Estate Agent lied about offer - said offer I got was 150k when the buyer was offering 160k

stressedout45

I’m… so confused… 

Pixie5740

This sounds like a very bizarre contract with the estate agent in the first place. I’ve heard of fixed fees and fees as a % of the sales price but I have never seen a contract with a target sales price where the estate agent gets to keep any final sales price over and above the target sales price. 

How recent was this sale? Was your sale part of the trading standards case against the estate agent. 

eddddy

This was all starting to sound familiar... so I had a quick check... Here's a news story about an estate agent that sounds similar:

Dhuga’s offences spanned over four years between August 2016, and November 2020, with the investigation finding that Love Your Postcode Limited provided valuations to several consumers which were lower than the “For Sale” price, often to the sum of £10,000 less, to which Love Your Postcode Limited would retain as a “Performance Fee” as well as the usual commission.


Link: https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/sandwell/oldbury/2021/08/27/banned-estate-agent-bobby-singh-gets-suspended-jail-term-after-guilty-plea/

And for engaging in estate agency whilst banned:

Amerjit Singh Dhuga, known as ‘Bobby Singh’ of Love Your Postcode, was sentenced to a custodial sentence of six weeks suspended for two years, and fined £4,000 at Wolverhampton Crown Court on August 26.

And...

Love Your Postcode Limited also pleaded guilty to breaching professional diligence requirements by failing to declare to customers that Dhuga could not lawfully undertake estate agency work.
The company has been fined £16,000, which was reduced to £12,000 because of its early guilty pleas.

seven-day-weekend

When I lived in Spain, this sort of thing happened all the time.

The Estate Agent would tell the buyer that a property was one price and then tell the seller that they had offered a lesser price and if the sale went through they would  keep the difference for themselves.

csgohan4

is this  a modern auction?

AndyParton

edddy, you are correct it is that firm. Since that story has been published there are a number of others who have made claims on facebook that a similar thing has happened to them for various amounts upto 18k but I dont know how many victims in total but I doubt the company is all bad as there are good reviews on the trustpilot website?. and maybe is just the one individual at the company. I expect anyone with a 10k claim will go via the small claims court route. 

eddddy

AndyParton said:

edddy, you are correct it is that firm. Since that story has been published there are a number of others who have made claims on facebook that a similar thing has happened to them for various amounts upto 18k but I dont know how many victims in total but I doubt the company is all bad as there are good reviews on the trustpilot website?. and maybe is just the one individual at the company. I expect anyone with a 10k claim will go via the small claims court route. 

So I still don't understand what you are asking.

Is your question one of the following:

• I've paid the EA £10k which I don't believe was fair - how do I get it back?

• The EA is asking me to pay £10k which I don't believe is fair - how do I avoid paying?

• How can I cause the EA as much grief as possible - because they lied to me?

• Or something else?

For those people on Facebook wanting to make claims for £10k, as you say, one route is the small claims court. 

In theory, they could also complain to the EA's regulator who could order the EA to pay compensation - the EA is regulated by the "Property Redress Scheme".

Normally that's an easier route, and the regulator is often more sympathetic to consumers than a court would be, and they might order the EA to pay extra compensation for distress, etc.

But this EA sounds like such a rogue, I'm not sure they would follow the regulators orders.

AdrianC

eddddy said:

For those people on Facebook wanting to make claims for £10k, as you say, one route is the small claims court. 

£10k is the upper limit for a small claim.

eddddy

AdrianC said:

eddddy said:

For those people on Facebook wanting to make claims for £10k, as you say, one route is the small claims court. 

£10k is the upper limit for a small claim.

Yep. I'm not sure what point you're making.

aoleks

Just one question: why did you choose this scammer to be your agent? You didn’t want to pay any fees for a traditional estate agent?