Estate agents being sneaky

samuelkelsey

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right thread so apologies in advance!! We recently took the decision to upsize, everything was going to plan, we found a house we loved and sold our existing property very quickly (Sears Estate Agents).

Unfortunately for various reasons the the property we were going to buy fell through. So we started viewing other property's, before viewing a house nearby the agent (Prospect Estate Agents) asked if he could contact sears to check our chain / status. As it was a first viewing i said no and thought nothing of it.

Ive just received a call from the agents selling our house informing me that not only did the agent from prospect contact them, he also contacted the agents for the person below us in the chain "concerned" that we would take our property off the market due to us not buying the house we planned.

Before i make a formal complaint i was hoping if anyone knows;
1. Is it legal for a rival agent to try and de-stablise a sale?
2. Ive looked through the estate agents code of conduct and theres no mention of this kind of thing, is there any rules and regs around it?
3. Has this happended to anyone else?

Ta

Sam

Fisa002

How did he get contact details for the person below you in the chain?

TrickyDicky101

Why would the EA try and nobble your sale? That doesn't make sense. He wants you to be able to buy the house he's selling which you won't be able to do if your buyer pulls out.

samuelkelsey

He spoke to our buyers agents who then contacted them, must've got the details from our agent (used the word agent way too many times there)

Fisa002

samuelkelsey wrote: »

He spoke to our buyers agents who then contacted them, must've got the details from our agent (used the word agent way too many times there)

Well then your agent is also at fault for providing that information to them!

Fisa002

And how did he find out who your current EA was?

Thrugelmir

All sounds very unbusiness like.

kingstreet

I'd expect any decent agent to chain-check when submitting an offer to their vendor.

That's just making sure the sales further down the chain are progressing.

This;-

"concerned" that we would take our property off the market due to us not buying the house we planned.

seems an odd thing to do.

csgohan4

did you update your buyer of the progress your making??? If you did you have nothing to hide and ignore

samuelkelsey

Thank you for all your responses, and yes our agents clearly gave too much information away to the prospect agent.

We've been 100% transparent with our buyers and explained the house we were planning to buy has fallen through, fortunately they're in no rush.

I agree its all a bit un-professional, firstly doing the chain check without permission and then all this meddling where its not needed

csgohan4

samuelkelsey wrote: »

Thank you for all your responses, and yes our agents clearly gave too much information away to the prospect agent.

We've been 100% transparent with our buyers and explained the house we were planning to buy has fallen through, fortunately they're in no rush.

I agree its all a bit un-professional, firstly doing the chain check without permission and then all this meddling where its not needed

Their trying to derail your chain as revenge potentially. Not your problem tbh, you don't like the house you walk away, it's business nothing personal. It's not like their angels either with their rubbish high commission in house mortgage Advisors or services.