EA lying through his back teeth

James129

So I made a booking to view a house last week and made it clear to EA that I can only view a property on Monday(today) as I am out of town.

Well they called me on Friday last week and asked if I could come and see the property on that day as apparently there are 2 buyers going to view the house as well. I kind of immediately felt they were lying to create a false sense that house was attracting lot of interest.

Anyway I went to see the house today. EA said whilst showing me the house around that they have already received an offer from a buyer.

So now I get to home and receive another call that another offer has been made and I should be quick if I don't want to miss out.

Ok so I did a search on the house on mouseprice and nethouseprices and other sites and the house is leasehold. So I asked the EA what is ground rent + service charges if any and how many years of lease is left? Well at that time they became quiet on the phone and couldn't answer any of these questions.

So apparently they have received 2 offers from different buyers and none of them asked EA any questions regarding lease and ground rent. Which makes me think that no offers have been made because if the offers were genuine, EA should have already gotten hold of all the information.

Does anyone agree that they have not received any genuine offer yet?

kingstreet

They may have had no offers, but your logic in the leasehold situation doesn't necessarily draw one to that conclusion.

If the agent hasn't had verification of the remaining lease and service charges, they would probably say nothing, in preference to making an incorrect assertion and later having to pay for it.

katejo

kingstreet wrote: »

They may have had no offers, but your logic in the leasehold situation doesn't necessarily draw one to that conclusion.

If the agent hasn't had verification of the remaining lease and service charges, they would probably say nothing, in preference to making an incorrect assertion and later having to pay for it.

You might be right but I suspect that kingstreet has a point. I would NEVER make an offer on a leasehold property without knowing the length of the lease and service charges. Just tell the EA that you have no interest in the property without that info. If they fail to provide it, it looks fishy.

kingstreet

When the PMA was introduced, the firms I worked for started requesting such information in writing from the vendor's solicitor before they would release it to any potential purchaser.

AFAIK they still do that.

katejo

kingstreet wrote: »

When the PMA was introduced, the firms I worked for started requesting such information in writing from the vendor's solicitor before they would release it to any potential purchaser.

AFAIK they still do that.

So you are saying that any potential buyer of a leasehold property now has to make an offer without knowing the length of time on the lease? Does PMA refer to the info pack? I bought and sold my leasehold flat before info packs started.

m0bov

I would'nt even view a property until I knew the charges and length of lease, they never list them on the websites which is a pain, its the first thing I ask. I doubt they had other offers, they always pull that trick.

kingstreet

katejo wrote: »

So you are saying that any potential buyer of a leasehold property now has to make an offer without knowing the length of time on the lease? Does PMA refer to the info pack? I bought and sold my leasehold flat before info packs started.

No. Not necessarily. It no longer goes on the property particulars because the agent doesn't have the written details at the outset when the property first goes on the market. PMA is the Property Misdescriptions Act. Before that agents would say "we believe the property to be leasehold with 75 years remaining on the lease and we'd recommend potential purchasers make their own enquiries" or suchlike.

If the first offer takes a few weeks, or months, they've had adequate time to get a letter from the vendor's solicitor confirming these details and are in a position to pass them on.

If the first offer comes within a week or two of the property going on the market, it may be too soon for the information to have been obtained in a way which the agent feels its interests protected.

You are going to rely on the information supplied by the vendor's solicitor to your solicitor as the most legally reliable version, so making an offer based on this information (or subject to receipt of such information) seems preferable to taking the agent's word for it, later finding out they'd been mis-informed by the vendor.

Don't spend money on fees for the purchase until you're happy the answer is 100% correct if the solicitor hasn't confirmed the tenure or the details of the lease.

WhiteHorse

James129 wrote: »

So apparently they have received 2 offers from different buyers and none of them asked EA any questions regarding lease and ground rent. Which makes me think that no offers have been made because if the offers were genuine, EA should have already gotten hold of all the information. Does anyone agree that they have not received any genuine offer yet?

How do you market a property when you know nothing at all about it? The whole thing stinks.

katejo

WhiteHorse wrote: »

How do you market a property when you know nothing at all about it? The whole thing stinks.

Hopefully I will never buy a leasehold property again but, if I did, the length of the lease would be one of my first questions. I wouldn't waste any more time on the property if it had below 85-87 years left.