Estate agent lying & saying viewings unavailable...why?!

hamster2013

agents keep certain properties 'under' their belt for 'exclusive' customers

i have had instances known where agents have accepted 'bribes' to give viewings ONLY to one buyer in a given street - it was a 'win-win' situation, where the agent made some money and the buyer got the property for rock bottom...

obviously, the anti-bribery investigation means that they will both be in much trouble and financial difficulties when convicted (if convicted)

GirlWonder

moromir wrote: »

What are the opening times on their website?

If they're 9 - 5.30 then they are doing a special one off to accomodate you and noone had told the girl on the telephone.

I presume you work a 9 - 5 job, how would you feel about being asked to trek back in to work during your evening?

Sorry I didn't make this clearer in my OP... Basically they told the vendor they do viewings n weekends and evenings and have then turned people away during the times they said they could market her property.

They are not doing a one-off, but what they said they did all along to the vendor... Just not anybody who calls to view! We have no idea what's in it for this agent but looking online they have a bad rep and half the time don't turn up to viewings that they have arranged.

So frustrating!

GirlWonder

reehsetin wrote: »

Did you tell the owner about this also?
I'd be fuming :mad:

I know! If I was paying them tha huge charges they get for sticking a property on rightmove I would be a cross they weren't putting in the work to rent out my property.

We haven't told owner that. Se is obviously now aware what kind of agent she has and we've given her our contact details. I had expected her just to change agent but if she's happy and knows what they're like then that's all we can do...

Plus if we rent the propert we need a good relationship with the agent

Tancred

I've dealt with an agent who consistently said he could not contact the owner. Then I learned that - miraculously - the house had been sold! Typical slimy, underhand and dishonest tactics that you come to expect from these people. Most agents have a list of preferred clients who pay them a retainer to get 'first bite of the apple'. That's the way it works when demand is high and properties few and far between. It's just the way the game is played.

Almo

Love to know who the agent is, we are renting in Chester (and it was tough enough to get a rental when we weren't working and could view any time) and are currently looking to buy, and finding it frustrating.

olly300

As long as you have the owners details then in theory you should have no problem renting the property.

If the agents don't do repairs etc in a timely manner then you just contact the owner directly.

vikingtraveller

changing home in chester are absolutely terrible, went to view one address, landlady never even showed up, rang LA and they didn't care, saw another property with them to let and rung up, and the excuse i got was "the tenant is away until next week, but if you leave your number we will ring you monday to arrange a viewing" well monday came and went with no phonecall, but i found a flat now anyway with a private landlord, letting agents need to realise they are working for the landlord, not the landlord working for them

harry66

Tancred wrote: »

Most agents have a list of preferred clients who pay them a retainer to get 'first bite of the apple'.

Retainer? You make it sound legal and above board...Surely the word bung would be more appropriate?:eek:

We have had similar experience when trying to buy a property - just cannot get a viewing for certain properties. Both my wife and I tried independently but kept getting rubbish excuses.

One of the parent's of my son's classmate, admitted to my wife once that they managed to secure their current house by paying the estate agent a retainer to filter out offers higher bidders...The vendor was abroad - apparently inherited the property and just wanted it sold. Based on the price she claims to have bought it for I reckon the vendor got at least 10-15% below the market value - which for a 4 bed house in East London was a fair amount to lose!

GirlWonder

Almo wrote: »

Love to know who the agent is, we are renting in Chester (and it was tough enough to get a rental when we weren't working and could view any time) and are currently looking to buy, and finding it frustrating.

Cavendish rental (aka cavendish ikin) are the ones we're struggling with... Fingers crossed they're good from here on in ...

We have had better experiences with town and country and also minchin fellows.

We don't think any agent (so far) in chester works as hard as they should... And experiences in East Yorkshire, brighton, Northampton and Winchester have all been sooooo much better than agents in chester. We think maybe because they're all rubbish that nobody needs to up their game to compete.

Good luck with your buy, what areas are you looking at? We found nothing onthearket right now so that's the only reason we're thinking of renting.

GirlWonder

vikingtraveller wrote: »

changing home in chester are absolutely terrible, went to view one address, landlady never even showed up, rang LA and they didn't care, saw another property with them to let and rung up, and the excuse i got was "the tenant is away until next week, but if you leave your number we will ring you monday to arrange a viewing" well monday came and went with no phonecall, but i found a flat now anyway with a private landlord, letting agents need to realise they are working for the landlord, not the landlord working for them

Glad it's not just us thinking chester has awful agents. Worst we've come across in the country so far...

In other areas when the vendor is away the agent does the viewing... In fact it's been the norm to have agents do ALL viewings in Northampton.

We've had that too... Vendor is away and we don't have a key/don't do viewings ourselves. Ridiculous... It's what they're paid for, right?! We're even considering sale and altricham (south west manchester) because the agents are so much more helpful, lol.

I can see an end to high street agents if they don't pull their socks up... I sounded like my mum saying that!!