follow correct procedure as I gather from OP posts they haven't issued a warning letter about taking them to court before actually going ahead with it. When they should have.

tbs624 wrote: »

Whilst I absolutely agree with DVS's take on this in that the OP should have contacted the Court/sent in the defence straight away I would still write a formal complaint. OP - are they members of say NAEA, RICS etc?

Most EA will be a member of one of the 'regulating schemes' - be it TPO or NAEA etc. The EA website/office/stationary will normaly display the logo of the scheme they are a member of, or you could check the membership database of either scheme (check their websites) http://www.tpos.co.uk/
http://www.naea.co.uk/
Not sure about the NAEA but from my personal experience TPO requires you to have exhausted other avenues of complaining first - basically you need to have made a formal complaint to the EA in question and once they have sent you their final response if you are not happy with it you then proceed with complaint to TPO. And you should act now as there are time limits that need to be complied with, so don't leave it too late.

lita wrote: »

Are there any letter templates on here for such an occasion? I've found ones for goods and services but not ones for where the person you want to write has been a muppet?!

Oh no, lita, don't you know you are never ever ever ever ever to ask for a template letter here?! As any long standing forum member will tell you (you know who you are guys) such practical things are of no use to anyone.
For a recent example of a request for a template letter going sour see example here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3668959

You see providing you with a template letter would be sort of putting their money where their mouth is and that's a bit too much work, that would detract from more important stuff, such as mocking poor unsuspecting first timers. And as any such member know that's much more fun way to earn your 4 or 5 stars.

I have had to write a complaint to an EA myself recently (albeit from a buyer's standpoint) and would be happy to share the 'template' bits of that letter with you, but I am by no means an expert on the matter and with English not being my first language I'm sure you could probably do a better job yourself. I would have posted it here myself but I don't fancy my hard work being mocked by the above mentioned pack and also probably not best idea anyway because my my claim is still being dealt by TPO. But please feel free to PM me if you think my letter would be of any help and I'll share.

Good luck with your complaint.

DVardysShadow

newhome4us wrote: »

Loving you more by the minute DVS - so coming on here for advice the OP would get valuable advice straight away and she could then go off and do it all by the book, right? :T More like she would end up being bombarded with useless questions that diverted from the real issue by the likes of you, and that is if she was lucky enough to escape good old simple mockery instead...
And may I add, for someone who has never
you seem to know rather a lot about it.
But than, you know rather too much about everything, right



Useful advice that is relevant to the OP question (take notice DVS!), which suggests that the EA didn't follow correct procedure as I gather from OP posts they haven't issued a warning letter about taking them to court before actually going ahead with it. When they should have.



Most EA will be a member of one of the 'regulating schemes' - be it TPO or NAEA etc. The EA website/office/stationary will normaly display the logo of the scheme they are a member of, or you could check the membership database of either scheme (check their websites) http://www.tpos.co.uk/
http://www.naea.co.uk/
Not sure about the NAEA but from my personal experience TPO requires you to have exhausted other avenues of complaining first - basically you need to have made a formal complaint to the EA in question and once they have sent you their final response if you are not happy with it you then proceed with complaint to TPO. And you should act now as there are time limits that need to be complied with, so don't leave it too late.



Oh no, lita, don't you know you are never ever ever ever ever to ask for a template letter here?! As any long standing forum member will tell you (you know who you are guys) such practical things are of no use to anyone.
For a recent example of a request for a template letter going sour see example here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3668959

You see providing you with a template letter would be sort of putting their money where their mouth is and that's a bit too much work, that would detract from more important stuff, such as mocking poor unsuspecting first timers. And as any such member know that's much more fun way to earn your 4 or 5 stars.

I have had to write a complaint to an EA myself recently (albeit from a buyer's standpoint) and would be happy to share the 'template' bits of that letter with you, but I am by no means an expert on the matter and with English not being my first language I'm sure you could probably do a better job yourself. I would have posted it here myself but I don't fancy my hard work being mocked by the above mentioned pack and also probably not best idea anyway because my my claim is still being dealt by TPO. But please feel free to PM me if you think my letter would be of any help and I'll share.

Good luck with your complaint.

So where were you when OP needed help? And what help did you provide?

Looks like you are more interested in having a go at me than in actually helping OP.

newhome4us

DVardysShadow wrote: »

So where were you when OP needed help? And what help did you provide?

Looks like you are more interested in having a go at me than in actually helping OP.

Oh Gosh, let me think, I probably was living my life, you know the real one, outside in the real world. Some people actually do that as well, and don't spend all their waking hours online. You ought to try it sometimes, you might be pleasantly surprised, it might give you a whole new perspective

As for what help I provided, well you might want to read my post again, seems you missed it first time round :T

As for having a go at you, is that what I was doing? I thought I was just giving you a taste of your own medicine.


Have a good Xmas DVS, do try to venture out and get some fresh air! It might do you a world of good

DVardysShadow

newhome4us wrote: »

Oh Gosh, let me think, I probably was living my life, you know the real one, outside in the real world. Some people actually do that as well, and don't spend all their waking hours online. You ought to try it sometimes, you might be pleasantly surprised, it might give you a whole new perspective

As for what help I provided, well you might want to read my post again, seems you missed it first time round :T

As for having a go at you, is that what I was doing? I thought I was just giving you a taste of your own medicine.


Have a good Xmas DVS, do try to venture out and get some fresh air! It might do you a world of good

lita first post on this thread 1342 07:12:11
DVS first post on this tread 1534 07:12:11
newhome4us firstpost on this thread 1828 17:12:11

conclusion: you are posting for the sole purpose of having a go at me

prediction: more resurrected threads where you have a go at me and offer no help to OP yourself..

I am not the least bit better off for your insincere Christmas wishes.

edit: Your campaign has been going on since October. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...=#post47930615

googler

newhome4us wrote: »

Oh Gosh, let me think, I probably was living my life, you know the real one, outside in the real world. Some people actually do that as well, and don't spend all their waking hours online.

Stop stalking.

newhome4us

googler wrote: »

Stop stalking.

No need for stalking I can asure you. It is so difficult to escape DVardys posts and opinions anywhere on MSE forums that I'd say by definition he would be the one doing the stalking.

googler

There's folks on here who contribute, and there's folk who follow others around merely to contradict them. I think we can tell which category you're in. In terms of who's adding value, and contributing, here's a comparison ;

DVS -
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 13,769
Thanked 14,629 Times in 7,256 Posts (2.02 to 1)

You -
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 35
Thanked 8 Times in 7 Posts (1.14 to 1)