Purplebricks - not responding and losing viewings

saint_david

We put our house on the market with PB roughly 2 months ago. We had some viewings but no offers and communication from PB wasn't great. PB was then sold and we were given a new property expert to manage the viewings - who immediately cancelled a second viewing from a potential buyer because she went on maternity leave!

We've heard nothing since and can see more viewings are being scheduled but cancelled because nobody from PB is confirming the requests. We've made endless calls to our new south African based 'property manager' and also made an official complaint but while we wait for their response we continue to lose viewings and potentially the sale of the property. The property manager himself has been unable to get a response from anyone involved in managing the property and also has no idea who has the set of keys we supplied for the accompanied viewings.

We're intending to go down the ombudsman route at some point. Given what's been happening how likely are we to get the contract with PB terminated?

Mstty

Gather all the evidence you can of PB cancelling viewings.

I would.personally put my property up for sale with another Estate Agent either online or high street knowing that PB have messed up but the important thing is the house sale.

Up to you what you do though.

eddddy

saint_david said:

We're intending to go down the ombudsman route at some point. Given what's been happening how likely are we to get the contract with PB terminated?

You can terminate your contract at any time (it's called "withdraw your instructions for us to market the property" in their agreement.)

But I guess you either mean that you want the money back that you paid them, or you opted for "pay later" and you don't want to pay them.


It's certainly worth complaining to PB, followed by a complaint to the Property Ombudsman - with details of how PB breached their contract with you.

If you opted for "pay later", it's worth starting the complaints procedure quickly.  If you delay, and PB start court proceedings against you, the Ombudsman won't get involved.

(And you're likely to be better off dealing with the Ombudsman, than dealing with a court. The Ombudsman is more biased towards the consumer.)

PRAISETHESUN

If you're worried about where the keys have gone, I'd go and change the locks. No longer any worries about where they've gone, or how many copies have been made...

caprikid1

Low fee service provider provides poor service ?? Now thats a shocker. A good traditional local estate agents still exist for a good reason. A good estate agent often will achieve a price that well and trully includes their fee's without the hassle of PB etc.

TonyMMM

Haven't they just been taken over by Strike, and staff made redundant ? That may explain some of the communication issues.

https://news.sky.com/story/new-purplebricks-owner-to-strike-out-chunk-of-workforce-12933242

I tried to buy a property that was on the market through Strike last year - what a nightmare they were to deal with - never again !