Purplebricks - cancellation

nathanraf

I am looking to take my house off the due to the pandemic, the state of the housing market and I also feel this to be the most sensible option to take. I put my house on the market a week before lockdown with the service fee being deferred and had 2 viewings. Since then I have had nothing due to the lockdown. Purplebricks have offered to extend the term by 3 months (normally 10 months now 13 months). Has anyone been able to waiver the fee or partially waiver it during the last 3 months based on the current circumstances?

pinkshoes

Their T&Cs are very clear:

When do I pay my fees and how do I make payment?
Answer: All of our customers have the choice not to pay anything at the time when they engage us to sell their property. You can pay later when any of the following occurs, whichever happens first:

• When the property sells and the legal process is complete;

• If you withdraw your instructions for us to market the property;

• If you withdraw from using Advanced Conveyancing;

• Ten months from the date when you agree to use our services.

So as you are choosing not to sell your property any more, you still need to pay them a fee. 

Why not just take them up on their extension offer? Why do you not want to move any more?

blue_max_3

Sounds like they are guarding against you just selling yourself or placing it with another lender. Speak to them. Or add a £1m to the asking

abanksee

pinkshoes said:

Their T&Cs are very clear:

When do I pay my fees and how do I make payment?
Answer: All of our customers have the choice not to pay anything at the time when they engage us to sell their property. You can pay later when any of the following occurs, whichever happens first:

• When the property sells and the legal process is complete;

• If you withdraw your instructions for us to market the property;

• If you withdraw from using Advanced Conveyancing;

• Ten months from the date when you agree to use our services.

So as you are choosing not to sell your property any more, you still need to pay them a fee. 

Why not just take them up on their extension offer? Why do you not want to move any more?

Lower offers maybe? 

saajan_12

blue_max_3 said:

Sounds like they are guarding against you just selling yourself or placing it with another lender. Speak to them. Or add a £1m to the asking

Why would that help? Purple bricks tend to offer fixed fee sales, even if you can 'pay later', their commission is not conditional on whether they get buyers or whether the property is eventually sold. 

OP, I don't see any way to unilatterally cancel the agreement - they are still able to provide the services as expected adn with the 3 month extension, you still get 10 months of advertising, viewings, finding buyers, negotiating etc not hampered by the coronavirus situation. Other than physically not being able to hold viewings etc during the lockdown period, the only other impact is really the market - downturns could happen any time, and your decision on whether to sell in an ever changing market doesn't affect the contract you signed to pay £x in 10 months time. 

nathanraf

Thank you for the above comments, not really helpful as I already knew the above. I am only asking for people to comment if they have had any experience on getting a refund or partial refund from Purplebricks. Under these circumstances there should be a view being taken. I'd lose money now if I was to sell the property so none of the above is helpful. I did try to cancel with them before lockdown and within 14 days but they advised as the ad went live so I waivered my cooling off period. That wasn't very clear to begin with.

homersimpson246

nathanraf said:

Thank you for the above comments, not really helpful as I already knew the above. I am only asking for people to comment if they have had any experience on getting a refund or partial refund from Purplebricks. Under these circumstances there should be a view being taken. I'd lose money now if I was to sell the property so none of the above is helpful. I did try to cancel with them before lockdown and within 14 days but they advised as the ad went live so I waivered my cooling off period. That wasn't very clear to begin with.

I'm also with Purple Bricks at the moment and in a similar position having had the sale of my property fall through however, my view is different.

I wanted to save money on estate agent fees and the deal with Purple Bricks is they are cheap but you have to pay whether you sell it or not.  I accepted that risk and had it worked out well for me I would have been quids in.  As my old boss would say you can't have it both ways, you can't expect to save money by using Purplebricks and then try to get out of paying when things arn't going your way, if you wanted this you should have gone to a high street agent who offers no sale no fee but had it sold you would have paid them a lot more.

I would also mention that the removal of the 14 day cooling off period once you agree for your advert to go live is very clearly indicated on their correspondance.

Once again without wanting to sound harsh we have someone who is selling the biggest asset they probably own worth probably hundred of thousands of pounds and is failing to consider what they are doing, its a house not an ipod.

In my position I have accepted the 3 month extension they have offered and after this time I will have to pay up, bummer for me, but thats the clearly adverised deal.

pinkshoes

nathanraf said:

Thank you for the above comments, not really helpful as I already knew the above. I am only asking for people to comment if they have had any experience on getting a refund or partial refund from Purplebricks. Under these circumstances there should be a view being taken. I'd lose money now if I was to sell the property so none of the above is helpful. I did try to cancel with them before lockdown and within 14 days but they advised as the ad went live so I waivered my cooling off period. That wasn't very clear to begin with.

I am sorry people didn’t tell you what you wanted to hear, but the housing market can go up and down, people are still buying at the moment, and the 3 month extension is perfectly reasonable.

Just keep it on the market and see what happens.