Connells free legal scheme scam.

Bagpus5

I'm a 1st time buyer and have had an offer accepted on a house but now have a problem due to the free legals rip off Connells are offering. Any help would be much appreciated.

When you make an offer on a house you expect that to be your offer. However with each offer through Connells an estate agent will always finish your sentence with free legals sir. My offer for instance was £180,000 the estate agent would then say free legals. This means you will get the property if accepted for £179,000. When I insisted I wanted my offer to the vendor be £180,000 I was told in that case sir your offer is £181,000. I must of said 20 times my offer is £180,000 and every single time the estate agent came over the top of me and said 181 free legals. Its hardly free if you have £1000 added to every offer that you want the vendor to receive. I got my Halifax mortgage advisor to listen to the conversation the next time I rang. When he intervened and tore apart the estate agent we were passed on to another who came out with the same drivel.

I agree to meet the connells mortgage broker despite having a mortgage and solicitor in place. They insist my offers will be beaten. I knew it was very unlikely but felt I should at least give them the opportunity. The Connells broker then took 2 hours of my life to come up with an offer that is over £3000 worse than my originals. Ah he says at the end we have to remember your £1000 free legals. I ask how exactly will the £1000 be given. I'm told no money will ever be given but the fact it has theoretically been saved we can theoretically take it from our solicitor offer to you. He then divides this imaginary £1000 into my mortgage repayments over two years and says I'm close to matching your mortgage. Later on he uses the same imaginary £1000 deducting it from the solicitor fees. We now have used the imaginary free legals £1000 twice! Even using the now imaginary £2000 we are still £1000 off my original offers. I decline to take the mortgage. The broker then leans over the table aggressively telling me the vendor has insisted I take the mortgage out with them. I refuse, the broker then informs me my offer in that case is £181,000!

I managed to find and meet the vendor, he was lovely. He also informed me he didn't care where the money came from as long as he got the accepted £180,000. He also said he would ask for the property to be removed from searches. I have progressed my mortgage at £180,00 Connells have since sent a letter and are insistent that the price is £181,000 and this is the vendors choice. More worryingly the letter also stated the vendor will not remove the property from the market. I don't to get gazumped and I don't believe any of this to be true. What do I do now? The vendor is some distance away, I also don't want to pester him every time these idiots cause a problem. I'm close to pulling out as they really have infuriated me at every turn.

Even more farcical I have to complain to Connells about their very own so called free legals scheme before taking it to the property ombudsmen.

Any help would be much appreciated.

jonewer

You made contact with the vendor, good!

Speak to the vendor again. Tell him to tell Connells to GTFO and !!!!!!.

You dont need to deal with the estate agents anymore anway. Its up to the you, the vendor and your respective solicitors now. The estate agents can go fart in a bottle and paint it.

G_M

1) pass the vendor's details, and his solicitors details, to your solicitor. Instruct him to proceeed on the basis of your £180K offer.

2) contact the vendor again and tell him what the EA is saying. Double check he is accepting your £180K offer and tell him you are proceding on that basis - give him your solicitor's details (and get his solicitor's if you do not have them

3) ignore the EA totally

DVardysShadow

Just drop a letter in to the vendor, copy to Connells, and leave any complaining to the vendor. Keep a copy to pass to your solicitor in the event that you do strike a deal.

Connells' behaviour here is disgraceful - unacceptable, even, but they are not your Estate Agent, they are the Vendor's Estate Agent - he pays them and it is his choice as to what to do.

I assume that you would not touch Connells free legals or their mortgage services with a bargepole [and I would strongly advise you as buyer to reject out of hand any financial or legal services offered by the seller's estate agent] and I suggest you write along these lines


Dear Vendor,

I refer to our recent discussion on Connells' handling of my offer on your property and their injection of a fee for what they misleadingly describe as 'free legals' by advising my offer to you as a figure lower than the actual offer I make to you.

I would confirm that I do not require these so called 'free legals' and I would also confirm that I understand that you will only consider offers on the basis that the 'free legals' are not paid for from the offer you accept.

Since our conversation, I reluctantly agreed to meet Connells' 'mortgage advisor' <MAname>. <MAname> was unable to offer a mortgage comparable with the offers I had, so I declined his services. At this <MAname> leaned aggressively over the table telling me you as vendor have insisted I take the mortgage out with Connells. When I refused again, he said that my offer had now to be £181,000 rather than the £180,000 which from our conversation I understand is an offer acceptable to yourself.

For the sake of clarity, I would reiterate that my offer to you for purchase of <address> is £180,000 which is subject to survey and contract. I will not be taking legal or mortgage services from Connells, nor making further allowance for these beyond the £180,000 offered. All fees due to Connells will be your responsibility - and I would suggest that as I am not taking legal or mortgage services, there should be no fee due from you either relating to provision of services to me as buyer.

I understand that my offer is acceptable to you and that you are instructing Connells to cease marketing - however, subsequent to meeting you, Connells have told me that the property will remain marketed. Would you kindly insist that Connels withdraw <address> form the market, and confirm that my offer is accepted at £180,000 whereupon I will immediately instruct surveys to be conducted.

Finally, I must express deep dissatisfaction with the way your agent has treated me and I must ask you to keep a tight rein on them in holding to this deal and ceasing to attempt to chisel additional fees from me as buyer. The deal is contingent upon Connells complying strictly with this requirement.

Yours sincerely

<Bagpuss5>

leeelw

as a ex estate agent i agree with these comments...

an agent can advise / recommend financial and legals BUT they cannot dictate who you use

these actions are scandalous and give the industry the tag it deserves from people acting like this.

keep your rapport with the vendor, check that connells are not re-advertising through your local rag & internet.

also ask your vendor to keep a tab of all conversations, no reason why you cannot deal with this through your solicitors, the property ombudsman is the route for complaints, i am shocked this branch is acting like this after-all they are a national company with a lot at stake.

further complaints can be made to their regional manager who is higher up than the branch manager

do what you feel is right, i am sorry you are having these experiences and the comment of telling them to "gfts" is on the right lines

Dave_Ham

As a broker I deal with many Estate Agents and can state that Connells are the hardest work.

Luckily I do not have one locally, although whenever I pick up work elsewhere and they are involved, they put up every obstacle possible.

I am actually unsure why anyone engages them..

OP - do not spite yourself and the vendor by pulling out, as suggested above, write to both vendor and agent and copy in solicitors and then let them handle it...

All the best

Bagpus5

Thank you guys I really appreciate you taking the time to mail me back.

I left a letter with the vendor asking for help this morning and clarification. He rang me this evening apparently reluctantly but felt it was the right thing to do as I seem like a nice guy. I am sure they have pressed him not to talk to me again after I caught them out over a number of issues regarding the sale.

Connells informed him he was due the extra £1000 late this week as I refused there mortgage and solicitor offer. He then told me he was over the moon at getting this extra £1000 as in his words he thought the price had been agreed and the fees Connells are charging him are incredibly expensive. I offered to meet him half way despite the original offer now being broken and he said I would have to take it up with Connells. He then rightly pointed out that he is paying them a lot of money to do this work and we shouldn't really be talking at all.
The vendor agreed with me the property should of been removed from the market but Connells had insisted to him that it should stay on as I could pull out at any time, this was especially true as I hadn't used their solicitor and mortgage provider. They are acting in my interest Bagpus5 he said so I have to trust them.

I appreciated him ringing me as he really didn't have to but I've now lost my only bargaining chip with the estate agent barring pulling my offer completely. He is I guess rightly pleased with this extra £1000 despite me obviously being unhappy. As annoying as this £1000 legal fees scam is my biggest worry is still the fact that the house will not be removed from the market, there is nothing stopping someone adding £1000 to my offer and him being over the moon again!

I feel completely snookered.

leeelw

don't cut your nose to spite your face

in my opinion, connells are entirely wrong to tell the vendor he has another £1000. maybe they should reduce thier fee to accommodate this ?

never lose a house you love over a £1k but do stick to your guns a bit

ALL offers must be notified to all parties in writing within 48 hours, I would follows Dvardyshadows advice and write a letter that your offer is £..............and this is on the condition that the house is removed from the market.

do not fall for scare mongering tactics, if you have entered into a agreed verbal agreement for the price, I would back this up by spending money on sol's & mortgage, and INSIST the property is removed from the market - based on the fact you have spent money, which is your statement of intent

the final decision is down to the vendor, connells are advising him based on you not using their services, the fact you are not using them means they cannot keep a "so-called" track of the sale, however, by spending the required fee's and getting your people to ring the agent to advise they have been instructed on your behalf, then this should eliviate such nonsense

keep a track of all correspondence, good luck

SmlSave

Hi bagpus, i was wondering why you think that you and the seller shouldnt talk to each other? As long as anything you agree is then told to your solicitor then theres no problem.

Yes its annoying (very) to pay an ea when they dont seem to be doing their job but sometimes it is easier to bypass them.

AFK_Matrix

SmlSave wrote: »

Hi bagpus, i was wondering why you think that you and the seller shouldnt talk to each other? As long as anything you agree is then told to your solicitor then theres no problem.

Yes its annoying (very) to pay an ea when they dont seem to be doing their job but sometimes it is easier to bypass them.

If I am reading Bagpus5's post correctly then it is the Vendor who thinks he shouldn't be speaking with Bagpus5. I can probably bet £500 that Connells have told the vendor it's wrong to speak to Bagpus5 as any lies Connells make can be scuppered by talking to the vendor!!

propertyman

Were they trying to say that you only get "free legals" for offers on any property over £180K?

On the occasions where an agent has handled a property in this manner, and you get an inkling when you first deal with them,
we will make a second or third viewing and make an offer to the owners, and provide them with the funding letter and solicitors details, and the name of our surveyor and her firm who would do the valuation and inspection. That way 2 mins on Google and they can see that the firms are reputable and not a shed on an industrial estate or Beth, who is really Shamina, in Mumbai.

We then leave it to them to contact us or have their agent do so, but in the latter case we are only going to discuss price . If they attempt to sell legal or mortgage services or make that conditional to the offer being considered, the offer is withdrawn.