KFH Earlsfield property agency MISLEADING customers

cmanganero

Has anyone suffered from KFH misleading practice?

I recently saw a flat for sale. I went to see the property and I offered £8K more that the asking price as I thought it was worth it. The agency then told me that because there was so many people interested they decided to do a BEST and FINAL offers Monday 5pm. After taking this into consideration, lots of thinking, risk, calculating money and try to understand what others will bid, we decided to take a big risk and offered in the end £46K more than the asking price. No surprise here, we won the BEST and FINAL offer bid, however, someone who didnt bid enough and didnt win the property decided to offer more money and the agency told us, that by law they need to inform the seller. Then KFH called me to let me know that they will be doing ANOTHER BEST and FINAL offers bid, which I then challenged this as this could go on forever if they wanted, and I said that Im not sure how legal this is, as they said Best and Final, which means FINAL, but they decided to do another FINAL, so this is really misleading. I complained to main head office and they have not answer my question as why are you misleading customers. FINAL means FINAL to me, no let's do another FINAL, then if it suits us, another one, etc.
Really fustrating that they can play with buyers like this.

Thanks for your advise.

marliepanda

If it was your flat they were selling you would want the best price.

There is nothing illegal about what theyre doing, they can take a higher offer right up to the point of exchange.

If your offer was lowest and you wanted to put in a higher one because you really wanted the flat, you wouldnt be saying this.

cmanganero

Thanks for your comments. My main issue here was misleading customers by saying "we are having BEST and FINAL offers", final to me means FINAL, not another round, then another round. They should not use the word FINAL if it's not going to be FINAL. I agree if it was my flat I would want the best price, but I disagree with misleading customers telling them it's a FINAL offer, when it isn't. Thanks

Hoof_Hearted

This is an estate agent -- you can't expect honesty or integrity. Withdraw and keep looking.

Bantex_2

cmanganero wrote: »

Thanks for your comments. My main issue here was misleading customers by saying "we are having BEST and FINAL offers", final to me means FINAL, not another round, then another round. They should not use the word FINAL if it's not going to be FINAL. I agree if it was my flat I would want the best price, but I disagree with misleading customers telling them it's a FINAL offer, when it isn't. Thanks

The seller is the the EAs customer, not the potential buyers.

runningben16

You're not a customer of the agent, the seller is, and as such the agent is obliged to get the best deal they can for their client. If that means taking further offers, that's what they will do. And given the apparent level of interest, it looks like they set the asking price too low anyway.

Are you in Scotland by any chance (using the 'offers over' system?) Otherwide I can't see why you would offer a massive 46k over the asking price! Walk away and find a better deal...

cmanganero

Bantex & Runningben16. thanks. Buyers are also registered with the agency, and effectively customers I think. I have bought and sold properties through them but I will not use them anymore now. I dont think is fair that they play with people like that, but anyway, as you said, I'll keep looking. I am in London, nowdays, very rearly flats/houses get sold below the asking price, well the opposite.
Thank you guys

Enfieldian

Don't try buying a repossession then, Banks will usually insist on the properties being actively marketed until the day of exchange, possibly even completion.

They used to send mystery shoppers in to check that this was being done and if they were not told about a particular property then all further instructions to sell repos would go elsewhere.

Also, I lost count of the times I set up B&F bids for an unsuccessful party to come back with an increased offer after the event.

Blame the other buyers. The agent is just doing their job.

cmanganero

Enfieldian, the property I was offering money on was advertised in zoopla, and at the agency, it wasn't a repossession. Once again, my point here is about the agency misleading people, that's all. Thanks

Enfieldian

cmanganero wrote: »

Enfieldian, the property I was offering money on was advertised in zoopla, and at the agency, it wasn't a repossession. Once again, my point here is about the agency misleading people, that's all. Thanks

I never said it was, just giving that as an example.

The information I have supplied is still relevant to your situation though.

By the way, repossessions still get advertised in the same places, even more so in most cases.

keyser666

Offering over 45k more than the asking for a non reposession property, I would love to see the "other offer"