Purplebricks acquisition by Strike June 2, 2023

soulsurfer

Strike have recently acquired Purplebricks.  We were made aware of this by our Account Manager and Local Property Manager who we had a really good relationship with and had no complaints about, who both lost their jobs due to the acquisition. 

We received an email from Purplebricks on August 10th saying 'We are changing the way we provide our service....'  No mention of the acquisition, and saying they would be in touch.  We heard nothing so I contacted them on August 24th.  I was given the name of our new Account Manager (in London) who called us back but seemed quite surprised that I needed to talk with him and made no apologies for not having been in touch.

We paid upfront when we put the house on the market as we wanted Purplebricks to conduct the viewings and we also had the 3D view option.  When I asked the new Account Manager would he be conducting the viewings he said no, they would be carried out by a 3rd party (he said the name but I didn't catch it).  

We are not happy with the lack of contact from Purplebricks, the fact I had to contact them and we now have 'non Purplebricks staff' conducting the viewings.  Our previous Account Manager lived in the next Village to ours (5 mins away) knew the area etc, our Local Property Manager lived in the same city.  Do I have any right to request to cancel our contract and be refunded the money we have paid so we can change to a local estate agent? 

theartfullodger

What does your contract with PB say about cancellation?  Sorry, can't read it from here.

Brie

When we last sold there was a set period for the EA to deal with things which was outlined in our contract.  Difference was though that we were paying commission rather than an upfront fee.

Why not contact a local EA to see if they've been approached by PB/Strike?  If they have then they likely wouldn't be allowed to pick up a contract with you directly.  If they haven't it would be a good way to gauge whether you could work with them.  

eddddy

soulsurfer said:

When I asked the new Account Manager would he be conducting the viewings he said no, they would be carried out by a 3rd party (he said the name but I didn't catch it).  

FWIW, there are a number of companies that provide "viewing services" for estate agents - and there are also freelance viewing agents.

As an example, there's this company: https://viewber.co.uk/services

It looks like this company would charge an estate agent (like PB/Strike) £12+vat for conducting up to 4 viewings within a 1 hour slot.


But as you can imagine, the viewing agent will know nothing about the property. Essentially, they will probably just unlock the front door at the start, loiter in the hall during the viewings, and re-lock the front door at the end.

(And probably encourage the viewers to leave, once the 1 hour slot they've been paid for has ended.)

eddddy

soulsurfer said:

Do I have any right to request to cancel our contract and be refunded the money we have paid so we can change to a local estate agent? 

Unfortunately, there isn't a term in PB's current contract that allows you to claim a refund.  (They briefly offered a "money back guarantee", but that scheme ended over a year ago.)


If PB had committed a very serious breach of contract, you might be able to repudiate (or cancel) the contract and get a refund - but that would probably be a very tough fight.  You would need to read the contract in detail to identify serious breaches.


As a starting point, I guess you could try arguing that PB aren't providing you with a 'Local Property Partner', as stated in their contract...

What do words and phrases mean in this Service Agreement?

- ‘Local Property Partner’ means the person(s) appointed by Purplebricks in your local area to help with your sale.

Our Products and Services include ‘Classic’ which consists of:

...access to your own dedicated team to serve you from instruction to completion, including Local Property Partner,...

Link: https://www.purplebricks.co.uk/terms/service-agreement  (Assuming these are the contract terms you agreed to.)

And PB are member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme - so you could try complaining to them.

theartfullodger

Cancel then take to small claims for refund.  Having gone through their complaints process.

Dunno if you'll win....