Is this ok when selling a house? Doesn’t feel right

[DonnatellaLyman]

We are selling our house, part way between exchange and completion. We’ve half moved out (sleeping in new place) but still lots of stuff in old house.

We’ve just found out that EA has been letting the buyers in on several occasions and has facilitated their tradespeople coming in to carry out work (who have damaged the property). We were not asked about any of these ‘visits’.

It feels like a massive invasion of our property /privacy but I don’t know if I’m just being precious as we won’t own it soon.

Change the locks as suggested.

Ask your solicitor about withholding fees. Whilst I would not ask you to name them on this forum, I wonder if there is something you can do to ensure this is never repeated.

Also ask the solicitor if there is a criminal offence that has been committed.

Write an official complaint to the EA, photo the alterations, and demand a reduction in fees for their transgression. (Template letters can be found online).

If you don’t get an abject apology and some monetary compensation, you then refer to the Property Ombudsman.

Yes. She might try holding off from paying the fees until she’s had a response to her formal complaint to the EA (they have 8 weeks to respond); if she isn’t satisfied with their response, she might hold off until she’s had a decision from the Property Ombudsman.

If completion is imminent you need to instruct your solicitor to hold paying the EA fees until the dispute is resolved.

This must stop immediately. There are so many reasons why this is an appalling breach on the part of the EA.

It is your house until the last corner of their cheque is accepted by your bank.

Tell your EA you want your keys back and that the buyers are to surrender any keys he has given to them and their trades people immediately. Under no circumstances should he be letting anyone in.

Contact your solicitor if you don't get the keys back. The EA should be sanctioned by his company.

This is illegal on part of EA and likely invalidates your house insurance. Complain via your solicitor in the strongest possible terms.

These buyers have no right to enter your property until completion of contracts and the money is in your account. Get the keys back from the estate agent ASAP and take photos of anything the buyers have done in your house and ask your solicitor to send a letter to their requesting that everything is put back as it was before. Good luck - what CFers the buyers and your estate agent is!

You can get advice on complaints via the property ombudsman website.

Definitely get the keys back and photos of the changes or damage and complain in writing to the EA office.

You need to ask your solicitor what you can do and whether you can withhold fees for breach of contract. That is disgraceful.

Does the EA have any form of personal relationship with your buyer? I can't understand why they would do this.

I would ask EA why they thought it was acceptable to do that ...

Waste of time I'm afraid; they'll swear blind that someone thought OP had told somebody else it would be okay, and that yet another somone got the wrong end of the stick - in other words human error rather than a deliberate act

There's a reason why EAs have, on the whole, resisted proper regulation ...

@DonnatellaLyman
We weren’t allowed to put a large rocking horse in the “ New” house the night before completion!
Had to wait til we owned the house.

Why does your estate agent even still have a key?!

Surely this is illegal? I’d seek legal advice personally.

Usually the EA hangs on to the key and gives it to the buyer on Completion.

I wouldn't change the locks - it costs a lot and I daresay the OP has more than enough to do to get ready for completion.

Just write a letter of complaint to the EA, say you do not give permission, invasion of privacy, no right to make alterations to your property, and there is no permission for any further entry until Completion. Ask for the keys back until Completion Day. Tell them that you have informed your solicitor what has happened.

Have they been using your gas/electricity/water? Did you happen to take meter reading when you left to compare and charge them for useage?

This.

Do have legal cover with your buildings and contents insurance? Might be worth giving the insurance company a quick call.

I would take meter readings on completion date but it wouldn't have occurred to me to take them on exchange date because I would assume only my household was using utilities until completion

It was an hour and a half since op posted, hardly a long time
And yes, Mrs Josh Lyman is a very interesting name!

OP has an awful lot on with the move

add in the monitoring of Lemon-Lyman.com and she must be overwhelmed! 😂

seriously, I hope you get some recompense, it's appalling.

@FlipFlopShopInHawaii The name DonnatellaLyman, I see from the update it’s to do with a TV show but, I presume pp means If you read it as Ant or Dec, it’s ‘do not tell a lie man’ 😂