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Is it worth suing my estate agent for lack of service

We were very disappointed by the lack of service delivered from our estate agent to sell our house from start to finish. This agent is one of the high street leading estate agents.

Our reasons to consider to pay less are as follows.

Most of the hard work was done by us including editing the main description as on several attempts they got incorrect information and wording in the sales particulars to sell our property. Also the photos were not advertised on a number of occasions on Rightmove correctly. They did email us to say they appreciated us helping them with these matters.

After several weeks of advertising there have been no calls or emails from them to us, to say how the sale is proceeding and when we rang up there was not always a call or email back by any agent. Very poor communication .The sales agent said that someone would always ring back and they did not do this for several days until we called and chased them up. There were always long silences and we always had to do the ringing which added to our personal costs. No courtesy calls at all. We were promised all of this at signing of contracts but yet nothing.

Only one of the viewings were accompanied by the sales agent even though we specifically requested that all viewings needed to be fully accompanied at start of contract due to having children and dogs in the house. The rest of the viewings were done by us.

Emails and calls were not replied to at final stages of sale when we most needed to resolve issues in the chain below and above leaving us frustrated.

After the sale went through we felt that the agents did not want to know us as the sale deal was completed even though contracts were not exchanged with our buyer and our buyer was nearly about to pull out. We had to resolve all the issues directly ourselves with the other agents in the chain and do most of the sale chase.
We felt this was very unprofessional. We felt like we were left to ourselves with very minimal support right from start to end. there was no sales chasers even supporting us .

This is not what we signed up with this agent and this is not the service we expected . The service was very inadequate and poor.

Due to all these factors and due to the poor lack of service we have made decision to consider in paying a partial payment as we think this is only fair on our behalf as the service has been near to nothing.

I just want to ask what are the chances we have if we make only a partial payment . Will we succeed if we do not pay their final commission in full as I feel that they do not deserve this as we have done all the hard work . Obviously there is the chance of them taking us to Court. But I can justify matters if they do so.

Would it be worthwhile writing to the Ombudsman or is there a separate place we can say that we are not going to pay their full commission ? is it worth contacting the local head office and saying we are going to only make less pay . Has anyone with- held their final fees and succeeded. Please can anyone advise

Comments

  • beecher2
    beecher2 Posts: 3,677 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    In my opinion, you wanted a sale and you got a sale. Fundamentally, that's what you pay for. You may feel you got a poor service, but I'm not sure how you could show you've been impacted by this, other than by being put out a bit. If you were so upset about doing viewings yourself, you should've refused to do them - may well have meant that the buyer wouldn't have viewed your house if accompanied viewing times weren't suitable for him/her, so that's something to ponder.

    Rather than wanting to back out of an agreement, why not be thankful that you've sold your house?
  • ACG
    ACG Posts: 24,009 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper I've helped Parliament
    Write a letter of complaint asking for them to investigate the matter and that you would like compensation for the lack of help they offered at a stressful time which you believe you were paying for.

    Give them the evidence, emails, phonebills highlighting where you had to call them.

    I wouldnt go to court as im not sure what you would get and whether it would be worth the hassle of going through court but a letter of complaint wont do them any harm the office in question might get a kick up the backside.
    I am a Mortgage Adviser
    You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a mortgage adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.
  • kingstreet
    kingstreet Posts: 38,972 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    More than likely, your contract states the agreed fee will be payable if they "find you a buyer in a position to proceed to unconditional exchange of contracts."

    Have they done that?

    All the stuff you say is fair, but most of it isn't in the contract you signed. For example, agents only "sales chase" after agreeing a sale to get their fee as quickly as they can.
    I am a mortgage broker. You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice. Please do not send PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.
  • dimbo61
    dimbo61 Posts: 13,726 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Sorry to hear you had a crap service from an estate agent what a surprise.
    We had great service last time from a local firm.
    managed to reduce the commission they charged because others offered a lower rate and they were keen to sale our property.
    Well we signed on the dotted line and HI HO viewing the very next day!
    House sold in 12 hoiurs as buyer wanted to move onto that estate and the estate agent was £2500 richer .
    Had not printed house details or board outside house or any advertising so not bad work if you can get it.
    You have sold the property and you can move on with your life.
    By all means write a letter of complaint but dont be surprised if you get no joy as they have your money
  • You could also ask the soliciitor that dealt with your sale if they feel the estate agents "helped" your sale more or less than other sales. Kingstreet is right, you need to check your contract.

    Things like accompanied viewings should have been dealt with when they did not accompany the viewing not now after the sale has gone through. The sales particulars are put together by the estate agent but it is the sellers responsibility to make sure they are correct.

    I'm afraid it sounds as if you had a lazy agent. If they are a major high street name you could go to the head office with the complaint. You may not get any financial satisfaction but they will "pay" for theirs sins when their regional sales director gets on their case. Especially if you support your complaint with all the evidence as ACG recommends.
  • Phil_rich
    Phil_rich Posts: 270 Forumite
    You dont stand a chance of getting any money back as the contract was to sell your house and they did that, if your that upset by how they performed then I suppose you could name and shame.

    If you go to a restraunt and have to call the waiter over twice and then wait 40 mins for your food do you expect to have it free or half price? No.
    --- Fat club weight loss -- Started 10th April 2015
    Update: 28.4.15 - 8lbs
  • I would not withhold funds as this is essentially fining them. You don't really have the authority to do that. Unless you can find specific points where they clearly and specifically breached the terms of their contract, then you probably haven't got much hope of getting money back, but first port of call is to complain in writing and specify what compensation you would like. If you don't get anywhere (and assuming you have something in contract that you can use) then it'll probably be you and them and the joyful legal system to sort it out.

    My guess is the better option would be to just be sure you tell family and friends what a shoddy outfit they are. Bad news and reviews spread. ;)
    "So long and thanks for all the fish" :hello:
  • des123
    des123 Posts: 63 Forumite
    oh yes I will be writing a letter of complaint. Even going to regional manager. I will make sure that happens. What I
    I do not understand is that we have to suffer because of their incompetency.What gets to me is a lot of their clients have said the same thing and no one stands up because the contract says so. Yes they did sell our house but if that what was agreed to do I could have done this
  • des123 wrote: »
    oh yes I will be writing a letter of complaint. Even going to regional manager. I will make sure that happens. What I
    I do not understand is that we have to suffer because of their incompetency.What gets to me is a lot of their clients have said the same thing and no one stands up because the contract says so. Yes they did sell our house but if that what was agreed to do I could have done this

    I'm not sure in what way you have actually suffered? Yes, you've gone to a lot of trouble to sell your house, and get the best price, but that's no more than anyone would do.


    I do feel your pain; I had an estate agent promise me we'd have a sale within 6 weeks. On their advice, we'd paid out £1000 we didn't really have on general tarting up and a new bathroom (it was a lovely suite but cream, they told us to put a white one in). This was done to maximise the value of the house so we didn't mind as it would have been returned in the sale. Things started out promising but they basically overpriced us and sat back waiting for the buyers to roll in when, blatantly, the market conditions did not lend themselves to that style of "hands off" marketing. 4 months later, the viewings had dried up and, even though we were ready to drop the price, they were still advising us not to. Company went bust a few weeks later so we "got out" of the contract by default. A blessing in disguise because we opted not to move in the end but it still cost us the money for work we would not have had done (and I now have a horrible bath because we put a cheap one in. :p )

    Your main points of contention would be anything specific that they failed to do that was written in the contract. i.e. the accompanying the viewer, or regular contact or, not listing it in paper/on property websites. I suspect that the contract terms on this are suitably vague as to mean they have covered there backsides and you have no recourse.

    That doesn't mean you shouldn't complain though. Be specific though and hopefully they will take it on board and improve so nobody else has the hassle.
    "So long and thanks for all the fish" :hello:
  • bigadaj
    bigadaj Posts: 11,531 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Estate agents can be a law to themselves and it is often questionable what value they add, I always found it odd that there was a rend to DIY conveyancing, I'm no fan of lawyers but the fees for this are far smaller than that for ea, and they take the responsibility.

    The only practical thing you can do is not use them again and recommend others do the same, if they can't offer a decent service then people should take their custom elsewhere and this company will die a slow death.
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