Get out of Yopa Contract

EddyZ

I've been in a dispute with Yopa to not pay the amount they say I owe them. I've been to Property Ombudsman and they got a £75 discount offere due to the poor service. I had an agent promise me a sale and many viewings and without going into long detailed evidence no of this happened, including lack of contact. I also paused the contract and they took my property off the market without telling me I still owe the fee. After my initial complaint they gave me a £150 discount on th fee which I stupidly accepted then the £75 but I still owe arounds £1,200. Can anyone help with the despicably bad service I got from them to at least get this fee down further? Thank you.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

EddyZ said:

 I had an agent promise me a sale and many viewings

Do you have confirmation of this in writing or was this info given verbally OP? 

macman

if you agreed a discount then was this presumably granted as 'full and final settlement'? if so, no comebacks.

EddyZ

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

EddyZ said:

 I had an agent promise me a sale and many viewings

Do you have confirmation of this in writing or was this info given verbally OP? 

Yes, I have it on emails and on WhatsApp's which they've had all the copies of.

Vectis

EddyZ said:

I had an agent promise me a sale and many viewings

Yopa is a 16 week contract, I believe. Are you saying that they gave you a guarantee, in writing, that they would sell the house within that period? That sounds highly unlikely.

And, how many viewings is 'many'? 4, 5, 20? It's very subjective, if that's what they said.

If you decide to take your property off the market, then it's very likely that you'll still have a fee to pay.

'If you cancel your Agreement after the 14 days cancellation period but before the 16 weeks agreed term, you will be charged for any services performed from the date of the Agreement, which was the date you accepted these terms & conditions to the cancellation date.'

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

EddyZ said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

EddyZ said:

 I had an agent promise me a sale and many viewings

Do you have confirmation of this in writing or was this info given verbally OP? 

Yes, I have it on emails and on WhatsApp's which they've had all the copies of.

Hi OP

Section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act says:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/50

Information about the trader or service to be binding

(1)Every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including as a term of the contract anything that is said or written to the consumer, by or on behalf of the trader, about the trader or the service, if—

(a)it is taken into account by the consumer when deciding to enter into the contract, or

(b)it is taken into account by the consumer when making any decision about the service after entering into the contract.

(2)Anything taken into account by the consumer as mentioned in subsection (1)(a) or (b) is subject to—

(a)anything that qualified it and was said or written to the consumer by the trader on the same occasion, and

(b)any change to it that has been expressly agreed between the consumer and the trader (before entering into the contract or later).

So if they gave you this info before agreeing the contract they may have breached the contract in which case you'd be entitled to a price reduction. 

With the point raised above regarding "many" 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/69

Contract terms that may have different meanings

(1)If a term in a consumer contract, or a consumer notice, could have different meanings, the meaning that is most favourable to the consumer is to prevail.

That doesn't help quantify exactly and ultimately it would be down to the opinion of the small claims court if you went that far, but if you had 2 viewings I doubt most people would think that was many, if you had 20 IMO that is many.

Their terms seem to say you don't get charged unless you get a sale (with them being able to terminate the agreement after 10 months) so if you haven't had a sale why are they charging you. What does 

EddyZ said:

 I also paused the contract 

Mean? 

EddyZ

So I got zero viewings, and WhatsApp messages saying things like I promise we will sell, and I promise we will get this price. I didn't realise I hadn't signed the contract that says the fee is due either upon sale or when 10 months is up whichever comes first. So of course I went beyond the 10 months and that's when they tried to tell me I owed them the full fee. I am not sure what the 16 week term is, as I tried to cancel my contract literally on day 15 by accident thinking it was 14 and they refused, and said I was tied in now. What would be the best action to take?

This was their outcome from my complaint:
Thank you for raising your concerns with us on 10th November. And for taking the time to speak with me on 22nd November regarding the issues you raised. Since our conversation I have consulted all evidence at my disposal. I have concluded my investigation into your complaint and have laid out my findings below. During our conversation on 22nd November, we agreed that the points to be investigated as part of your complaint are as follows:
1. Poor communication from LYA (Local Yopa Agent) 2. Lack of interest/viewings on property 3. Querying methods used to gain interest in the property Desired Outcome Due to the issues you have faced, you do not wish to pay your fees, you have stated that you would consider reductions. Investigation Upon receiving your complaint, and within our telephone conversation, you have outlined the issues that you have encountered during your time with Yopa. I have addressed your complaint points below, I have outlined your concerns, explained what the evidence I have at my disposal has shown and whether I have been able to uphold your complaint point or not. 1. Poor communication from LYA (Local Yopa Agent) Within your complaint, you advised me that you have received poor communication from your LYA. You informed me that the majority of your communication with your LYA is via WhatsApp. Here at Yopa, we expect our LYAs to be in regular contact with their customers and to respond to any communications from their customers within 24-48 hours or as soon as is reasonably possible. I have been provided with screenshots of the communications between yourself and your LYA by both parties to assist my investigations, I have outlined what these show me below, I have not been provided with call logs, so I have been unable to cross reference any gaps in communication via WhatsApp to possible telephone communication. While I can see that all your messages to your LYA have been responded to within our expected 24-48 hours, I have been able to evidence the following gaps in communications that do not meet our expected standards of communication levels: 
16th August to 23rd August – no communication •
26th August to 5th September – no communication •
6 th September to 12th October – no communication •
12th October to 28th October – no communication •
28th October to 4th November – no communication
As I have been able to evidence the 5 instances of communication that do not meet our expected standards, I agree with this complaint point and look to award you a reduction to your fees of £150 in recompense and by way of an apology for this.
2. Lack of interest/viewings on property Within your complaint, you informed me that you have had no viewings requested for your property. You stated that your property is also marketed by Barnard Marcus who you have had viewings through, however, thus far, no offers. I have reviewed your account to ascertain the levels of interest that has been shown on your property and have outlined my findings below. You instructed Yopa to market your property on 6th August 2022 at 11:04, you opted for our Core package on a Pay Later plan. Your marketing with Yopa commenced when your advert went live on our partner portals on 11th August 2022 at 09:15. To date, your property has been actively marketed for 109 days, and during this time your property advert has been shown in over 64,465 searches, your advert has been viewed over 4,050 times, however, none of these advert views have resulted in any viewing requests. I have liaised with your LYA to ascertain why she thinks your property is not securing any viewing requests, she advised that despite your property being in a prime location, she has noticed a decline in the sales of properties such as yours in your area. While a marked lull in the market is usually experienced at this time of the year, she has tried to counteract this by having a Featured Listing upgrade applied to your advert on the Rightmove and Zoopla websites for a period of two weeks and by regularly sending out your property advert to her registered potential buyers. Yopa does not guarantee viewings or the eventual sale of any property that we market, while this is the purpose of the marketing of the property and the end goal that we strive towards, due to the nature of the business, this is not something that can be guaranteed. I understand that it can be worrying that there has been no interest in viewings shown during the 3 months that your property has been marketed, I can see that your LYA has been making continued efforts to increase the interest shown in your property, therefore I am unable to uphold this complaint point. 3. Querying methods used to gain interest in the property In addition to the above complaint points, you are querying what methods your LYA has used to increase the interest on your property. From my review of your account, I can see that the asking price for your property was amended twice (prior to your complaint being raised) as follows:
• 6 th September – Increased from £595,950 to £600,000
• 28th October – Reduced from £600,000 to £550,000
On 5th September, a Featured Listing upgrade was added to your account for a period of two weeks. I can see that this did increase the interest shown on your property. On 4th September your advert was shown in 370 searches and was viewed 26 times. The day the upgrade was added, 5th September, your advert was shown in 894 searches and was viewed 44 times. This increase in interest is evidence throughout the two-week upgraded period and peaked on 18th September when your advert was shown in 1,000 searches and was viewed 42 times. This would usually cost £149, however was provided at no cost to yourself. I can see that when your property asking price was reduced, there has been a notable increase in interest, on 28th October when your asking price was reduced to £550,000, your advert was shown in 1,400 searches and was viewed 91 times, the following day, it showed in 1,500 searches and was viewed 88 times. Then your most recent reduction, on 23rd November looks to have been the most successful in increasing interest, on 22nd November, your advert was shown in 385 searches and was viewed 32 times, however, on 23rd November, this interest spiked to 2,300 searches and 106 advert views. This is very close to the amount of interest shown in your property when it first entered the market with 2,200 searches and 297 advert views. In addition to the above, I can see that your LYA sent out your advert details to her list of registered potential buyers on the following dates: • 18th August • 6 th September • 5 th October • 28th October Your LYA has explored multiple avenues to increase interest shown in your property. Outcome Following my review of your complaint points raised, I am unable to uphold your complaint in its entirety. I acknowledge that you feel you have received poor service from your LYA, however, I am unable to evidence that she has acted in a manner that is outside of the standards that are expected of her by both Yopa, and the Property Ombudsman apart from where shown within this report. I have been able to evidence that there has been a poor level of communication from your LYA during the time your property has been marketed with Yopa, therefore, I have offered you a reduction to your fees of £150 in recompense and by way of an apology for this. I acknowledge that the lack of viewings of your property is disappointing. I have spoke with your LYA, she is also disappointed with the lack of interest being shown into your property, she has agreed to conduct a full advert re-work, new photographs, re-worded property description and a social media drive in the New Year when the market typically picks up after a slower holiday period. She has also agreed to increase the levels of communication with yourself and does apologise for the previous poor communication. In total, the offers of resolution I have for you are, the full advert re-work and £150 reduction to your fees. I apologise for the issues that you have encountered during your time marketing your property with Yopa

born_again

I would take the reduction & go to a local agent who is more experienced in local properties & their pricing.

We have a house near us that has been for sale for over 4 years Goes up for sale via different online co's each year, after being removed pre christmas. Was a new build that someone moved into & decided they wanted to move the next year.
Never once been on a local estate agent.

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/65449935/?search_identifier=3fa28c3577bbecb4b71f4790db334b3e33979a78956b8808262909aeb8e6584c


As ever you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it drink.

Clearly like the above house, something is putting people off physically viewing the property. 
Perhaps post a link to your property in the section below & get views from others on what maybe the issues.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

EddyZ said:

I didn't realise I hadn't signed the contract that says the fee is due either upon sale or when 10 months is up whichever comes first. 

That's a fair bit of info to read OP, at a glance it appears they are offering the £150 due to a lack of communication that occurred at one point, which they acknowledge was an issue. 

Beyond this in terms of what you did sign you'd have to check the terms. 

If you are saying you thought you was signing for one thing but ended up signing for another you'd need to show you was mislead which would require details of how you agreed the contract and anything in writing from them that could be used to show they mislead you. 

Same goes for claims of viewings, etc, if you can show they said they would deliver something before you signed and they haven't then you might have a claim for a price reduction.

These kinds of things are very subjective depending upon exactly what happened and in order to make such a claim this needs to be presented a very concise manner that is only relevant to the specific areas for which you have a valid complaint. 

I don't think we can say much more here and you might need  a fair bit of help chasing this via small claims, all things considered it might be a battle not worth fighting and accepting their offer (or if you wish seeing if they'll go to £200 or even £250).