Buying house - agent aggressive and not telling truth, what can we do?

edmor

TLDR- we’re buying a house and the agent is being quite aggressive and I don’t think wholly truthful. What can we do?

The full story - We’re buying a chain free Victorian property from an older lady who is moving out for health reasons.

Survey and searches have identified quite a lot of issues incl damp, new roof, rewiring needs and so forth but we’re quite committed to the property. Offer accepted very end of June and we made clear from outset that we were in rental and needed 6 weeks notice to exit it. 

Throughout the process the agent has been quite dismissive of any concerns and just tried to push sale through, querying the need for any further survey ie of electrics etc. We asked for some money off (£10k) as we’ve uncovered about £25k of work. This which was rejected - altho we’ve sucked it up as the accepted offer was fair.

Suddenly in the last two weeks the agent has gone absolutely beserk beyond previous pushy emails and started spamming us and our lawyers with emails calls and voicemails to push the sale through. On Monday we got an email saying they were aiming for exchange and completion on 30 September and the vendor has moved into rental property in expectation - bear in mind we’ve not seen a contract yet and legals are still ongoing and we had absolutely no knowledge of any targeted date for exchange let alone completion. 

My partner spoke to our agent about the matter, explained the position and then the agent sent an email to the lawyer which absolutely misrepresented everything my partner said. We emailed to challenge this. 

We then spoke to our lawyers who pushed back on our behalf and then we recieved some of the most aggressive emails ever from the agent and regional sales manager which involved the partner of the law firm getting involved in the chain.

I honestly feel we cannot continue with this agent and the transaction is about to break down. I also worry for the vendor - I think they are agressivrly pushing an older lady to get the sale asap, if she’s truly moved to rental property I have no idea why as we’re weeks from exchange or completion.

Is there any way we can ask for the vendor to re market with a new agent or formally complain to a trades body?

Emmia

edmor said:

TLDR- we’re buying a house and the agent is being quite aggressive and I don’t think wholly truthful. What can we do?

The full story - We’re buying a chain free Victorian property from an older lady who is moving out for health reasons.

Survey and searches have identified quite a lot of issues incl damp, new roof, rewiring needs and so forth but we’re quite committed to the property. Offer accepted very end of June and we made clear from outset that we were in rental and needed 6 weeks notice to exit it. 

Throughout the process the agent has been quite dismissive of any concerns and just tried to push sale through, querying the need for any further survey ie of electrics etc. We asked for some money off (£10k) as we’ve uncovered about £25k of work. This which was rejected - altho we’ve sucked it up as the accepted offer was fair.

Suddenly in the last two weeks the agent has gone absolutely beserk beyond previous pushy emails and started spamming us and our lawyers with emails calls and voicemails to push the sale through. On Monday we got an email saying they were aiming for exchange and completion on 30 September and the vendor has moved into rental property in expectation - bear in mind we’ve not seen a contract yet and legals are still ongoing and we had absolutely no knowledge of any targeted date for exchange let alone completion. 

My partner spoke to our agent about the matter, explained the position and then the agent sent an email to the lawyer which absolutely misrepresented everything my partner said. We emailed to challenge this. 

We then spoke to our lawyers who pushed back on our behalf and then we recieved some of the most aggressive emails ever from the agent and regional sales manager which involved the partner of the law firm getting involved in the chain.

I honestly feel we cannot continue with this agent and the transaction is about to break down. I also worry for the vendor - I think they are agressivrly pushing an older lady to get the sale asap, if she’s truly moved to rental property I have no idea why as we’re weeks from exchange or completion.

Is there any way we can ask for the vendor to re market with a new agent or formally complain to a trades body?

As the agent "introduced you" to the property, the seller is on the hook for their fees even if they switched to another agent (who would also want the fees), and they may be tied into a contract preventing remarketing.

Tiglet2

Could you inform the Estate Agent that you no longer wish them to communicate with you.  Any questions they may have they can direct to your solicitor. 

The agent is contracted by the seller, so if you don't want them contacting you, tell them that.  The only parties who will honestly know how far along the process you really are will be the solicitors acting for you and the vendor.  The agent isn't copied in to any correspondence, they are not consulted over timelines and, importantly, they have no leverage over "pushing the sale" through. 

In truth, once the property was under offer and solicitors instructed, the agent is not actually needed other than to communicate up and down the chain and smooth any rough patches and they seem to be failing in that.

HappyHarry

Is it possible that the vendor is in very poor health, and the family and / or agent are concerned that if the house does not sell soon then it might be tied up in probate for a long time?

whatever the reason, they can’t force you to move faster and would have to look for another buyer that could complete almost immediately to get get further forward.

Mr.Generous

The agent might wonder why you asked for 10K off from an old lady, on an old delapidated house which needs loads of work, when you got it for a reasonable price. Did you honestly think everything would be up to scratch? 

With the surveys I think by saying 'don't bother getting any more' the agent is hinting that yes, the property needs a lot of work, but also it was priced accordingly so is not going to be reduced to fund improvements you want to do.

The agent will say just about anything to try and push the sale through, they get paid by the seller and represent the seller's interests primarily. If you can't work with them you might be better looking elsewhere.

Herzlos

"Calm down or we'll withdraw".

At this stage you should be dealing with the sellers solicitor and not an estate agent anyway.


It sounds like they are getting desperate for the commission, and you shouldn't be pressured into moving earlier than agreed especially if there are outstanding issues.

edmor

Mr.Generous said:

The agent might wonder why you asked for 10K off from an old lady, on an old delapidated house which needs loads of work, when you got it for a reasonable price. Did you honestly think everything would be up to scratch? 

With the surveys I think by saying 'don't bother getting any more' the agent is hinting that yes, the property needs a lot of work, but also it was priced accordingly so is not going to be reduced to fund improvements you want to do.

The agent will say just about anything to try and push the sale through, they get paid by the seller and represent the seller's interests primarily. If you can't work with them you might be better looking elsewhere.

I really appreciate all the comments as it’s a useful perspective. 

I would just say that the property blurb stated ‘meticulously maintained’ (!) and the house is north of £800k in London. We had thought work was primarily cosmetic, it’s priced fairly for the area but I equally wouldn’t say we under offered.  

eddddy

edmor said:

On Monday we got an email saying they were aiming for exchange and completion on 30 September and the vendor has moved into rental property in expectation - bear in mind we’ve not seen a contract yet and legals are still ongoing and we had absolutely no knowledge of any targeted date for exchange let alone completion. 

The 30th September will be the last day of the estate agent's quarter (or it might be the end of their financial year).

So my guess is that either...

• The estate agent is close to hitting a quarterly sales target - and will get a big bonus, if your purchase goes through by 30th September

• The estate agent has underperformed - and is in danger of getting a disciplinary warning, or even sacked, if your purchase doesn't go through by 30th September

(FWIW, I've worked with companies - but not estate agents - where missing one quarter's sales target results in a written warning. Missing two consecutive quarters' sales targets is defined in the employment contract as gross misconduct and can result in being sacked.)

But none of that is your problem.

In your position, I would just treat the estate agent a bit like a child who's having a tantrum.

edmor said:

Is there any way we can ask for the vendor to re market with a new agent or formally complain to a trades body?

No - realistically there's no way another agent can take over. And I would tend to ignore the agent, rather than take on the hassle of arguing the case with any type of 3rd party.

user1977

What would be the point of another agent getting involved when there is already a buyer?

RHemmings

user1977 said:

What would be the point of another agent getting involved when there is already a buyer?

Perhaps the second agent would be competent. 

BobT36

Mr.Generous said:

it was priced accordingly so is not going to be reduced to fund improvements you want to do.

According to whom? The agent and seller can think what they want, it's the buyer's opinion that matters regarding their own money and what willing to offer. Of course the other side can reject that.

As to an agent getting shirty, just ignore it and firmly state your position and carry on as usual. It's YOUR money and YOUR future in that house that could be negatively impacted if you overlook something. If you're not willing to move quicker, then don't. Certainly don't agree to any "targets" set by them. 

I recently had an agent that wouldn't stop calling to try and get me to set up arrangements with their "finance adviser" and try and get me to commit to signing up to their solicitors and surveyors ("As it's good to have everything ready"), and this was before I'd even VIEWED! 
I'd also told them I'd got solicitor and surveyor companies of my own picked out ready, and there was no need to actually engage with any of those before making an offer, plus the mortgage company (that I have a mortgage in principle with)  told me VERY strongly to not engage any solicitors & surveyors until they give the go-ahead, and to start with the application to them, first. 

Of course the agent just kept stating their line and calling. Obvious that they wanted their commission of course despite how silly it was before even viewed, I just had to tell them VERY explicitly I will NOT be strong-armed by their attempted marketing, and I will be doing x, y, z and that only, and not to mention it to me again. They did pipe down after that. 

You're in control of your own money, life and finances. Buying a house is likely the most expensive purchase you will ever make. It's not for someone else to say what you do with that or that you should spend less time scrutinising on a house than you would when buying something cheap on Amazon.