APT Fee of £250 to stop showing a bought house?

misssarahleigh

I was informed

Yes the only circumstances where the reservation fee would not be returned to you is if you were to withdraw from the sale. If the vendor withdraws or the survey fails you would be refunded the £250. The reservation fee basically stops any other viewings or offers being put forward on the property so you can’t be outbid.

ValHaller

misssarahleigh wrote: »

I was informed

Yes the only circumstances where the reservation fee would not be returned to you is if you were to withdraw from the sale. If the vendor withdraws or the survey fails you would be refunded the £250. The reservation fee basically stops any other viewings or offers being put forward on the property so you can’t be outbid.

Surveys do not 'fail' or even 'pass'. They just have varying degrees of goodness and badness. Unless the property is so terrible that a mortgage would not be granted. This leaves the £250 as a too open ended gift to the agent.

In your place, I would not be paying the £250 and I would be making it plain I was not having a survey done until it was off the market

DRP

misssarahleigh wrote: »

I was informed

Yes the only circumstances where the reservation fee would not be returned to you is if you were to withdraw from the sale. If the vendor withdraws or the survey fails you would be refunded the £250. The reservation fee basically stops any other viewings or offers being put forward on the property so you can’t be outbid.

there is so much grey area in those t&cs that they could keep your money in almost any situation.

Surely no reputable EA goes through such machinations in order to make the buyer demonstrate their commitment.

Ridiculous!

timbo58

EA taking the pee IMHO: I'd let them know that in no uncertain terms.

Whether this practice is widespread or not I neither know nor care, its dead wrong.

Frankly I'd be so annoyed to even be asked* I'd probably state UNLESS the EA took the house off the market I'd withdraw my offer and ensure the vendor knew why!

I realise that you get vendors and buyers less than 'realistic' and they must be nightmare for a decent EA, however those are very much the minority and it's high time EAs refused to accept them!

Let them sod off to the 'we'll pay you 50% of the houses actual worth' people.



*(I have noticed Victor Meldrew tendencies creeping in since I passed 45 it must be admitted!)

DRP

timbo58 wrote: »

*(I have noticed Victor Meldrew tendencies creeping in since I passed 45 it must be admitted!)

it was 35 for me!

Riggster

timbo58 wrote: »

Frankly I'd be so annoyed to even be asked* I'd probably state UNLESS the EA took the house off the market I'd withdraw my offer and ensure the vendor knew why!

This!!!

Your offer is conditional on marketing of the property ceasing! Write a letter to the EA stating this and post a copy through the vendor's door too.

Why don't they give YOU a £250 deposit refundable on completion....

StuC75

If the vendor withdraws then you should get £250 at the least then.. This agreement is weighted too much in the vendors favour!

What does the Survey Fails means? does that give you a window of opportunity to pull out and have it returned? or is it implying that if you then wanted to renegotiate then you would be £250 down as that would be you then pulling out of the sale..

misssarahleigh wrote: »

I was informed

Yes the only circumstances where the reservation fee would not be returned to you is if you were to withdraw from the sale. If the vendor withdraws or the survey fails you would be refunded the £250. The reservation fee basically stops any other viewings or offers being put forward on the property so you can’t be outbid.

MobileSaver

misssarahleigh wrote: »

Estate agents are telling me I have to pay £250 to remove the house from the market (especially as they have it booked to view on Friday).

Call me stupid,

I'll call you stupid if you pay it! :rotfl:

Taking the house off the market should have been part of your offer being accepted. If they have accepted your offer then why are they allowing further bookings?

From what you have said so far you have every chance of losing £250 through no fault of your own. There are 101 reasons why you may decide to pull out and many of them may well be because of something the EA or seller stated that later turns out to be untrue...

Brock_and_Roll

This is just another reason to loathe estate agents!

I still have not come to terms with the fact that in the 21st century with all the technology we have to hand we still have to pay some unqualified wide-boys 2% of a property's price to say "this is the bathroom, this is the garden etc" and slap a poorly worded advert on Rightmove!

Mind you, having recently paid £35k to a commercial estae agent, I can confirm that they are even worse, albeit with posher accents and a minor public school educations!

I live in hope.....

eddddy

Hi misssarahleigh

You've probably gathered that quite a few people aren't impressed by the EA's request for a deposit.

Please don't be offended by this, but I suspect the EA only asks for a deposit from people he thinks might pay it. Perhaps that's only people with less experience in the property market.

Perhaps they wouldn't dare ask an experienced buyer.

The letter you quote isn't really a contract or t&cs, it's something that an EA knocked up in 5 mins.

If you want to avoid confrontation, you could say something like "send me a copy of the deposit agreement, so I can check that my solicitor is happy with it" - and when the EA's excuses follow, keep insisting that your solicitor must see it before you sign/pay.