No Estate Agent Contract provided

cleol56

We have had our house on the market since early Feb. Loads (and I mean LOADS) of viewings, however having dropped the price a month ago those viewings haven't materialised into anything unfortunately.
We put the house on for a little under the price they suggested as we felt it was too high. Service was great, we had viewing after viewing with loads of positive feedback. Over the past month since lowering the price by £11K, they don't respond to emails or call and feedback is becoming more and more negative, along the lines of 'too small' or 'too expensive'.
My thinking is that as they haven't been able to sell the house they have lost interest and just want it off their books as quick as possible.
Today was the icing on the cake when an email was received saying we won't be able to sell unless we drop by another £29K! Needless to say, we are at the end of our tethers with these guys and want out sharpish.
My question is - we never signed a contract with the Estate Agents (not through want of asking for a copy which was promised on a number of occasions!). Can we just say 'thanks but no thanks, we are off'?

Comms69

Well you can say that; see what their response is.


Post a rightmove link and people might give good advice

cleol56

Here is the rightmove link - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-69857671.html

They suggested £400K, we felt more comfortable at £390K. We put it on for this early Feb and lowered the price around 4 weeks ago to £379K. They are now saying to lower the price to £350-£365K.

hazyjo

Few observations:

Way too many lounge photos. And why are they showing it again after the bedrooms?! Get them placed in order. Downstairs first, then upstairs. It won't sell your house, but it will at least make it easier to view online!

I'd be ruling it out due to the downstairs bathroom.

In the lounge, I don't mind a pattern of frosting on windows, or a square in the middle, but it does give an effect of being in a basement or something with pretend windows when the whole pane has been frosted out. Is it film, sprayed, or frosted glass?

Put the table and chairs out in the garden - make it look as pretty as possible.

I would be changing agents if I felt they were no longer interested. You will be contracted to them, and should have negotiated terms before they started marketing. If not, find out what you agreed to (even if you didn't sign!). You will have to give them notice.

Good luck.

MovingForwards

Looking at the sold price for one of your neighbours this year it was £373k so that is around what you are looking to get.

It is small, the photos don't help, nor does the amount of photos showing pretty much the same thing; some are also poor quality.

Can you make your garden look a little more inviting.

cleol56

Thanks for your feedback.
The only thing we agreed to was the % commission they would receive if they sold our house. No other terms were discussed either face to face or in writing.
I don't want to burn our bridges if we are are stuck with them for any reason, but at the same time I don't want to stay with them if we can move to another company who are going to be more proactive.
I just have no idea what our rights are if we didn't agree to anything other than the commission or sign anything.

hazyjo

cleol56 wrote: »

I just have no idea what our rights are if we didn't agree to anything other than the commission or sign anything.

Ask them for a copy of their T&Cs.

cleol56

So are the Terms and Conditions valid even if we didnt sign anything? Is the fact that we said yes we want to apoint you as our agent enough that we have agreed to be bound by their terms and conditions?

The garden is the way it is as it was put on the market in winter and we usually purchase our potting flowers in spring. We just havent done it as we were hoping to have moved by now!

phoebe1989seb

It's a great house but agree with hazyjo about the pics, bathroom and garden

Our DS and his family live not far from you and they recently went SSTC (at asking price) after only a couple of weeks on the market, but they're selling a flat. They are trading up to a house and looked at several similar to yours but found they could get a three bed with upstairs bathroom and larger garden by moving a *little* further out [STRIKE]not as far as Moulsecoomb which they're not keen on[/STRIKE].

Imho, whilst many of that type of property have downstairs bathrooms, people with kids (or babies, such as DS's family) will prefer a bathroom upstairs if possible.

I know they ruled out a few two beds that were on for less than yours (£350-365k, so I think your EA is right about that) - and had dropped in price at least once - although iirc these didn't have forecourts as yours does....a definite plus!

I'd be trying to make the garden as inviting as possible, especially now the better weather is here

steampowered

Did you get a set of T&Cs? These can be binding if they were sent to you, even if they weren't signed.

cleol56

No we never received a set of the Terms and Conditions and im worried that if I now ask for some, I will be bound by them. We just want out to be honest. If we have to sell for the price they are suggesting then so be it, I know the market is a bit of a funny place at the moment. But we aren't getting the service we signed up for, nor do we feel they are actively trying to sell our house as they were at the beginning.