No viewers! ARGHHHHH!!!!

neverdespairgirl

denisefowler wrote: »

Just a quick note on this. You must not be misleading and misrepresent your property in any way as this is illegal.

The Property Misdescription Act 1991 (I know, I had to read it!:mad:) stops agents putting fully tiled or just tiled ect, even if it is tiled from floor to ceiling, as you may not have tiles under bath (who has?).

Hi Denise - the PMA has nothing in particular to say about bathrooms, tiles, or windows, I've just read it. It says:

1 Offence of property misdescription

(1) Where a false or misleading statement about a prescribed matter is made in the course of an estate agency business or a property development business, otherwise than in providing conveyancing services, the person by whom the business is carried on shall be guilty of an offence under this section.
(5) For the purposes of this section—
(a) “false” means false to a material degree,
(b) a statement is misleading if (though not false) what a reasonable person may be expected to infer from it, or from any omission from it, is false,
(c) a statement may be made by pictures or any other method of signifying meaning as well as by words and, if made by words, may be made orally or in writing,

2 Due diligence defence

(1) In proceedings against a person for an offence under section 1 above it shall be a defence for him to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.

Jorgan_2

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Hi Denise - the PMA has nothing in particular to say about bathrooms, tiles, or windows, I've just read it. It says:

1 Offence of property misdescription

(1) Where a false or misleading statement about a prescribed matter is made in the course of an estate agency business or a property development business, otherwise than in providing conveyancing services, the person by whom the business is carried on shall be guilty of an offence under this section.
(5) For the purposes of this section—
(a) “false” means false to a material degree,
(b) a statement is misleading if (though not false) what a reasonable person may be expected to infer from it, or from any omission from it, is false,
(c) a statement may be made by pictures or any other method of signifying meaning as well as by words and, if made by words, may be made orally or in writing,

2 Due diligence defence

(1) In proceedings against a person for an offence under section 1 above it shall be a defence for him to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.

I have known EA's that have been investigated by Trading Standards, some have had court cases against them because they have described a property as being fully double-glazed when one window wasn't. One was taken to court because they described the property as having double-glazed patio doors, the outer pane of glass had been smashed, so it was only single glazed. The EA received an official warning for that one.

It would be covered by the Property Misdescriptions (Specified Matters) Order 1992. It is these matters about which estate agents should not make false or misleading statements. In all there are 33 specified matters listed which cover just about every aspect of a property, areas covered include

Structure & condition
Accommodation, fixtures and fittings, measurements

Any statement about specified matters must be accurate.

Flylady_Flower

Jorgan wrote: »

I have known EA's that have been investigated by Trading Standards, some have had court cases against them because they have described a property as being fully double-glazed when one window wasn't. One was taken to court because they described the property as having double-glazed patio doors, the outer pane of glass had been smashed, so it was only single glazed. The EA received an official warning for that one.

It would be covered by the Property Misdescriptions (Specified Matters) Order 1992. It is these matters about which estate agents should not make false or misleading statements. In all there are 33 specified matters listed which cover just about every aspect of a property, areas covered include

Structure & condition

Accommodation, fixtures and fittings, measurements

Any statement about specified matters must be accurate.

This is true, which is why Agents have to put part tiled or part glazed, ect as they do not know if it is fully tiled - if due dilligence came into it, they should have taken the bath panel off - not my words but one of a solicitor who came in and explained it all to me when I worked for an agent!

As I said, in this crazy, mad, 'make a buck out of anyone you can' world we now live in, people are suing about things like this, and as much as I hate to admit it, Estate agents are right, but you can still make it sound nice and not just have 'part-tiled bathroom!'

Crazy eh!

Flylady_Flower

janie161 wrote: »

So am I right in thinking then that if I decide to pull out of my contract with Bairstow Eves during their 12 week lock in sole agency period, I can't market it with another or sell it before the 12 weeks is up? I read somewhere in the small print earlier that Bairstow's can chase me up to six months after the agreement if I sell to a buyer who was on Bairstow's books? I really do hope I can sell it without all the grief I will probably endure going dual agency or "resting" the property for a time :-(

Hi Janie,
Yes, you can sell it but you will still owe them their commission, which will be a lot higher and will be on top of your other agents commission - you can really loose out on this. The ONLY way to put it on joint agency with another agent and not loose out is to get Bairstow's to agree to a joint agency BEFORE your 12 weeks is up that way you only pay one agent for the sale, but at the higher joint agency fee. This is where it gets complicated (if it wasn't already)

1. if you sell with the other agent to a completely new person who has never been to you house, you only pay the new agent
2. if you sell with the other agent to a person who has already viewed through Bairstow eves, then both agents have to work something out as to who gets paid as Bairstow's have originally sent them and as part of their (and other agents) contract, you owe them the commission for their buyer.
3. The best thing to do here is ALWAYS make a note of who is viewing and what happened - you say you had 3 people view so far, if you don't know their names, ring Bairstow's and ask them, they have to let you know.
4. Once you have their names, if the other agent rings up and says that they have a viewer with that name, tell them it's not convenient at the moment, don't explain why though, and get Bairstow's to re-ring them and ask them to view with them (told you it was confusing)
5. The reason for the six month clause is to stop people who have a viewing, tell them to tell the agent they are not interested, then buy privately through the homeowner so they don't have to pay their fees. THEY DO CHECK THEIR RECORDS AND WITH THE LAND REGISTERY WHEN A HOUSE SELLS! while I worked for the agent, they chased up 3 different sellers who had to pay, one went to court and had to pay the fee AND court costs, and that was over a year later! Scary huh!

As long as you speak to Bairstow's first about going joint agency, they should be fine, but definitely get the contract changed before you sign up to someone else, they should be able to talk you through how it all works if you're still confused.

Don't be scared by all this, just speak to another agent if you're not sure then go into Bairstow's prepared and ask for the joint agency. If you're determined when you go in there (but not bolshy) they should be very accommodating and should be able to help.

Hope that clears it up for you,
Denise

Careful_with_that_Axe

You seem to have had lots of really good advice from other posters, so all I would add is that this Estate agent is not known as B*stard Th*eves for nothing

janie161

Thanks Denise,

Thats made it a lot clearer in my head now, maybe I will get some sleep tonight!

I did make a note of the two viewer's names and the dates they viewed so that shouldnt be a problem.

Bairstows are now in possession of my own drafted property description and ten photos I took myself on a bright sunny day after some staging and de-cluttering (its made such a difference)

All I can do is hope and pray now that something happens soon so that I am able to put an offer in on the one we really like (incidentally that one is also on with Bairstows) Thanks again for everybody's input and I hope that all those who have posted in a similar position to me have some luck soon!

Conrad

rose101 wrote: »

can't sell ours, and seem to be stuck with Bairstow Eves. .

This is truly astounding!

You think agents like cluttering up thier minds / offices with your property sitting doing nothing?

Your greed is the problem, end of.

If you advertised for £50000 you would sell in the next 10 minutes. Clearly thats a ridiculous price but it illustrates EVERYTHIGN SELLS, so all you have to do is sell for the price the buyers want to pay.

It aint rocket science you know, jeeez

Kez100

Their greed? One wonders whose greed led them to put it on the market with this agent? Please remember who is supposed to be the professional in this contract.

Jorgan_2

janie161 wrote: »

Bairstows are now in possession of my own drafted property description and ten photos I took myself on a bright sunny day after some staging and de-cluttering (its made such a difference)

Is there any reason why you didn't stage & de-clutter before the agent came round to take the photos?

Davesnave

I think Bairstow Eves are a franchise.

We had a most interesting experience with their Tiverton branch, which sent us to view a plant nursery business owned by a complete madman, who pretended he had plants in a polytunnel under fleece, (at mid-day!) when there were, in fact, none there. Most of his stock outside was either dead or past its sell by date and he'd obviously sold nothing for weeks, but he kept running to the window 'to check for customers....because we'll get a rush on any minute and I may have to leave you.' It was like something out of Monty Python.

This man had also self-built the house.....and it showed. Not that he'd finished all of it. The details omitted mention of these things. Despite it being a dormer property, he also assured us' 'You can get another floor on there.' By this time, my 15 year old daughter was having trouble not wetting herself and had to go away for a laugh. She missed the bit where he claimed 'All this is NHBC.' which I translated as 'Numpty Hasn't A Bl**dy Clue.'

We finished the tour by noting that the land with this property had been ploughed then left to self-seed; an interesting management strategy. There were also areas where 'things' had been buried.....However,the site had obviously been quite attractive at one time and everything had potential, but addressing the problems was more than we could afford.

When we returned, we wrote to the agent detailing the main 'incidents' in our visit & saying how we thought their particulars could be improved for accuracy. True, we used a light hearted style, but we also pointed out that we'd had our time and 160 miles worth of petrol wasted because of their inaccurate description, and that we felt they'd come close to becoming the Arthur Daley of the Devon property scene. A day or two later my wife had a very angry 'phone call from the manager of Bairstow Eves telling her that he was incensed with our letter and that we had been 'blacklisted.'

I know this doesn't help you in the slightest janie, but if it gives you or anyone else a laugh........It also shows how the Property Misdescriptions Act may not always be followed to the letter.

We never looked at another property in that area, so our 'blacklisting' was clearly effective. We did pop into the nursery a year ago though, and we found considerable investments had been made. The place looked good and was selling things, if not exactly 'having a rush on' !