Estate Agent Fees reduction for poor service?

mrnomoneybags

Hi All,

We are due to complete on selling our house on the 28th Feb and I just received the statement from the solicitors and I am really not happy with paying the estate agent the full amount.

We accepted the offer on the property in October last year, the estate agent not check the buyer had a mortgage in place because he has bought several properties through them. This obviously caused a huge delay while he then got his finances in order but this was not filtered through to us straight away.

This and basically them not doing there jobs, chasing the buyer feeding information back to us, and at points even telling lies and we have this in emails too.

Where do I stand on withholding payment and trying to negotiate a lower fee?

Many thanks

SmlSave

You can instruct your solicitor not to pay and say that you will do it direct. And then negotiate (or simply refuse to pay) with the estate agent.


If you manage to negotiate a price you agree with before completion then you can always instruct your solicitor to pay the new fee.

hazyjo

It is not up to the EA to check the buyer has a mortgage in place. In fact, how can they have a mortgage in place before they start buying?! It's not until they find somewhere that they can apply for one!

If EAs didn't get paid because they told lies, they'd probably all quit the profession.

Some people rarely have any communication with their EAs once the buying process has started. Some are on the phone daily. Did the buyer need much chasing? How do you know they didn't chase them? Are you presuming that as the buyer didn't speed things up?

Personally, I'd go with 'no chance' for any fee negotiation!

Jx

kingstreet

Have you raised your dissatisfaction with the agent's service at any time prior to the draft completion statement being issued?

On your contract with the agent, what is the agent's responsibility to you in meeting its contractual obligation?

Is there anything more than "introduce a ready willing and able purchaser, able to proceed to unconditional exchange of contracts?"

Flugelhorn

I reckon there would be plenty of people who feel that the EA has not done a good job and would like to pay them less!

I must say last time I sold a house I was v impressed by the solicitor and utterly fed up with the agent - must have been galling for the solicitor paying the EA fee and knowing it was so much more than their own.

googler

Flugelhorn wrote: »

I must say last time I sold a house I was v impressed by the solicitor and utterly fed up with the agent - must have been galling for the solicitor paying the EA fee and knowing it was so much more than their own.

Why?

The solicitor remains in their office and does paperwork. They don't go out canvassing for business, the business typically comes to them. They don't spend (hardly) any time with anyone who doesn't pay them. If a house sale falls through, many times things won't have progressed to the stage where the solicitor is involved, so it won't waste any of the solicitor's time.

The EAs are typically required to participate in a bidding process whereby three or more must visit the prospective seller's home and bid against others for their business. Once this is done, the home must be visited again for photos etc. The EA spends on marketing the home, in terms of high-street advertising, press, Rightmove, Zoopla, etc. Once viewers are interested, the EA spends time with viewers who don't turn up, viewers who don't buy, and all other manner of 'general public'. Essentially, the EA spends most of their time with people who don't pay them. If the EA is in London, then as far as I can gather, the EA is expected to drive viewers to and from their office and the viewings. If the sale falls through, typically through no fault of the EA, all the money the EA has spent up to that point isn't recoverable from anyone, and the hole in the finances has to be plugged from the fees gathered on the successful sales.

Please tell us why you think the EA and Solicitor should be on equal fee terms, if that's what you're suggesting?

googler

Tomlewis007 wrote: »

Where do I stand on withholding payment and trying to negotiate a lower fee?

What does your contract say about how and when their fee is due? Is there any performance-related component to their fee?

mrnomoneybags

Thanks for all your feedback.

The contact states they will introduce a party who can exchange contracts.

I guess I can argue he was not able to exchange contracts when they introduced him.

I asked the question about them checking any buyers finances and they confirmed its something they do.

We where so unhappy with the lack of support for the estate agent that we where going to move and got quotes from others and they where £1000+ cheaper. We only stuck with them because after 3+ months the buyer finally got his mortgage offer in place.

In terms of marketings and showing people around they actually actively pushed us to show people around and in the end I believe we only had 3 viewings.

G_M

Tomlewis007 wrote: »

Thanks for all your feedback.

The contact states they will introduce a party who can exchange contracts.

I guess I can argue he was not able to exchange contracts when they introduced him.
:rotfl:NO buyer is able to Exchange Contracts at the point th EA initially introduces them to the seller. :rotfl:

I asked the question about them checking any buyers finances and they confirmed its something they do.
But is it something they are contracted to do?

And as hazyjo syas, a buyer cannot apply for a mortgage till he has found a property and agreed a price - the price & addess have to go on the application form.

Normally the EA is contracted to find a buyer. If the buyer is 'ready and willing to buy' then they are due their fee (so if YOU withdraw, they still get paid because they found you a buyer).

They often do many other things (price negotiation, holding keys for surveyors, chasing either/both parties etc) but this is for their benefit, since it is in their interests to get the deal to Exchange, otherwise they don't get paid. I doubt these activities are actually contractual - but read your contract.

Thrugelmir

Tomlewis007 wrote: »

In terms of marketings and showing people around they actually actively pushed us to show people around and in the end I believe we only had 3 viewings.

Because you accepted an offer presumably.

mrnomoneybags

To the earlier point yes we did raise our dissatisfaction to them and pointed out it was causing us undue stress.

The point is they did not do MANY other things we had to constantly chase them for updates and for them to chase the buyer too.


I've emailed the branch manager anyway lets see what happens.

Putting if we should or should not pay the full amount to one side.

What are the next steps?

We pay them the amount we think is fair......... they don't like it and take us to court for the remaining amount?