Seller's estate agents.

Annie1960

I would be really annoyed if my buyers just turned up on my doorstep. Vendors engage EAs to do the negotiation, and the technical stuff should be done by the solicitor.

Perhaps the vendors were too well-manered to say this.

eddddy

REDDDRAGGON wrote: »

I agree. But surely they need to ask me if I want stuff first before it gets passed to the solicitors?

FWIW I don't want any of the stuff anyway.

Hi REDDDRAGON

I agree with you on this. Unless the furniture is very valuable, or you really don't trust the vendors - I'd be tempted not to involve the solicitor at all. (You wouldn't involve a solicitor if you were buying the same second hand furniture on ebay or gumtree. And the solicitor may start charging you extra, if this creates too much extra work for him/her.)

Maybe just draw up a list with a price, which is signed and agreed by both of you. If the vendor somehow defrauds you out of a second-hand sofa and fridge, I expect a small claims court will find your signed list just as acceptable as a solicitor's list.

G_M

You asked the EA for the vendors phone number.

The EA should have responded: " I'm sorry. I can't give out that information without their permission. I'll ask them what they would like me to do & get back to you."

EA then asks vendor, who either says "No problem. Happy to talk to the buyer." or "No. I'd rather you (EA) dealt with the buyer and any requests/information they have."

EA then responds to buyer as appropriate.

googler

Standard practice in my part of the UK is that once an offer is accepted, the buyer is only allowed back in the house for measurements etc. once the missives are concluded (contracts exchanged), once both parties are committed to the transaction.

Eejay

A similar thing happened to us, although in a different way. The EA was exaggerating loads of 'issues', twisting the truth and refusing to answer any of our concerns. We were on the verge of pulling out due to the stress, so we found an email address for the vendor, sent a detailed but polite email explaining the situation, and he responded - said he'd rather not deal with us directly since he's not great at emailing and obviously he's paying the EA to deal with it, but that he'd speak to them and sort things out and that he hadn't heard about half of the supposed 'issues'. His email was very polite and friendly; he didn't seem the least bit concerned that we'd contacted him.

The following day, the vendor contacted the EA who then sent a snotty email about how we'd "somehow acquired the vendor's email address" (we found it on Google, it's not like we hired a private investigator lol) and that he wasn't happy that we'd contacted him. They also continued hassling us about some other things that we couldn't do anything about until our solicitor was back the following day - they knew she was off for a few days but it hadn't stopped them moaning for the entire time.

At this point my husband told them that he didn't want to deal with them directly any more, and if they needed to speak to him, they could go through the solicitor. We've not heard from them since.

Moral of the story: some EAs will say whatever they want to get their own way. I'd work on the assumption that they aren't happy about you making direct contact and have twisted the truth to back up their story!

REDDDRAGGON

G_M wrote: »

You asked the EA for the vendors phone number.

The EA should have responded: " I'm sorry. I can't give out that information without their permission. I'll ask them what they would like me to do & get back to you."

EA then asks vendor, who either says "No problem. Happy to talk to the buyer." or "No. I'd rather you (EA) dealt with the buyer and any requests/information they have."

EA then responds to buyer as appropriate.

The lady selling the house had told the EAs to hand over her number to me when she wanted to know about the furniture! It was the EA not playing ball!