Unhelpful Estate Agent - Help!

liss90

ummm to be honest we havent even met our solicitor or even spoken to him as yet - we have spoken to the receptionist who promised a call back from him yesterday but it did not happen.
Our experience of solicitors and estate agents has only happened in the last few weeks.
We live in London but are moving out of London. We decided to use a solicitor who was recommended by a few people down in the ;area we are moving to.
We travelled all the way down there which is an hours drive to hand in our forms and show them our id but halfway home realised that they had not even looked at our id. We phoned them and they asked us to send it in. We sent it by registered post as it contained passports, driving licences, bank statements and utitility bills. We asked that they not send it back by normal post and that my partners mother would pick it all up as she lives in the same road as them.
We could not believe it when two days later we recieved it all back by normal 1st class post!
So not a good start!

Happy_saver_4

I'm afraid Liss what you are experiencing is fairly typical of the service being currently offered by many many Sol's and EA's.

Over the last few years both professions? have not had to really earn their fees. Therefore a couldn't care less and non performance of duties has become more prolific throughout the property industry.

Most sols do not carry out the conveyancing work themselves but pass it to the minions and supposedly keep an overview. This often leads to a lack of communication. If you feel that you're work is not being handled correctly tell the solicitor concerned or the senior partner. If you are still not satisfied - switch solicitor. Any searches carried out can be passed to your new solictor; once the search fee costs have been paid.

If you need to change sols a local Building Society or Bank manager should be able to suggest a good conveyancing solicitor (perhaps off the record as they don't want to upset other sols).

You've done everything right. Unfortunately it's just the way the system is and you are learning fast.

Cheers - Happy

Altarf

The Estate Agent in question does seem to have a poor attitude and lack of professionalism.

However many people when they are buying a house forget that an estate agent is not working for them. They may in fact be actively working against their best interests in order to get the best deal for their client, the person selling the house.

GingeG

EA's are in my new experience not particularly nice people.

I have in last few months been blatantly lied to on several occasians. Been deliberately set up in competition to start a bidding war and much much worse things (including after I withdrew on a sale after being lied to about planning permission which after my solicitor done her magic did not exist for an extension, they then phoned my solicitor and told her I did not want to withdraw!!!)

The trouble is you need to keep the head if you want your house what you dont need to do is put up with a crap solicitor get e better one tomorrow and report/complain about the current one.

Happy_saver_4

Altarf wrote:

The Estate Agent in question does seem to have a poor attitude and lack of professionalism.

However many people when they are buying a house forget that an estate agent is not working for them. They may in fact be actively working against their best interests in order to get the best deal for their client, the person selling the house.

Most EA's actually work in their own best interest, not the best deal for their client !!!!!!!

EA's want their fees with as quickly as possible. They would rather take a low price and sell quickly rather than hold out for a higher price and take longer and do more work to obtain their fees.

Recently when props were selling easily - a cash buyer was regarded as second rate by some EA's as it meant they couldn't take any further instructions etc. Hardly acting in the vendors best interest.

EA's also often tell a prospective purchaser the lowest price the vendor will accept - agent acting in the vendor's best interest :rotfl:

I have been an EA for many years and now retired. When recently searching for a property in an area, where I was unknown, I was absolutely appalled at the lack of service and incorrect advice given by the EA's.