Crap estate agents

daverave7

My missus has put her house on the market with an estate agent a week or two before HIPS came in (for a 3 bedroom house). After promising it will be advertised the following week in the local paper it actually took them 3 weeks to advertise. And they still have not put a For Sale sign up in the front of the house, which will be a good advert as it's right next to a popular school. After umpteen phone calls and promises they will put the sign up, still nothing. Can we sack our estate agent, bearing in mind we are in a 12 week tie in with them? Surely they haven't honoured their contract? But then again, I don't think specific details of adverstising were stated in the contract.

cattie

Most adverts need 2 weeks notification to make the local paper & same to have the advert discontinued, so nothing amiss there really.

Boards are usually put up by an outside agency & again is out of the ea's control. All they can do is notify the company that installs the boards of the address & that a board is to be errected. It sounds as if they need to chase them up though if it's more than a week you've been waiting.

I can't see why you would even be thinking about sacking an estate agent for these things at such an early stage. The important thing is that they let people on their books know about the property & that it's details are given to any people enquiring about suitable properties.

daverave7

It's more than a week, it's now approaching 7 weeks without the board. The problem I have with the estate agent is that each time I ask when the board will go up they promise me it will be definately done by day X. When day X comes around, there's still no board. This has happened three times.

It's their unreliability and dishonesty which causes my concern, but is this enough grounds to sack them?

david29dpo

I would. I put a house on the market on a Thursday, in the paper the following Wednesday. Board up in 2 days. Its NOT good enough!

zynaidashiers

There are a lot of estate agents online who are "pretenders". If it won't be advertise for a couple of months, then you need to investigate on that matter.

daverave7

Thanks all.

My concern now is that we are in a 12 week tie in with this particular estate agent. If we move estate agents, and the new agent sells the house, I think the old agent is entitled to a percentage of the sale (as states in contract). However, have they honoured this contract? I don't think so, but legally what will be the situation?

Thanks in advance for any more advice!

Evee2000

Daverave - if you are looking at changing estate agent and want to avoid the need for a HIP then you need to plan this carefully. You must have continual marketing of the property whilst you change agent (I'm hoping that your old agent doesn't have sole rights). If there is a break in marketing and you change agents you will then be liable for a HIP.