Yopa - get out of agreement?

Amylittles

Hi all,

I'm hoping for some friendly advice ... I'm already quite stressed and had a few cries so some gentle suggestions would be great.

I put my property on the market with Yopa two weeks ago, the agent knew this was a time sensitive matter and I feel he's taken advantage of that - on reflection he was really pushy and quite intimidating. I was reassured that I would get 'tonnes of viewings' over the next few weeks, and two weeks later I've had zero. I want to get out of this agreement and go with local but because the property is listed apparently I can't cancel in the 14 day period.

The experience has been frustrating from the start:

- After he sent me the photos I had to edit them to remove noise as they were low quality
- He doesn't reply to my messages or calls
- He ignored a viewing request I had which lead to a cancellation
- He guaranteed I'd have lots of viewings (admittedly in person and no text evidence)

I opted for the premium of £1399 as it comes with a 'dedicated agent' which I haven't had at all.

I want to write a complaint to Yopa and get out of this agreement, I will raise it to the property ombudsmun as well.

I'm not very good with my wording and would greatly appreciate some help drafting up a complaint to secure the outcome I deserve. I understand it's only been two weeks but he knew I was on a time crunch, and after speaking to other local agents - it sounds like they'd actually call people in the area that have viewed similar properties and get them in for viewings. Something that Yopa hasn't done.

Thanks
Amy

trakky14

Sorry you've had this experience, we made the mistake of using purple bricks a few years ago for our house sale which were equally useless. We just sucked up what we'd paid and took it off the market with them after 2 weeks as we needed to sell quickly. We relisted with a high street agent and sold it on the first viewing with them.

Can't advise re getting your money back, it's really frustrating how these companies suck people in. 

[Deleted User]

Hi Amy, 

I'm sorry you've experienced this. I, as a first time buyer, had a horrible experience back in March with Yopa and would never use them again. I had an offer accepted on a property, which I was delighted about. As time was marching on, my solicitor didn't hear anything from the Yopa agent. It turned out I had been gazumped and had lost the property, but no one let me know. I wrote to Yopa's complaints dept who were initially shirking the blame. After I told them I'd be reporting it to the Property Ombudsman, I received £100.

You may have to fight a bit for your complaint to get a bit of attention, but it may be worth it. Good luck!

donutandbeer

We sold through Yopa early this year and had a very good experience with them, especially after our first buyer pulled out and we were quite stressed about losing our purchase. To be fair I did look up online and see that our local Yopa team has very good reviews before we chose them. I think different local teams might vary a lot. 

Anyway back to your question. Did you pay them upfront? I believe they have a package that is “no sale no fee” and after 16 weeks (and maybe earlier?) you can decide to withdraw or proceed (if you proceed with them at that point you will have to pay regardless). We didn’t choose that package ourselves though. If you didn’t choose that package (which is more expensive than other package) then you probably don’t have much comeback. 

eddddy

Amylittles said:

I want to get out of this agreement and go with local but because the property is listed apparently I can't cancel in the 14 day period.

I would disagree with that.

Either they are just making stuff up (i.e. fibbing), or perhaps they are trying to rely on an exclusion in the law which says you lose the right to cancel "if the service has been fully performed" at the time you try to cancel.

Looking at their T&Cs, just "listing the property" isn't fully performing the service. 

Their T&Cs say:

... you instruct us to market your Property on a ‘Sole Agency Basis’ for a minimum term of 16 weeks 

And it's impossible to have been marketing a property for 16 weeks - if they only started less than 14 days ago.


BUT... if you cancel within the 14 days, they have the right to charge you for their costs. So that might include the cost of somebody measuring up your property, taking photos, writing a description, loading the details onto a website etc. I could see them charging maybe £150 to £250 for that.

So just be insistent that you want to cancel. 

There's a bit more info here: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-s-a-cooling-off-period-and-how-do-i-use-it-to-cancel-an-order-avk4B3g0YAuH

Scroll down to "How to cancel a service during a cooling-off period"

GDB2222

For others contemplating using Yopa, for goodness sake DON'T!

Strike provides a similar service, and they don't charge.
https://strike.co.uk/

My SIL sold through Strike, and he saved over £5k in fees  Previously, he had instructed a full service agent, which failed miserably. He remarketed through Strike, at a lower price to reflect the saving on agency fees, and found a buyer almost immediately. 

 

silvercar

Our seller did well out of Yopa, the property wasn’t in our search area but the Yopa estate agent persuaded us to take a look as it ticked all other boxes. We bought.

donutandbeer

GDB2222 said:

For others contemplating using Yopa, for goodness sake DON'T!

Strike provides a similar service, and they don't charge.
https://strike.co.uk/

My SIL sold through Strike, and he saved over £5k in fees  Previously, he had instructed a full service agent, which failed miserably. He remarketed through Strike, at a lower price to reflect the saving on agency fees, and found a buyer almost immediately. 

 

Not trying to sound like I work for Yopa (especially when I already left a comment above) but.. 

We viewed a house that’s listed through Strike a few months ago. The “estate agent” seems like just a guy in sports wear that lives nearby - not a huge problem, I don’t care if they are not in suits, but this guy also knows absolutely nothing about the house, vendor’s position or just anything really (eg. garage was on the floor plan online but he didn’t know whether the garage belongs to the house or not). He’s only there to open the door. We’ve viewed a lot of properties this year, and I already don’t expect estate agents to know much, but that experience was something else. 

We didn’t offer on that house, so I can’t say I know what their post-sale support is like. When we sold through Yopa, we had a whole team of people very reachable & responsive anytime throughout the process. I did check online beforehand and saw that our local Yopa team has very good reviews. I have also seen some bad reviews of Yopa on this forum, so I can only imagine their service probably vary quite a lot depending on what your local team is like.

Anyway, this comment is meant to be more about sharing our bad experience with Strike. 

GDB2222

Whenever I have sold, I have always been happy to show potential buyers round myself and to answer their questions. I perhaps should have said that. 

I really just need an agent to do the listing on the major websites and forward calls to me. That would not work for everyone, though, I agree.

NameUnavailable

Amylittles said:

I put my property on the market with Yopa two weeks ago, the agent knew this was a time sensitive matter and I feel he's taken advantage of that - on reflection he was really pushy and quite intimidating. I was reassured that I would get 'tonnes of viewings' over the next few weeks, and two weeks later I've had zero. I want to get out of this agreement and go with local but because the property is listed apparently I can't cancel in the 14 day period.


Thanks
Amy

Just a few thoughts/comments. No agent can promise you a quick sale, even if they think they have an ideal buyer on the books, and of course they are all going to say you'll get lots of viewings.

If you're not getting any interest then - assuming Yopa are advertising your property on the usual websites - it suggests there's some issue with it or it's over priced. That said, quite a lot has happened in the market in the past couple of weeks with interest rate rises, mortagages being pulled etc. etc.

I don't know what a Yopa contract states but if there is a cooling off period then hold them to it, although there may still be costs that you have to pay for them up to this point.

[Deleted User]

Read your terms and condition, is there a condition you can cancel.

Strange they will not let you leave within 14 days.

They might allow you to sell to someone who has viewed through them but you said no views/offers yet.

Hopefully you can exit without fees, but some companies can be very dodgy.