Useless Estate Agent

mazco

We put our house on the market with a local estate agent who seemed to "talk the talk" really well.
We signed the contract with him at about 3pm on the Thursday afternoon and by 6 pm he posted that printed details through our door for us to sign. He also rang with a viewing for the following day. This sounds really efficient but unfortunately NOT.
The viewer came and went. We had to ring the agent to get feedback as they didn't offer any. They knew what the viewer thought because he'd been into their office to sort out finance not because they'd phoned and asked for feedback.
The floorplan provided with the details was completely wrong. We returned it next day together with the builders floorplan (the house is only 3 years old). We went into the office the following Thursday to sign off the new floor plan, only to find it hadn't been done. We then went in again on Monday of this week and it still wasn't done. We looked at a draft of the new version and corrected it again. It is now Thursday 2 weeks on and we still haven't received a copy to sign off. As they say they can't give out incorrect details, we assume that they aren't handing out any details of our property. We certainly haven't had any further viewings.
We were promised on Monday that our house would be featured in the Local Paper Property supplement today. We've just bought the paper and surprise, surprise - it's not there!!
We've also been astounded at their inefficiency in the way they've handled us as buyers. We are looking for a house in the same area with a LARGE garden. Every time we've been in the office we've asked if they've got anything on their books that would fit. They consistently have nothing. 2 days ago we found a property that had just come on Right Move. It is a property we specifically asked about and were told it was sold at Christmas. When I asked the girl in the Agents "Has the sale just fallen through" she told me that it had fallen through just after Christmas but it hadn't been marked as available again on RightMove. We viewed the house yesterday and they've made no attempt to get feedback from us.
It seems to me that we have a very one sided contract. We are tied to them for 4 weeks and have to give 2 weeks notice. What I want to know is "As they don't seem to be marketing our property do we have any way of getting out of this contract without notice." In any other situation we would only be tied in if the company concerned was delivering their side of the bargain.
We are going to give 2 weeks notice, but can anyone suggest a way of getting out earlier.

jimc_2

If it says two weeks in the contract you're stuck with it I'm afraid. Unless they have done anything illegal you can't even complain officially. Local Trading Standards will only intervene if the law or regulations have been broken. Lazy doesn't count!

Try complaining to the manager with the threat of withdrawal. It it's a chain try to get through to head office to complain about the manager! They need every instruction they can get right now.

Actually two weeks isn't too bad by agent's standards but check the contract doesn't have some sneakier terms. Sometimes there's a restriction on marketing AFTER withdrawing the instruction from the first agent such as not allowing another agent to be instructed for X weeks. Some have been known to try to extend the 'sole agent' status beyond the cancellation. That would mean paying TWO fees if the new agent sells it promptly. It's not a tall tale - it has happened!

Try selling privately next time. At least then you get feedback and can't blame the agent.

Jorgan_2

Try speaking to the agent & voice how disappointed you are with the lack of service. Tell them you want to be released from the contract now, they do not appear to have delivered on any of their promises. If they are reasonable (some of us are) they will let you out of the contract. Get this in writing.

By the way, who owns the HIP with your property?

churchrat

I would have thought that if you have a contract then they must abide by that contract .ie if it says so and so will be done within a specific time frame and it has not been then you have a right to withdraw from that contract and/or return of fees compensation. a contract is a contract. I suppose it depends on what is says in the contract.

slipp_digby

Mazco your demands dont sound too unreasonable.

When we viewed houses new to the market there were never any printed out details, I think they don't do this for a while on the off chance it goes straight off the market (save a bit on advertising/printing).

Probably best to serve out your two weeks notice making it clear that you are not satisfied to the office manager - who will either investigate or get back to juggling his testicles in the back office.

Seriously make a note of all of the failures and the timescales you want met and then use all of these when you are agreeing the contract with the new agent. You will then be able to beat them with it if they fail to deliver.

mazco

Thanks for all these answers.
Unfortunately, estate agents never include their wild promises in the contract. They just agree to market the property. Whether that means phoning up and emailing every person who has ever enquired about a property, or just sitting in the office, smiling and hoping someone comes in begging to see my house is not specified!!!
I'm going to type a letter detailing all our complaints and deliver it by hand tomorrow. We'll give them 2 weeks notice and hope that it might spur them into action!!
I've read the contract again and there don't seem to be any further restrictions.
We've also got the property on with one of the Internet Only companies. We'd heard that this was a good way to go. Selling privately is Ok, but you can't then advertise on RightMove and using the internet company gets over this. It cost us £200 and they did our HIP for £500. We've not been terribly impressed with them either. We've had one viewing through them but although they claim to give you feedback they wait for the viewer to contact them so you only get feedback if they bother to ring or email. Not a lot of help.
What really annoys us about the agent we've employed is that they are one of the more expensive ones. They sell their service and fees on the basis that they charge more than some agents but give better service.
We are now looking for another agent. We recognise that we probably won't get significantly better service, but we're looking for one that doesn't charge more than 1%. At least that way when someone comes into the office begging to buy my house we won't have to pay quite so much for the agent to have done nothing except type the details into RightMove!
Cynical or what???

Trollfever

He also rang with a viewing for the following day.

Sounds like it was a friend of the EA.

Good luck with selling your house in a falling market.

mazco

Now that would mean the estate agent wasn't being honest!!!
I couldn't possibly believe that - could I??

We have been told that he'd had an offer accepted on a house on our estate that cost £235k. Strangely there isn't one on RM for that price that's under offer.

Rat odour by any chance?

Nenen

I'm sure I read some advice on something like this before and someone who sounded savvy (sorry but can't remember who) suggested going into the office at a busy time (often Saturday morning when there might be some other customers in there to listen) to complain very politely but loudly. They may well let you out of the agreement early just to prevent other customers from realising they might not be totally honest in their promises!

On the subject of useless and lazy EAs we are looking to buy (and in very good position having sold ours already). One local agent has taken out a whole page colour spread on the back cover of the local property mag stating:

"An agent in a challenging market who works harder to sell your home. With our proactive approach and willingness to go the extra mile.... It's small wonder we lead the way in selling homes in and around ****** (city)."

Dh rang this same EA last Tuesday to ask to view an empty property next Saturday. Conversation went like this....
DH: "Please can we have an appointment to view next Saturday?"
EA: "We can show you round at 3 pm Wednesday."
DH: Sorry, my wife and I work all week, it needs to be at the weekend."
EA: "Well that's not very convenient... we can't keep going round there!"

If that's going the extra mile and leading the way then goodness only help the ones that only do the bare minimum! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: