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Seeking partial refund of Estate Agent Fees - Advice gratefully received...

Hi,

Has anyone had any experience / results from contesting an estate agents fees after the sale has completed?
The situation is broadly as follows:-

We have used a bricks and mortar established estate agent to sell our house. They did manage to find a buyer very quickly - no complaints there.
However, the 'after sale' service received since then has been very poor and not been of a professional quality, and certainly does not represent value for money against the £5,000 charge. As such whilst the fees are inline with the % commission agreed (not disputing that) I do not think it represents fair value. Some examples of where I believe the service was below standard:-
  • Minimal pro-activity and poor communications - the agent never never called me unless I chased them first, and this often took several attempts – They rarely followed up
  • Agent seems to have an issue with staff retention which meant I ended up finding out that agent X had left only after this had happened - there was no hand-over which meant I was left explaining the situation to the new agent who then spent time getting up to speed and slowing the process down.
  • Our agent had a very poor relationship with the agent further down the chain, communications were clearly broken to the extent that our agent refused to call the other agent and all communication was via email (despite being physically located almost next door to each other!) - We ended up having to call our buyer's agent directly as this was the only way to get a straight answer (and this information often conflicted with the information our agent provided us with)
  • Our agent was unable to correctly do due diligence on the complete chain (we were told our buyers buyer was living with their parents until an exchange date was discussed when it turned out they were renting - this in turn cost us money to pay a portion of their rent and allow us to complete on time)
  • The agent sometimes mistook me for another seller and started discussing a separate chain (at least twice)
  • The agent at one point asked me to contact my sellers solicitor – even though we were top of the chain
  • We were given a very ambitious view of when we could exchange which I disputed and the agent was wrong.
  • To top it all off, the agent has managed to lose the keys to our house - meaning our buyer, when they move in, has no way of knowing whether the keys to their new house are in the hands of a disgruntled ex-employee

I should add that this will be an attempt to recover fees already paid - I am letting my solicitor pay the estate agent the full fee (as it certainly was not in my interests to put the overall house sale in jeopardy by contesting this before completion)

My premise here is really that the service received is simply not worth the money charged.

Has anyone tried to recover fees on this basis? Has anyone succeeded or is this likely to be a waste of time? If you succeeded, what route was successful?

Any thoughts / advice gratefully received.

Regards
SG
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Comments

  • Ozzuk
    Ozzuk Posts: 1,884 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    Have you followed any grievance process, raised your concerns with them in writing? I rarely bother with agents once offer accepted, personnally I'd drop it and focus on enjoying your new home.
  • anselld
    anselld Posts: 8,500 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    No harm in asking but seems highly unlikely. They have made a sale and therefore done their job.

    Does your contract even state explicitly what service level is offered when it comes to post-offer sales progression?
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    • To top it all off, the agent has managed to lose the keys to our house - meaning our buyer, when they move in, has no way of knowing whether the keys to their new house are in the hands of a disgruntled ex-employee

    Buyers can never be sure who might have keys. At most this item is worth the cost of cutting another set of keys, which is pointless if the buyers follow the usual advice here of changing the locks anyway.
  • hazyjo
    hazyjo Posts: 15,474 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    tbh, I think your expectations of EAs are rather high. They should do a better job, but they often fall short. I've met some shockers in my time who I'm surprised are still in employment. There have also been a couple of gems. Sadly, there seem to be more crap ones than good ones.
    2024 wins: *must start comping again!*
  • Thanks for such quick responses.

    Guess I can’t quite get past spending that much money to receive such poor service

    The gist of responses so far seem to be though “that’s the cost of selling a house, don’t expect much”?
  • p00hsticks
    p00hsticks Posts: 13,968 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Our agent had a very poor relationship with the agent further down the chain, communications were clearly broken to the extent that our agent refused to call the other agent and all communication was via email (despite being physically located almost next door to each other!) - We ended up having to call our buyer's agent directly as this was the only way to get a straight answer (and this information often conflicted with the information our agent provided us with)
    • Our agent was unable to correctly do due diligence on the complete chain (we were told our buyers buyer was living with their parents until an exchange date was discussed when it turned out they were renting - this in turn cost us money to pay a portion of their rent and allow us to complete on time)

    Personally these aren't things I'd expect an agent to do - did they say they would. ?

    I'd expect a agent to find me a buyer who is in a position to proceed, and handle any negotiations on price. In the past, when I've been selling from a distance, I've also relied on them to provide physical access to the properties for viewings, surveys etc and to hand over the keys on completion.

    But once a buyer has been found and a chain is established I'd say the estate agents work is largely done unless the sale falls through. I wouldn't be expecting the agents to be following up the sale with each other - that work gets picked up by the solicitors.


    But there's no harm in letting them know you aren't happy and see what they say
  • Not trying to start an argument here, if my expectations are way off then so be it....

    But £5,000 for a 10 minute visit to a house is fair value? I shouldn't expect more?
  • p00hsticks
    p00hsticks Posts: 13,968 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Not trying to start an argument here, if my expectations are way off then so be it....

    But £5,000 for a 10 minute visit to a house is fair value? I shouldn't expect more?


    Yes, you expect them to find you a suitable buyer, and they appear to have done that succesfully.
  • eddddy
    eddddy Posts: 17,537 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    So you're essentially asking the EA for a goodwill gesture.

    To have a valid claim against the EA (i.e. through a court), you'd need to show that you suffered a loss as a result of their breach of contract or negligence.

    It doesn't sound like you have - except maybe the cost of the keys.


    But if the EA is signed up to the Property Ombudsman Scheme, the ombudsman has a broader remit. You can complain about:
    • Poor or incompetent service
    • Infringement of your legal rights
    • Failure to follow the rules set for agents under the Code of Practice and membership obligations
    • Unfair treatment

    And the ombudsman can make the EA pay compensation in respect of any of the above (which goes beyond what a court would do).

    But it's for you to judge whether you have a case that's worthy of a complaint to the ombudsman.

    See: https://www.tpos.co.uk/consumers/how-to-make-a-complaint
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Not trying to start an argument here, if my expectations are way off then so be it....

    But £5,000 for a 10 minute visit to a house is fair value? I shouldn't expect more?

    Clearly they did more than this, for you detail some or all of your interactions with them above, and these were not accomplished in the time the valuing agent spent in your home.

    And they found your buyer for you, with the aid of their own systems, and those of others, which you otherwise would not have access to.
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