Estate Agent Asking for More Money to List Property for Another 6 Months

DullGreyGuy

adzy77 said:

Hi, we have a property for sale via Strike and we are coming to the end of our initial 6 month listing period.

They have contacted me today to say that in order to keep the listing up for a further 6 months I will either need to pay £199 or reduce the price by 5% and they will list for free for a further 3 months.

This was never mentioned when signing up nor am I able to find any wording to support this (i have requested this from them too).

The only part im aware of when signing up and is still in their terms is this:

"At the end of your 6-month Marketing Period your Property will be delisted and removed from our Website, portals and other advertising mediums unless we decide, in our sole discretion, to continue to market your Property for you free of charge for such period as we decide. Where we decide to continue to market your Property you will be required to keep your 'For Sale' board erected in accordance with clause 6 above."

As of yet they have been unable to provide anything that backs up their request for payment so at the moment it just seems like a ploy to get some extra money out of us.

Before I escalate this further, what rights do they have to do this if any? And what should I be saying?

The property sale has fell through a couple of times (both buyers fault) hence why its been up for 6 months and have no interest to moving to a different EA at this stage.

They say you pay for 6 months, you've gotten 6 months, after that they delist you.

Whilst the contract gives them the sole right to offer you some extra stuff for free it doesn't preclude them from offer you some extra stuff at a cost. If you say no then it simply delists which is what the expectation should have been based on the that term. 

user1977

adzy77 said:

eddddy said:

I'm not really sure what your argument would be.

In simple terms their contract says...

• "We'll advertise your house for 6 months. After that we'll decide whether we want to give you some extra months for free"

And now after 6 months they're saying...

• "We've decided not to give you any extra months for free. But you can buy a few more months for £199 if you want, or if you reduce your price we'll give you some extra months for free."

You might think they're being a bit cheeky - but they're not breaking the terms of the contract that you agreed to.

No I do get that. My issue is this is the first I have heard of it until I had someone call me today, almost like a sales call. If this was a common thing, I would expect them to have some sort of policy that they can share to back this up.

I have requested for any such policy or terms but they haven't been able to provide any so just seem to be plucking figures out of thin air, thats my concern.

What happened when you signed up to the contract originally? Did they produce a "policy", or do anything other than quote their price?

adzy77

Thanks all for your feedback. Think a bit if naivety on my part. Its the first time we are selling a house and to be honest until they mentioned it today I didnt even remember the 6 month clause, so yes I just assumed it kept ticking over until sold.

They have since advised that they will continue to list for free, but the £199 is to list on rightmove/zoopla for another 6 months, now that I understand, just wished they would have explained that on the original call

TonyMMM

I tried to buy a property listed by Strike last year - gave up in the end, they were terrible to deal with, and would never try again with them. Luckily we quickly found a nicer property listed through a local agent.

penners324

Change to a better estate agent

Olinda99

unless you are in no hurry and are willing to wait an unspecified amount of time for a sale I would definitely consider listing it with a local proper estate agent.

anything you have saved over the last six months by choosing a cheap agent like strike you have definitely lost due to the general reduction in house prices over that period

adzy77

Olinda99 said:

unless you are in no hurry and are willing to wait an unspecified amount of time for a sale I would definitely consider listing it with a local proper estate agent.

anything you have saved over the last six months by choosing a cheap agent like strike you have definitely lost due to the general reduction in house prices over that period

Im interested to understand your reasoning for this one? and is not a challenge of your views by the way.

In my opinion, if a house is for sale and listed on rightmove and zoopla then I dont see what difference the estate agent makes?

Im expecting you to say that they have a little black book of people who are looking to buy in the area that they can reach out to but, as per above those potential buyers will see it on the portals anyway and from my experience of viewing properties, 3 different EA's have listed new properties similar to properties we had previously viewed with them, but not one of them contacted me to let me know.

sheramber

they dio have a sort of policy as explained  in

At the end of your 6-month Marketing Period your Property will be delisted and removed from our Website, portals and other advertising mediums unless we decide, in our sole discretion, to continue to market your Property for you free of charge for such period as we decide.

At the end of your 6-month Marketing Period your Property will be delisted and removed from our Website, portals and other advertising mediums

Your agreement is at an end so to continue to advertise you need to take out a new agreement with them or another agent.


but they say
unless we decide, in our sole discretion, to continue to market your Property for you free of charge for such period as we decide.

they have decided to offer your three months free of charge if you reduce the price.

These are your two choices, which are explained in that statement.

adzy77

TonyMMM said:

I tried to buy a property listed by Strike last year - gave up in the end, they were terrible to deal with, and would never try again with them. Luckily we quickly found a nicer property listed through a local agent.

What problems did you encounter?

Personal opinion of course but the way Strike works actually works great for us. I can manage my viewing calendar, all viewing requests, messages and offers come direct to me and I can manage it all myself.

eddddy

adzy77 said:

They have since advised that they will continue to list for free, but the £199 is to list on rightmove/zoopla for another 6 months, now that I understand, just wished they would have explained that on the original call

As you suggested earlier, I suspect they are simply pulling 'terms and conditions' out of the air as they go along. That's how a lot of 'sales-led' businesses work.


(I was talking to a secondhand car salesman over the weekend and he was doing the same thing.)