Yopa large overvaluation- chance to get fees back?

jimmyb78

So I put decided to put my little flat on the market last year with my local Yopa agent valuing it at 95k with a carparking space.

I chose the Pay Later option, which is a fee of 1199 after 10 months. My agent assured me an excellent rental property like mine should go easily. 

Well, it hasn't. I first had to drop to 90k, then 85k. Still no offers. At this price I'm already in negative equity and had told my agent at the start that there would be no point putting the flat on the market at this value. I only agreed after the 95k valuation. 

Yesterday he revealed he'd had an offer of 80k and that he didn't believe we could get 85k for the flat now. This is 16% lower than advised. 

I cannot afford to sell at this price, and Yopa want their £1199. Considering the sheer size of the valuation discrepancy do people think i have a case of avoiding the fee due to being badly advised? I just want the place off the market now as the situation seems hopeless. I have raised a complaint but any advise is appreciated. 

[Deleted User]

No, not unless your contract allowed for it, which seems very unlikely.

canaldumidi

The decision of what to market the property foris always the seller's. The agent can advise, that's all.

Had you paid for an RICS surveyor to provide a formal written Valuation, you might have had a case against him, if you were able to show he was clearly arroneous, but even then I doubt it.

Valuation is not a science. Ultimately the only way to establish a market valuation is to find a buyer willing to pay £X.

As for the fee, that dependson the terms of the contract.

[Deleted User]

You would have to argue that the service they provided was sub-standard, given the disparity between the advice given and the reality of the market.

First step is to make a formal complaint and see where that goes.

eddddy

I guess that the starting point would be to decide a legal basis for your dispute/claim.



Maybe it would be 'misrepresentation'....

e.g. You entered into the contract with the agent, because the agent told you that they/you could sell your flat for £95k.

But did they really say that? Or did they say anything else misleading, which caused you to enter into a contract with them?



Or maybe it would be that they didn't carry out the service with 'reasonable care and skill'...

- which would be a breach of an implied contract term

But it might be quite hard to show that the property didn't sell, because of the agent's lack of reasonable care or skill



Or maybe you feel they breached a term in the contract...

- which resulted in the property not selling.

But you'd need to point out the specific terms in the contract  that were breached, and explain how that caused the property not to sell

jimmyb78

Certainly I would not have put the flat on the market had he said 85k. Is an agent really allowed to to get away with such a big error of judgement? 16 percent. The acceptable margin of error is supposed to be 7.

I could probably argue both misrepresentation and lack of skill in this case. End of the day, who knows? I can but try 

NameUnavailable

I expect that the T&C's of the contract you entered into includes some wording about valuations.

Ulitmately I think you aren't going to get anywhere, unless they make some commercial gesture (but then why should they?). Certainly, don't waste money on solicitors for this!

user1977

jimmyb78 said:

Certainly I would not have put the flat on the market had he said 85k. Is an agent really allowed to to get away with such a big error of judgement? 16 percent. The acceptable margin of error is supposed to be 7.

If it were a surveyor whom you had paid for a valuation, yes, +/- 7% might be a normal margin of error - though it can be larger if e.g. there's a lack of comparable data. And that assumes that a competent surveyor would have come up with a more accurate valuation, rather than, say, everybody being caught out by market volatility.

But you didn't pay them (I presume) for a valuation, you had paid them for marketing.

jimmyb78

I suppose they should because I've been advised appallingly badly. But will they do anything, who knows? Certainly legally apparently they can do whatever they want which is rather depressing 

eddddy

jimmyb78 said:

Certainly legally apparently they can do whatever they want which is rather depressing 

Well... not really.

They can do what you and the agent agreed they can do.

You shouldn't really walk away from this thinking that "estate agents (and other companies) can do whatever they want" - because it's not really true.

It's better to walk away thinking that you should read and understand contracts before agreeing to them. Then you're less likely to get nasty surprises.

(I guess that if you had read, understood and thought through Yopa's contract at the outset, you wouldn't have agreed to do business with them and you wouldn't have agreed to pay them £1199.)

jimmyb78

eddddy said:

jimmyb78 said:

Certainly legally apparently they can do whatever they want which is rather depressing 

Well... not really.

They can do what you and the agent agreed they can do.

You shouldn't really walk away from this thinking that "estate agents (and other companies) can do whatever they want" - because it's not really true.

It's better to walk away thinking that you should read and understand contracts before agreeing to them. Then you're less likely to get nasty surprises.

(I guess that if you had read, understood and thought through Yopa's contract at the outset, you wouldn't have agreed to do business with them and you wouldn't have agreed to pay them £1199.)

Perhaps I should rephrase my question to asking if anyone could offer some actual useful advice rather than 'You should have done this' or 'you'll learn a lesson won't you'.  

If not, feel free to scroll on by. I believe the point of the forum is to help other users, not patronise them.