Are you allowed to mention negligent EAs on this site?

Propertyfan

I don't want to breach any forum rules by posting the name but I had a particularly crappy experience with mine and I'd love to warn people to avoid them at all costs!

If you're not really supposed to make posts like that here, fair enough, I understand.

Dan-Dan

I have seen enough posts where people slag off named conveyencers and estate agents , i`d crack on if i were you

ognum

I can remember a post a while back where the poster had to issue an apology because they were taken to court for a defamatory post on here!

I think and it is only my thoughts not a legal opinion that if you say what happened to you without generalisation and state what you say is your opinion you should be OK.

Over to you!

RAS

State the facts of what happened ( and ensure you have evidence) and avoid a rant and abusive emotive language.

Propertyfan

The estate agency is Winkworth in London. I won't give the exact branch location because I'm a nice guy and I don't want to cause them further embarrassment. All I will say is they didn't tell me the buyer needed to get a mortage when he actually did need one.

I found an email accidentally 'forwarded' underneath an email sent to me. It was from one of Winkworth's agents (the person responsible for showing the buyer around my home) saying "I will inform the vendor (me!) of the change in your (the buyer) mortgage plans." And she didn't inform me.

They wasted six-seven weeks deliberately withholding the information about his need to get a mortgage. I think his mortgage application was not approved. He needed a drawdown mortgage (not sure how that works) but he wanted a rent-to-buy mortgage. He pulled out of the purchase the *day after* I sent back the *signed contract* to buy my new home. Horrendous timing. My solicitor has the signed contract but she is not going to implement it because it's now null and void.

Winkworth. WINKWORTH. They're not worth a wink. Please avoid them. They are time wasters and of dubious moral and professional character.

richardw

Propertyfan wrote: »

...They are .. of dubious moral and professional character.

They're highly qualified to be Estate Agents then.

moneyistooshorttomention

Try posting a review of this EA on:

www.allagents.co.uk

I checked out a particularly bad EA chain of agents on there the other day to see what the reviews about them said and there were a few good reviews and then there were all the others (about 80% of them) slating them to heck and back.

I wasn't in the slightest bit surprised at the bad reviews.

That particular chain drove me to distraction every time I encountered any of them, with their fake smiles and their absolute determination not to give me a straight answer to any of my questions.

I finally managed to get told by a friend just what their charge was and it turned out to be twice what I am paying my EA and I checked out their EPC charge and it turned out to be about 3 times what I paid for mine. The level of charges on its own would have made me think twice about them (IF I had ever been able to get that information out of them...:cool:) and then there were the comments about level of service (or otherwise....) that they provide.

On the other hand, the EA I use has got loads of positively glowing reviews, along the "go the extra mile" type line and I would choose them again and have been amused to note that their "for sale" boards are starting to sprout around my little area and I know some of the neighbourhood were watching progress with great interest and am wondering if they then decided to choose the same one.

moneyistooshorttomention

richardw wrote: »

They're highly qualified to be Estate Agents then.

Not necessarily true of all of them. I have the feeling that my EA wouldn't let their vendors "get up to shenanigans" if they wanted to (which I don't).

That suited me, as I felt my buyer would be much more likely to trust me to do what I've said I'd do, with having picked up the impression that their vendors don't get much choice in the matter by the sound of it...:rotfl: and there wouldn't be likely to be mistrust problems with them wondering if I'd be out to gazump them or anything and it should all go much more smoothly as a consequence (and I knew prospective purchasers were being told not to "try anything on or else" in return by my EA). I was more than a little amused to get told that prospective purchasers were being told "Don't even try and gazunder our vendor or you are history" in pretty much those words...

Propertyfan

Can you imagine all the legal cases if EA were paid upfront! I did pay for the Energy Performance Certificate but the money went to the company doing that service, it didn't go to the EA.

Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, but withholding vital information is a big no-no. The sad thing is had I been told about the mortgage or the information been sent to my solicitor I wouldn't have cared. It's not as if I had a no-mortgage buyer policy (I doubt such a thing exists!). The price of London property is so high you have to be very rich or have a high value house to sell to avoid a mortgage.

It's very dangerous for prospective buyers to play Mr Big Shot and try to convince the vendor they have the money, the full amount. In my case the buyer's arrogance or whatever compelled him to be dishonest or to mislead, and it came back to haunt him. I would never dream of buying a property and pretend I didn't need a mortgage when I did need one. I think he was dishonest about his finances because he wanted the property and he felt I might have gone with a non-mortgage buyer. The fact was he was the only person to make an offer! He was the only one so if he lied to beat the opposition, well, he sure screwed it up! There were no other offers.