Estate agent greedy for his commission - 92 year old mother

Guest101

imho wrote: »

I would be worried they will find a buyer then turn up with paperwork asking her to sign which they will say it's to stop marketing her house but really it's a contract to sign the house over to new buyers.

Have you ever sold a property? Or bought one?


If so, you'll know that is not the process, if not, learn the process.....

imho

Sold and bought but obviously don't know how it works. Sorry I got it wrong

Guest101

Normally I'm against agents.


But honestly in this case, they don't actually seem to have done anything wrong. All their asking for is that their client contact them directly. It's really no different to any other business.


As for the age thing, (not any other mental health considerations), it's no different to selling a credit card to an 18 year old, they too wont know what theyre doing.


Yes they should accept cancellation, but they haven't actually rejected a cancellation letter. They are sayig that she has no cooling off period, probably because they think they can get away with it. (in fairness to them, it used to be possible to sign it away)


So far as they are concerned an elderly person has got in touch about downsizing and has not contacted them to cancel.


It's hardly uncommon.

marksoton

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

In my experience the "freezing" or blankness is a classic sign of dementia, particularly if the topic of conversation is about very recent events. You really need to get her health checked and find out what support is available, and then decide how to proceed with stuff like her finances.

^^

Get your mothers health diagnosed first and the rest will follow on.

Her health should be the priority.

Guest101

imho wrote: »

Sold and bought but obviously don't know how it works. Sorry I got it wrong

So when you sold and bought, did you perhaps visit a solicitor (or conveyance) did you pay them a fee and they check your id, did they show you a contract and you signed it.


or did an estate agent turn up on your door with a contract?


Buying and selling property in this country is one of the most convoluted and risk averse processes possible.

G_M

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Elderly people can easily get confused and perhaps when your mother saw the EA leaflet thought she had to ring them, rather than it being her choice.

My mum would 'do her post' every day. She believed that if someone wrote to her, she should respond.

So she'd sit down and reply, usually with a cheque, to each of the increasingly numerous charities that wrote to her.

Eveentually we had her post redirected to my sister who lived nearby and would sneak in the genuine letters each day saying "Oh look, the postman's been late again".

I had to contact around 40 charities in the end and tell them to take her off their mailing lists.

It's a difficult time when you are trying to help a parent manage independantly, without taking over their lives, but can see increasing signs of them struggling, or being exploited.

copperjar

Guest101 wrote: »

Normally I'm against agents.


But honestly in this case, they don't actually seem to have done anything wrong. All their asking for is that their client contact them directly. It's really no different to any other business.


As for the age thing, (not any other mental health considerations), it's no different to selling a credit card to an 18 year old, they too wont know what theyre doing.


Yes they should accept cancellation, but they haven't actually rejected a cancellation letter. They are sayig that she has no cooling off period, probably because they think they can get away with it. (in fairness to them, it used to be possible to sign it away)


So far as they are concerned an elderly person has got in touch about downsizing and has not contacted them to cancel.


It's hardly uncommon.

Agree with this. The EAs actually don't have any right to speak to you and on your say so alone cancel the instruction that someone else has made. If they could, chaos would ensue! Your mum owns the house and has asked an EA round. She has then signed to put the house up for sale. She and she alone now needs to cancel this (if she wants to). If she doesn't want to phone/visit, then a letter signed by her should be sufficient. Until the EA rejects your mum requesting to cancel, everything else is irrelevant really.

If your mum doesn't understand enough as to what is happening and can't read the letter to sign to cancel, then that's a whole other issue where you will an assessment of her capacity. I don't get the impression that is the case though??

moneyistooshorttomention

Does this EA belong to that organisation some EA's belong to? - or to a chain of EA's under the same title?

If so - maybe someone suitably "high up" in one of these organisations can duly read the Riot Act to this particular EA about their behaviour (and remind them of the law re cooling off period)?

I've gone above the head of an EA I was dealing with before now - and I doubt that particular EA has forgotten about being told "what for";)

Susieee

Hello again everybody.

I took on everyone's kind advice and took my mother to the estate agents office. She walked into the office with me very confidently and we gave the letter to the agent. My mother signed the document in front of both myself and the manager/owner of the agency.

We left the letter there and I told him that there was NO WAY my mother wanted to sell. When he asked her she said the same, albeit it very quietly and timidly - as you would expect. She was very scared. He acknowledged receipt of the letter by way of email - I had to ask numerous times.

However, the manager has stated that there will be no way that my mother has a cooling off period as a lot of marketing has been done and they have answered calls, sent out emails to their database, etc etc. He even showed me some of the brochures they have been handing out to potential buyers...

They have even carried out a floor plan and better photography of the property yesterday. I was not with my mother at the time and she let them in, willingly. The old photos were not good because THEY WERE TAKEN IN THE DARK!!!

Today we have come back from another GP who has said there is a case for doing more tests and will be referring my mother for more specialised tests. I am so glad that this is going forward as I am sure there is some help out there.

As a last resort the agent has offered to cancel the contract if we are willing to pay some part of the commission which he says 'will be 30-50% of the expected commission.

Not only do myself or my mother not have a spare £8,000 lying around but think his actions are abhorrent and unreasonable. What kind of agent is this? I really want to name them on here so the world can see how shameful they are acting. I have asked the agent to put his demands on an email and send them to me.

I am also going to complain to the Property Ombudsman even though the agent would not confirm whether they were a member or not.

This has been a sickening experience so far and I am really considering getting a solicitor involved.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Name and shame? I think people need to be protected from these scumbags!