Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To accuse our estate agents of lying?

67 replies

Aspenn17 · 27/11/2017 11:40

We have a baby on the way and are trying to sell our house before she arrives. Our estate agents have been fairly average so far, but this morning we were supposed to have a viewing. I was working from home so went at sat in the car to make a couple of calls so I was out of the way for the viewing. My car is literally metres from our house parked on the side of the road. Estate agent turns up, alone, goes into the house for 5 mins and then comes out again alone and leaves. Bit weird I thought, husband calls the office and the same Estate agent says there was a viewing, they didn't like it etc. I go into the office to confront him and say very politely 'this is awkward but I saw you go in and leave alone, if they cancelled, why not just tell us they cancelled?' He swears blind that he showed a couple around and I must have missed them. I KNOW what I saw, there was no one with him but it's my word against his. What do I do? How can I prove him wrong? Can we terminate the contract?

OP posts:
SandyDenny · 27/11/2017 13:09

That is odd, even if he was waiting inside for the viewer why not be honest if they didn't show up.

I'd speak to the manager of the branch and say I was very seriously thinking of moving agent

WaitingforGalGadot · 27/11/2017 13:12

In our experience ALL estate agents are fundamentally dishonest. I wouldn't trust them to tell me the time. We have been lied to over and over again by multiple agents. Have no loyalty towards them, they have none to you.

^This. They are one of the most dishonest professions and probably second only to bankers and landlords in terms of public dislike.

Flomper · 27/11/2017 13:14

I agree with this assessmnet, they're full of it. It's not often you can generalise about a whole profession and massive group of people but ime the owners and managers, at least, are purely motivated by greed.

LibbyLongtree · 27/11/2017 13:17

I had a part time back office job in an estate agents a few years ago. My experience shows that, sadly, I would not be at all surprised if he has lied to you.

Not sure complaining to the manager will achieve anything - they probably condone this sort of behaviour.

RhiannonOHara · 27/11/2017 13:25

I agree with going in and requesting that they confirm the time of the appointment and call the 'viewer' for feedback while you're there. Refuse to leave until they do so.

If the people didn't turn up, they should have just told you so. If they felt the need to lie about it, I'd be wondering if they're trying to drive the selling price down by making out that the house is hard to shift.

SandyDenny · 27/11/2017 13:30

Unless they are going to buy the house themselves trying to drive the price down doesn't really make sense as they will be losing out on commission. Why would they want to sell for a lower price?

extinctspecies · 27/11/2017 13:33

OP is it possible that the agent went into your house to check all was as it should be, & came out again, you left thinking that was it, and then the viewers arrived and were shown around after you'd gone?

Original poster
Aspenn17 · 27/11/2017 13:33

Thanks for everyones opinions. I think we are going to ask to terminate the contract early (we are supposed to be tied in for another 6 weeks) and if they say no then say they need to prove to us the viewing happened or we will escalate this further. They are totally wasting our time! Just so frustrating that he lied to my face!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Aspenn17 · 27/11/2017 13:36

Extinctspecies I waited in the car for another 25 mins in case they were running late and he came back and then I let myself into the house. I've questioned it myself but there is no possible way I missed them, I was metres from the house, on the same side of the road, there is no back entrance, I saw him go in alone and leave alone.

OP posts:
Original poster
Aspenn17 · 27/11/2017 13:37

He must have just lied to try and keep us happy or hit his viewings targets or something. He's working on a % commission not a flat fee so doesn't make sense why he would want to drive the price down.

OP posts:
VivienneWestwoodsKnickers · 27/11/2017 13:38

Escalate it anyway, why should the sneaky bastard get away with it?

GertrudeBelle · 27/11/2017 13:38

Ask him for the name say of the viewers and their contact details so that you can check.

VivienneWestwoodsKnickers · 27/11/2017 13:40

Gertrude I'd hope they wouldn't hand that information over. As a potential buyer, I'd be furious if they did.

extinctspecies · 27/11/2017 13:41

The percentage commission isn't a huge incentive to get a higher price for you - it's the difference of a few tens of pounds to the Estate Agent, whereas to you it could be thousands.
An EA would rather sell a property at a lower price & have the deal done than risk having no sale at all, they aren't going to try & get a higher price for you.
(Freakonomics)

DancingOnParsnips · 27/11/2017 13:47

Don't ask him to name viewers he will just ask a friend to cover. Escalate now.

RhiannonOHara · 27/11/2017 13:52

Ask him for the name say of the viewers and their contact details so that you can check.

No, he'll make something up – and shouldn't give out this info anyway. Ask for the follow-up/feedback call to be made to the no-showers in your presence. Insist on it, politely but firmly.

Bambamber · 27/11/2017 14:00

We had this, except it was conveniently after we had mentioned we was thinking of changing companies due to lack of interest. I was heavily pregnant and on maternity leave so planned to stay in the house until the estate agent arrived, then go sit in the car for the duration of the viewing. I waited and waited and no one turned up, so an hour later I phoned my husband to double check I hadn't got the time wrong. He phoned the estate agents, and got all this wonderful feedback how the potential buyer was really interested and it all looked really positive and we just needed to wait for them to get back to us. Meanwhile I'm still sat in the house waiting for them to even turn up! Safe to say we moved agents straight after and sold within a week

Original poster
Aspenn17 · 27/11/2017 14:28

Bambamber, were you able to terminate your contract with them beacsue of that? What did they say when you told them you knew they had lied? Reassuring to know you managed to sell quickly once swapping!

I agree DancingonParsnips, this all happened this morning so he's had hours to line up a mate to be the 'viewer' and bail him out if we ask him to make the call in front of us.

OP posts:
YetAnotherNC2017 · 27/11/2017 14:30

Our first estate agents were lying scum balls too.

They apparently wanted rid of our house so encouraged our prospective buyers to put in a very low offer of 25% under asking price (they were working on fixed fee commission, not percentage based). Then rang me to express how disappointing the offer was, but that we should consider taking it.

The buyers were friends of friends and told me they’d wanted to offer 10% under but were told not to by our estate agent as they could get it cheaper. We eventually sold for 7% under asking.

ICanNeverThinkOfAGoodUsrname · 27/11/2017 14:34

@bambamber , what was their response when they were told you were there all along? I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that convo.

Witchend · 27/11/2017 15:12

He probably arrived then got a phone call/message to say they'd cancelled. That happened to us a couple of times, where we were actually there when they cancelled.

Bambamber · 27/11/2017 15:22

They basically told us that they had 'mixed up' the details of the sellers. So in fact they was giving us the feedback that was meant for a different property, and the viewing for our property had fallen through. They wasn't even apologetic for this so called mix up.

We wasn't allowed to terminate the contract early because it was a 'simple mix up' on their behalf. We wasn't even allowed to go multi agency even for the notice period. Being the hormonal, raging mess that I was, I went and retrieved our keys and said under no circumstances was they to set foot on our property again. We explained our situation to a different estate agent to see if they could help us get around the contract in any way, but unfortunately they couldn't find a look hole. So they just tool all details and photos and got the advertisement ready so they could begin advertising the day our previous contract ended.

ToadOfSadness · 27/11/2017 15:25

We have arrived at a property, realised we didn't want it instantly, before even getting out of the car. It is possible that the viewers had seen it for the first time in real life and knew they didn't want to live there, maybe even before they reached the property because of location, pylons, main roads, anything, and cancelled before getting to the house.

We once went to see a house that looked lovely. As we approached there was a burnt out car, further on it didn't improve. It was a weekend and the owners were showing us round, no way to cancel, so we went but we knew before we saw the house that we didn't want it.

Ttbb · 27/11/2017 15:39

i'm not sure if it's still the case but awhile back the courts held that sole agency type clauses were not e forcable. in order to claim their fee they have to do the bulk of the work arranging the sale. Just make another listing through an online EA and refuse all viewings through them.

Original poster
Aspenn17 · 27/11/2017 16:20

That might have happened Toad, or they might have cancelled when our estate agent got there, both fair enough and not the EAs fault but the issue is really that our EA then lied about it and said he showed people around when he didn't!

OP posts: