Nightmare with Estate Agent - any rights?

forumchatter

We've just had a nightmare in dealing with an estate agent and wondered if we have any rights before we plough into the Property Redress Scheme process.

We were moving forward with a purchase on a property, survey done, searches done, mortgage approved, just waiting for an exchange date. Our buyer dropped out, and we immediately had another offer which we accepted.

We called the vendors agent, explained the situation and that regardless of buyer situation, we would proceed with the purchase with bridged funds so as not to lose the property.

The next day, they called to inform that another offer had been invited by someone who had viewed the property at the same time as we did but were not in a position to bid at the time, and that I had the chance to bid again. I was rather confused as to why the property had been re-marketed given our advanced position and committed funds, but increased our offer to secure the house again.

We were then called to inform the vendor had gone with the other buyer.

I asked the agent to explain why the property had been re-marketed despite being told that we were pursuing with purchase independently. They pretty much refused to acknowledge it.

We then went to visit the vendors agent to discuss this situation and to attempt to save the purchase. Over 2 days they made our IFA talk through our buying position, our buyers IFA do the same, and then turned around to say the other bidders were cash buyers, which I feel was a way to get us to go away and cover their mistake.

Before explaining the cash buyer situation, they even tried to get us to commit to bridging finance when they would have done this anyway!!?? :mad::mad:

Any thoughts from the experienced?? Have I got rights to get the funds I spent on the property back? Thanks in advance

mrginge

No you haven't.
Move on.

Dan-Dan

Its an absolute killer but the learned Mr Ginge is correct , you arent going to get anywhere on this , curse them and move on , lifes too short

clockworks_2

Agent works for seller. He has a duty to tell seller your buyer fell through.

The seller could have instructed agent.

Sorry to hear and hope you find somewhere else.

Cakeguts

Have a look at it this way. Seller wants to sell house. Has a buyer who is in a chain and dependent on a sale to make the purchase. (If you weren't dependent on the sale you could have got a bridging loan before you lost your buyers?) Chain breaks. So you as seller still want to sell house but it looks as if your buyers are not going to be able to proceed. What would you do?

You would do exactly the same as you did you would re-market to see if there was anyone else who could complete the purchase.

forumchatter

The seller informed us that they were only told that we had lost our buyer, not of our bridging position. Had they known this, they would have continued with us.

rtho782

Irrelevant, if anyone has a claim against the EA, it's the vendor, not you, you have no contract with the EA, and nobody was committed to sell to you as you had not exchanged contracts.

It sucks, but that's house buying in England and Wales.

Marvel1

This is more the seller and not the estate agent.

AdrianC

If you haven't exchanged contracts, then all bets are off.
You, the buyer, could pull out for any reason with no penalty.
The seller could pull out for any reason with no penalty.

As it happens, the seller pulled out. Whether that was related to fears that you might have been pulling out or not are irrelevant. All that matters is that they did...

And, no, you have no grounds for complaining about anybody, least of all the vendor's EA.

mrginge

Since between you and the vendor it was you who caused the initial delay, have you offered to pay the vendor any compensation for messing them about?

forumchatter

Thanks for the replies all, dreadful process in England and Wales.