To be losing patience with estate agents

[GoBrookeYourself]

House was on the market with estate agent 1 for 5 months-Ish and then we moved to estate agents 2. Under the contract it states anyone introduced by estate agent 1 who buys our property ensures the fee goes to estate agent 1 if sold within 6 months of leaving. All well and good. Estate agent 2 has had our house on the market for 5 weeks-Ish and we accepted an offer late last week. Our viewings slowed substantially so very excited to have an offer as we have found the house we want to buy (which is selling through estate agent 1).

Now estate agent 2 contact us introducing who will be looking after the sale of the property. Estate agent 1 then contact DH to say it’s someone they’ve introduced and the fee is payable to them. DH asks them to sort it with EA2. EA1 then call me to tell me they have tried to contact EA2 and EA2 have said the buyers are different to the ones EA1 put on their list of people who viewed the house. EA1 are disagreeing and saying it’s the same people and we need to sort it out or we’ll have to pay 2 lots of fees(?)! I explain that we don’t get any information bar surnames about the people viewing the house so aren’t really in a position to say who the buyers are. EA1 ask me to call EA2 to tell them I want to pay EA1 the fee. I call EA2 to explain who says she’ll call EA1. I get an email which I see just after I’ve called EA2 from EA1, sent before I managed to call EA2, to say she’s contacted the buyer to tell them she’ll be dealing with the sale. EA2 then contact me to say they’ve contacted the seller too to say they’re dealing with it.

The whole thing is ridiculous and unprofessional- we’ve suggested splitting the fee which EA2 agreed to and EA1 refused to and we have received no fewer than 8 calls and 2 emails today arguing that the fee goes to them. Starting to get really annoyed by the situation and worried they’re going to scare the buyers off with their unprofessionalism.

Sorry for the long post, really needed a rant. Has anyone else been in this situation? Is there a chance we could get charged both lots of EA fees (which are exactly the same fee)?

Finders are Relocation Agents, I work with them regularly, they are quite common in huse buying and rentals.

It does sound as though a common surname has caused this cock up! Bounce it back at them... until they get their acts together!

So I have just had another call from EA1 saying she hasn’t received a promised call back from EA2 so please could I call EA2 and explain I want the fee to go to EA1. I’ve explained that I don’t have enough information to decide if the people are the same and that I don’t really want to be a part of this and they need to contact EA2 and speak to them directly. EA1 was not happy but I don’t honestly see how I can resolve this and I’m just going round in circles having the same conversation with them again and again.

Does anyone know if there’s a possibility I could get charged 2 lots of EA fees or is that something that won’t happen? EA1 are adamant they won’t split the fee.

They could charge you... and you could refuse to pay until they PROVE they have a legal right to it! Again, that would be something to alert your solicitor to!

Thank you curiousaboutsamphire so who DO we pay then? How do we decide? Let our solicitor tell us?

Considering how the viewing was arranged, I suspect the "finder" is a name EA1 created to cover themselves in case they lost the sale ... produced so they can say "it's the same (mystery) person who introduced the property so you owe us"

The lack of professionalism's sadly predictable, so just ignore the hassling and tell them to contact your solicitors with their sob story - at which point they'll probably back off pretty fast

Yes. Tell your solicitor and make sure they ask for proof before settling the bill. They have the money from the sale, the EAs do not!

Tell both agents that you have passed it on to your solicitor. And do find out who each EA is registered with. You may need / want to report them whan all is done and dusted!

Ah yes this old gem, I had a huge argument with a rival EA when I first started in agency and it ended up in court, the other EA didn't bother showing up.
Leave them to it and don't get involved.

I have just had another call from EA1 saying she hasn’t received a promised call back from EA2 so please could I call EA2 and explain I want the fee to go to EA1

Translation: she's trying to scrabble something back after getting hell from her boss because someone else got you a buyer instead of them

Just refuse to engage and point them at your solicitor, who'll have heard the same story many times. The "finder" may even be a member of their own staff who'll swear blind it really was them who introduced the buyers, but I doubt they'll get far with a lawyer

So (sort of) update. I’ve received an email from EA2 saying they don’t wish to cause us any stress (DH emailed both EAs, ccing each one in telling them we weren’t getting involved and to go through our solicitors) and that we should do whatever we feel is best.

What’s confusing me though is EA1 have told us the name of the finder they had on record and who is on the list and they happened to be the only sellers we showed round ourselves instead of the EA doing it as it was an evening viewing, and the lady was talking about how excited she was to buy and not rent any more and came with her mum.

I’d be telling EA1 that, and saying that in the absence of proof that this lady you showed round is anything at all to do with your buyers, they can stop calling. Once they have that proof (which really shouldn’t be difficult, I assume the finder and the buyer would happily confirm) they can take it to your solicitor.

I have worked for an EA and the behaviour of EA1 is despicable! They should certainly not be harassing you over it. The bad publicity you can now give them could ruin their business.

It all boils down to the exact wording in the contract that you signed with them, and also proof that EA2's buyer was provided by EA1.

You need to tell EA1 by solicitors letter that you will not be engaging in any further correspondence with them, that they need to take it up with EA2 and that your solicitor will deal with paying the right EA at the point of completion, once it has been confirmed.

EA1 would have to take you to court to prove breach of contract, in order to do that, they would have to provide evidence that they introduced the buyer.

Your solicitor really needs to deal with this. You could also try reporting them to The Property Ombudsman, but you would need to complain directly to the EA1 first, so ask them for a copy of their complaints procedure .

I’m going to do as you all suggested and ask my solicitor to deal with it all. I appreciate all your responses! And one thing is for sure.. I’m never moving house again

could you tell them you wont be moving ahead with the sale until they have sorted it between them?

staplerfan I agree, I’m disgusted with the way EA1 have behaved and really don’t want to pay them the fee now although appreciate if they’ve introduced them I’ll need to. They’ve been unprofessional, bordered on harassment, and were awful to deal with in the first place which is why we moved away from them.

What a nightmare.

I would get your solicitor to have a word with the buyer's to clarify if they are the original buyer or not. It doesn't matter whether the finder is the same person, it's about who is buying the property.

Well EA2 have ‘backed out’ and we’ve received a snooty email from the manager at EA1 saying we shouldn’t be instructing EA2 to do anything (which we didn’t) and acting like we’ve caused this. Needless to say once this is all done EA1 will NOT be getting any good reviews or be being used again.

That EA1 was "awful to deal with in the first place" comes as no surprise, but I wonder why EA2 has backed off ... are they somehow linked / part of the same chain or something?

Puzzledandpissedoff I have no idea what’s happened any more or why it’s been dealt with so badly. They’re 2 quite large companies (well, where we are in the north they are anyway).

Well, it’s gotten even more annoying now. After the email from EA2 saying they’ll back off, we’ve had a call today from them saying the buyer of our house doesn’t want to deal with EA1 and only wants to deal with EA2. Called EA1 who has said she spoke with the buyer and the buyer told her EA2 told her not to give EA1 any information and only deal with EA2. So now EA2 have all the solicitor details, ID etc and won’t give it to EA1 and neither will the purchaser.

I’ve lost the will to live.

Can I ask if EA 1 was Haart? We had exactly the same situation 5 years ago, they wouldn't give us any proof of viewings or names, we said take us to court and they did. On the day the judge asked for their viewing diary and list of offers, they could only provide a photocopy with blacked out names ... he through the case out!!

mermaidkisses no, it isn’t haart, although I didn’t realise how many estate agents there are until we started looking! I’m sorry you had a similar experience, do you mind me asking why they took you to court?? Were you selling your house?

#GoBrookeYourself ... we were the same as you, instructed EA1 then after they failed to get any viewings after 6 months went with EA2.
EA2 got us viewings and an offer that we accepted, after the sale went through they contacted us saying the buyer was someone they introduced and threatened us with court if we didn't pay their fees. We decided to let them take us to court as they would not provide proof of any viewings etc, the magistrate asked for the booking diary and details of the buyer which they could not provide (only a photo copied blacked out page) so he said there was no evidence against us and dismissed the case. Turns out the person who bought our house was a friend of a friend of the EA1 office manager!

This is crazy, poor you. Definitely disengage and keep repeating the ‘talk to my solicitor’ line. Do you have a good solicitor? They should be supporting you here.