Estate agent lying about completion date

bluebelles

Hi

Myself and my partner are first time buyers. At the moment we rent and have to give a month's notice. We are buying from an elderly lady who is moving to her daughter's, so it is a relatively easy buy/sell.

All searches have been done and deposit paid. We are almost at the time when we can exchange, after a few final things which need to be done.

I received a telephone call from the estate agent on 9th Dec. He said to me "we are thinking of exchanging today or tomorrow". I thought this was ridiculous as I had not heard anything from our solicitor. He then asked us when we wanted to complete, and that the vendor wishes to be out by 20th December (which seemed very quick). We then spoke to our landlord that evening and he said we have to pay up until the end of January, which is fine. So ideally we did not want to move out until end of January. I then called the estate agent on 10th Dec explaining this, and he pretty much said that we needed to be in by 20th as that is when the vendor is arranging to stop all her bills. I then contacted my solicitor again, who contacted the vendor's solicitor. It then became apparent that the vendor had the impression that it was US that wanted to be in the flat by 20th Dec. This left me feeling furious that the estate agent had lied to both of us. The vendor had then panicked and started to pack her belongings into boxes, and had arranged to stop her payments because she was told by the EA that the completion date would fall on 20th.

We are now coming to the agreement that we won't complete until end of January which suits us both.

I am still very angry at the EA for manipulating us both, seeing as we are vulnerable first time buyers and she is an elderly lady.

I now know that arranging a completion date has NOTHING to do with the EA and I expect he just wanted his pay before Christmas. He doesn't know yet that I have sussed him out so I expect more forceful calls from him today.

Is this worthy of a complaint, or just estate agent standard lying practice??

Thanks.

KennyH1

Yes you could complain but what would you get at the end? An apology from the EA? Maybe.


Like you said, the EA has nothing to do with the completion dates apart from holding the keys for the property so I would always talk with your solicitor.

PasturesNew

EA trying to make sure his commission gets into the figures before the end of the year.

princeofpounds

Given you are in direct conversation with the vendor, I would ignore it for now if the EA does not press it. Consider a written complaint afterwards if you like.

If they do press it, that is when I would confront it. Tell them that you are in direct contact with the vendor, and that their continued misrepresetation of the vendors position is making them look really unprofessional in the eyes of both parties.

Sounds like the EA is desperate to get it in their year-end figures. Maybe they will lose their bonus/job if they don't hit a target. Maybe they have had such a good year they get a really high incremental bonus from each additional sale.

But it's all really irrelevant in many ways. The only thing that matters is communication with the vendor.