No longer need EA services.

Al84

Hi everyone, first time posting so please be gentle.

I recently instructed a very well known and oft derided online estate agency to market my property. I also made the mistake of not reading the T's&C's thoroughly enough and deferred payment until completion, tying myself to their conveyancing services.
However I have since been offered a fair price for the property by a family member and would like to conclude the sale privately, potentially saving us both a significant amount of money.
I am still within the 14 day cooling off period and have not approved the ad to go online.
Has anyone had any success in cancelling this type of service without losing the full service fee?

Thanks in advance.

lisyloo

You said you deferred payment? So how would you lose the fee?

Do you have a sole selling or sole agent agreement with them?
This is really important.

Comms69

Al84 wrote: »

Hi everyone, first time posting so please be gentle.

I recently instructed a very well known and oft derided online estate agency to market my property. I also made the mistake of not reading the T's&C's thoroughly enough and deferred payment until completion, tying myself to their conveyancing services.
However I have since been offered a fair price for the property by a family member and would like to conclude the sale privately, potentially saving us both a significant amount of money.
I am still within the 14 day cooling off period and have not approved the ad to go online.
Has anyone had any success in cancelling this type of service without losing the full service fee?

Thanks in advance.

Well if you cancel with-in 14 days you shouldn't pay anything. (assuming no work has been done)

Nobbie1967

If you are within the cooling off period, just cancel it, that's what there for isn't it?

Al84

The EA got the home report sorted through another firm, which i'm happy to pay for as I need it to sell the property regardless of which EA I use. However they have taken pictures and wrote up a property schedule I just haven't approved this or agreed for them to put the Ad online. Will I likely be liable for the cost of the EA's time/effort so far?

lisyloo

Can you confirm what type of agreement you have with them?
Or name them so we can check? Is it PB?
This is vital to know if you are liable for their fee.

Al84

So I'm reluctant to name the company purely because its apparent from other forums and threads that this EA appear to have individuals who regularly join chats with the intention to undermine the OP's criticisms, call it paranoia but it looks pretty obvious to me.

That aside, I instructed them on a fixed fee marketing product which I could either pay for up front or defer until completion. Its only in their "Thanks for choosing us" email that there is a bold text statement about the fact that you are now obliged to use their conveyancing services (outsourced) and that if I chose to use my own solicitor I would need to pay upwards of £300 in admin fees to do so. Needless to say the conveyancing costs were outrageous! The 3rd party conveyancing outfit has also passed the business to another legal firm to deal with. None of this fills me with confidence and because I have sourced a buyer myself, no longer need any of the services either the EA or legal firm would have provided.

Hope this makes sense.

Al84

From their Service Agreement:

If you choose to Pay Later you shall make payment in full of the Product Service Fee when any of the following occurs, whichever happens first:

-When the property sells and the legal process is complete or
-If you withdraw your instructions for us to market the property or
-If you choose not to use the Conveyancing Services or
-Ten months from the date you enter into the Service Agreement.

Al84

You may be entitled to a 14 day cooling off period from the moment you instruct (Estate Agency), up until the time you approve your advert to go live. At this point it will be deemed that we have provided the marketing service and you will no longer be entitled to a refund of the Product Service Fee. In the event that you cancel your advert or any Products and Services and have chosen to Pay Later we will notify any third party who is collecting payment on our behalf to enable them to collect payment of the Product Service Fee from you or, where we have chosen to transfer or assign our rights to receive payment of the Product Service Fee from you to a third party, we will notify them so they can collect payment from you.

CarrieVS

Al84 wrote: »

You may be entitled to a 14 day cooling off period from the moment you instruct (Estate Agency), up until the time you approve your advert to go live. At this point it will be deemed that we have provided the marketing service and you will no longer be entitled to a refund of the Product Service Fee.

By my reading of that, they only consider the service provided (thus falling into one of the exclusion criteria from the relevant legislation, so that they don't have to give you a full refund) if you've approved it. Good news for you as you haven't. The rest of the paragraph relates to what could happen if you cancel and the cooling off period doesn't apply so is not really relevant.

If the contract specifies how to contact them for this specific purpose, follow the instructions. If not use whatever means they ask you to contact them with enquiries about the service. Keep your message short and polite, and make sure to refer to the cooling-off period specifically so there's no possibility of misunderstanding.

Be patient and stay polite but firm if they object: I had a similar situation with an online conveyancer I decided not to use and my contact initially tried to insist that the upfront "non-refundable" deposit was still non-refundable in the cooling-off period. She was very polite and helpful though, and I'm certain it was an honest mistake; she offered to have her manager ring me back, I accepted, and after the manager had looked at it, it was very quickly and efficiently resolved with "yes you were right" and the money returned.

Remember, you only need to have informed them of your wish to cancel within 14 days, so if there is any dispute, there's no rush to get them to agree within that period.

Newnoel

It sounds like Purplebricks