Estate Agent bought my flat ..........

ChocolateLover_3

My flat was up for sale and estate agent came along and valued it at £240000.had a buyer almost instantly
Now I find out that it was the estae agent himself who bought the property ,and I paid 2% comm thats nearly £5000 off he had from the sale is he allowed to do that ? shouldnt I have beeen told he was the buyer ?Its now rented out .

Ian_W

I would have thought the EA is required to disclose a personal interest - they have to include it in the particulars if they, someone working for them or a close relative are selling a property.
Have a look at this on the OFT's Consumer Direct website.

I should contact your Trading Standards Dept at your local authority. If you only had one valuation done it's quite possible it was down valued too.

EDIT to add: The EA's Ombudsman site has a code of conduct which states:
9f If your firm is instructed to sell a property and you, an employee or an associate (or an associate of the employee of your
firm is intending to buy it) you must by law, before negotiations begin, give all the relevant facts, in writing, to the seller;
and as soon as possible to his solicitor.

So it appears they have acted illegally - Trading Standards defo!

Curious_Moose

Check out http://www.nethouseprices.com/ and see how much other flats with your postcode have actually sold for.

ChocolateLover_3

Thank you for that information Ian
Will look up the links you posted
Choc x

smreynard

What the agent did is illegal. Under Section 21 of The Estate Agent's Act he has to inform you of a personal interest and you can now take this further via trading standards. There are serious repercussions for him, especially if the flat was undervalued.

going2die_rich

You might be able to get some cash out of them unless they want to go to court for it!

silvercar

These un-punctuated posts in large bright capital letters remind me of anonymous letters written in coloured crayon because the sender can't be trusted with a sharp object.

xela_17

Did you get several valuations at the beginning from different agents and were they all around the same value?

asea

Kinky_Boots wrote: »

THE STR'S HAVE LOCKED THEMSELVES OUT OF THE PROPERTY MARKET FOREVER

what on earth does that mean (also, you don't have to SHOUT!)

wecanhelpu

asea wrote: »

what on earth does that mean (also, you don't have to SHOUT!)

This is our friend Bruno.

Or "brolly bum" as we like to call him.

mrs_deadline

If it sold instantly, it's quite likely that it would have fetched more if the EA had shown it to a wider range of buyers instead of keeping it to himself.