Help with disputing Estate Agent's final bill

user1977

TheJP said:

user1977 said:

TheJP said:

su51_2 said:

brianposter said:

There is no reason to pay at the moment. Your telephone bill is significant evidence.

Their telephone bill might also be interesting. 

Thank you yes and l have a call recorder app so l'm sure l can at least verify my side of the calls without breaking any privacy rules, l want to ask for the calls printout he was obv. reading from with summaries of the calls contents but not sure if l can /under what wording etc

Unless you told the person on the other line that you were recording the call then yes you broke privacy rules and it cant be used as 'evidence'. Apart from the alleged coffee spill im not sure what they did wrong to warrant all of this.

There's no "privacy rule" which requires you to tell the other party you're recording a call, if you're making the call as a private individual. I think whether you can use the recording itself as evidence may be a grey area, but you can certainly say e.g. this is the transcript you've made from your recording of the call.

Yes you are right about it being legal to record without consent (learnt something new) however from a quick bit of research the OP would have to get consent to share the call or transcripts of the conversation before sharing with anyone etc. 

I don't see why there would be any restriction on the OP choosing to tell other people about the content of their phone calls with their estate agent. After all, they're already doing that here.

Thrugelmir

user1977 said:

TheJP said:

user1977 said:

TheJP said:

su51_2 said:

brianposter said:

There is no reason to pay at the moment. Your telephone bill is significant evidence.

Their telephone bill might also be interesting. 

Thank you yes and l have a call recorder app so l'm sure l can at least verify my side of the calls without breaking any privacy rules, l want to ask for the calls printout he was obv. reading from with summaries of the calls contents but not sure if l can /under what wording etc

Unless you told the person on the other line that you were recording the call then yes you broke privacy rules and it cant be used as 'evidence'. Apart from the alleged coffee spill im not sure what they did wrong to warrant all of this.

There's no "privacy rule" which requires you to tell the other party you're recording a call, if you're making the call as a private individual. I think whether you can use the recording itself as evidence may be a grey area, but you can certainly say e.g. this is the transcript you've made from your recording of the call.

Yes you are right about it being legal to record without consent (learnt something new) however from a quick bit of research the OP would have to get consent to share the call or transcripts of the conversation before sharing with anyone etc. 

I don't see why there would be any restriction on the OP choosing to tell other people about the content of their phone calls with their estate agent. After all, they're already doing that here.

What's the intent behind recording multiple calls?  Only fair that those being recorded have an opportunity to respond. What gets said could be open to interpretation. Or the conversation steered down a predetermined path. 

aoleks

You’re wasting your time. You haven’t suffered any loss, did not raise these issues when you should’ve and are speculating about potentially interested buyers put off by the smell of damp in the loft.

move on with your life, this is not worth £100…

user1977

Thrugelmir said:

user1977 said:

TheJP said:

user1977 said:

TheJP said:

su51_2 said:

brianposter said:

There is no reason to pay at the moment. Your telephone bill is significant evidence.

Their telephone bill might also be interesting. 

Thank you yes and l have a call recorder app so l'm sure l can at least verify my side of the calls without breaking any privacy rules, l want to ask for the calls printout he was obv. reading from with summaries of the calls contents but not sure if l can /under what wording etc

Unless you told the person on the other line that you were recording the call then yes you broke privacy rules and it cant be used as 'evidence'. Apart from the alleged coffee spill im not sure what they did wrong to warrant all of this.

There's no "privacy rule" which requires you to tell the other party you're recording a call, if you're making the call as a private individual. I think whether you can use the recording itself as evidence may be a grey area, but you can certainly say e.g. this is the transcript you've made from your recording of the call.

Yes you are right about it being legal to record without consent (learnt something new) however from a quick bit of research the OP would have to get consent to share the call or transcripts of the conversation before sharing with anyone etc. 

I don't see why there would be any restriction on the OP choosing to tell other people about the content of their phone calls with their estate agent. After all, they're already doing that here.

What's the intent behind recording multiple calls?  Only fair that those being recorded have an opportunity to respond. What gets said could be open to interpretation. Or the conversation steered down a predetermined path. 

What's the intent behind anybody recording calls? It would be pretty routine to do so at the business's end. If it came to court they would be free to give their version of events anyway.

TheJP

user1977 said:

Thrugelmir said:

user1977 said:

TheJP said:

user1977 said:

TheJP said:

su51_2 said:

brianposter said:

There is no reason to pay at the moment. Your telephone bill is significant evidence.

Their telephone bill might also be interesting. 

Thank you yes and l have a call recorder app so l'm sure l can at least verify my side of the calls without breaking any privacy rules, l want to ask for the calls printout he was obv. reading from with summaries of the calls contents but not sure if l can /under what wording etc

Unless you told the person on the other line that you were recording the call then yes you broke privacy rules and it cant be used as 'evidence'. Apart from the alleged coffee spill im not sure what they did wrong to warrant all of this.

There's no "privacy rule" which requires you to tell the other party you're recording a call, if you're making the call as a private individual. I think whether you can use the recording itself as evidence may be a grey area, but you can certainly say e.g. this is the transcript you've made from your recording of the call.

Yes you are right about it being legal to record without consent (learnt something new) however from a quick bit of research the OP would have to get consent to share the call or transcripts of the conversation before sharing with anyone etc. 

I don't see why there would be any restriction on the OP choosing to tell other people about the content of their phone calls with their estate agent. After all, they're already doing that here.

What's the intent behind recording multiple calls?  Only fair that those being recorded have an opportunity to respond. What gets said could be open to interpretation. Or the conversation steered down a predetermined path. 

What's the intent behind anybody recording calls? It would be pretty routine to do so at the business's end. If it came to court they would be free to give their version of events anyway.

Yes but businesses tend to tell you that the call is being recorded and you are consenting by carrying on with the call. You have a right to not incriminate yourself  with out knowing that it will be used against you. Hence why you have to seek permission to use the recording/transcripts by the person involved.

brianposter

aoleks said:

did not raise these issues when you should’ve

Apparently the OP did raise the issues and has their telephone bill to prove so.

I would be inclined to claim £250 for the non-professiona service, and one would need to look closely at the SSTC issue to decide whether anyone was at fault

Thrugelmir

brianposter said:

aoleks said:

did not raise these issues when you should’ve

Apparently the OP did raise the issues and has their telephone bill to prove so.

I would be inclined to claim £250 for the non-professiona service, and one would need to look closely at the SSTC issue to decide whether anyone was at fault

Then a seperate claim needs to be raised. There'll be nothing in the contract that allows for a deduction. The matters are independent. The fee relates to the sale of the property alone. 

eddddy

brianposter said:

I would be inclined to claim £250 for the non-professiona service, 

So the OP would be asking the EA to make a 'gesture of goodwill' and reduce their bill by £250.


It's worth bearing in mind that if the EA decided to take the OP to court, a court wouldn't award a 'gesture of goodwill'. The court would only look at the OP's financial losses.

So if the EA starts playing hardball and threatening court action, it might be sensible to stop requesting 'gestures of goodwill' at that stage.


(But the Property Ombudsman sometimes orders EAs to pay a small amount of compensation, if the EA has treated a buyer unfairly. So the OP could investigate that route instead.)

Hodge58

Estate agents contracts are not service contracts and ultimately you will lose in a court unless you can prove they have broken the law in some way.   

aoleks

brianposter said:

aoleks said:

did not raise these issues when you should’ve

Apparently the OP did raise the issues and has their telephone bill to prove so.

I would be inclined to claim £250 for the non-professiona service, and one would need to look closely at the SSTC issue to decide whether anyone was at fault

a telephone bill doesn't prove anything. I can hang up after 1 ring, conversation never took place or I can simply call to ask about the weather and an update on the sale. what do you have in writing? nothing...

you can't claim £250 for non-professional services.