What's your verdict ? Are we being 'had' by our Estate Agent ? ......(long)

[NomDePlume]

.... I'm beginning to wonder.

As some of you know, DH and I are selling our house to move further up the ladder. Our house was put on the market at the very end of the house-selling 'season', at the end of September '05. The market was dead in our area so we knew it might take a while to sell. We had a number of viewers who all came back with various reasons it wasn't for them. Fair enough.

We had a viewing in early November, the couple (I'll call them X) came back for 2 further viewings which resulted in a low offer. X are currently living in rented, as they sold their property months ago. We rejected the offer outright and they came back later that day upping it a little (but not enough), we rejected that too. All went quiet.

We heard nothing from our Agent, they appeared to be doing jack-all about finding us a buyer. In a quiet market I would expect the agent to be coming to me with suggestions of incentives to get people through the door - Open Days, Lower asking price, Stamp Duty paid etc etc. Nothing of that nature was forthcoming.

As soon as our 12 week contract ended we issued 28 days written notice of termination of contract, as we were deeply unhappy with the agent and had decided to re-market the house in the spring. The agent acknowldged the notice letter and all went quiet again...

Fast forward to last Thursday (2 working days before expiration of contract) and we get a call out of the blue, saying that X have upped their offer again but are away on holiday. We told the agent that the offer was good but we couldn't accept until we were happy that we could find something appropriate for us to buy. Cue mental searches for property and last minute viewings a-go-go. We found 2 houses we would like to buy and negotiated a price. So called our agent to accept the offer, this morning. The agent seems to now be back pedalling a little and saying don't hold your breath for them still be prepared to buy, despite the fact that we told them we needed a few days to find somewhere.

DH thinks that the agent has made an 11th hour attempt to save his ass (and to recoup his 16+ weeks of costs) and has fabricated this offer from X, with a view to it being accepted and then calling the X's and telling them we'll go to £BLAHk in the hope that they'll say yes. I'm not sure, it strikes me as a very unprofessional and risky strategy, if they have... But things do sound suspicious to me.

If you're still awake (well done), what do you think ?

How stressful for you, ndp. I would get it back on the market with another agent asap. The market is picking up at the moment, and if Mr & Mrs X are serious about buying in your area, chances are they'll be registered with the other agents, too.

DH and I are going to have a chat about it tonight, after speaking to the vendor of the house we want to buy. If the vendor isn't prepared to wait then we're going to leave it and remarket in the spring, take the pressure off for a while.

Since starting to type this, DH has emailed this to me....

...Estate Agent has just called. She's had a fax from X denying that she ever made an "offer".

She claims that she called MrStupidArse (manager of Estate Agency branch) with an "enquiry" and that she's no intention of proceeding with her "enquiry"....

So a total waste of time, though I don't understand the purpose of all the phone avoidance, surely if it was a case of her 'enquiry' being misunderstood then she would've have just put Agent straight in the first place ? And why fax it ? It stinks, that's for sure. At least we know for certain.

Thanks for your help guys

And why the f*ck would they call to make a casual enquiry from overseas ?!

I would ask for a copy of the fax.

Sounds v fishy to me. I can't imagine how an "enquiry" can be misconstrued as an offer to an experienced estate agent. If you had it in writing from the agent that they had made an offer, and they hadn't, sounds like you may have a case for malpractice.

Poor you.

The guy who took the 'enquiry' is the Branch Director, FFS !

Oh no NDP. How come they managed to get an offer in writing to you then, when it was only an "enquiry". Seems very strange. Isn't there a formal body you can complain to?

By the way, when we found ourselves at the sharp end of some dodgy dealing estate-agent wise a couple of years ago (we were gazumped), we complained to the head office and they sent us £50 worth of M&S vouchers by way of compensation. Not that it compensates you for being messed about big time, but at least I felt our complaint had been taken seriously. I think there's at least a bit of regulation of estate agents now and they have to be a bit careful about lying outright.

We swore we'd never do business through that agent again. Then, a few months later, we ended up selling our house through them, as they were the sharpest practitioners on the block and sold our house within 24 hours .

I'm going to find out what comeback we have, going to write to Estate Agent's Head Office and possibly report them to their governing body...

Sorry NDP , they are really p*ssing you about. Hope you find a way to sell really quickly, preferably without having to give them commission.

I've just phoned the agent and told them that I'm coming to collect a copy of the fax from X, in an hour. I'm going to enclose a copy of it, along with a copy of the offer letter from the Agent in a letter to their Head Office. Really not happy. It won't save our sale but it might make them rethink their working practices.

nomdeplume I'm so sorry for the stress you are going through. have just moved so totally understand how you are feeling. Can't advise but can sympathise - we ended up moving to rented accommodation just because selling alone was such a nightmare that we couldn't cope with trying to tie up the purchase at the same time - was a major stress reducer for us.

I tell you what I would do differently - and that is accept ANY offer conditionally: for example, instruct your EA in writing that you accept X with the proviso that they can complete the transaction within (however long you think is reasonable) and that you hear from the agent to confirm the offer in writing along with the circumstances of the buyer, within one week.

I would definitely do this as no genuine buyer who really wants your place will fail to comply.

Best wishes to you

If they are members of NAEA you may be able to complain here www.naea.co.uk/the_naea/general_public/complaints.asp

Don't imagine they are, though. Personally I wouldn't entirely trust to any comments about avoding the agent on the phone unless you'd checked it out with the Xs. Could be wierd and wonderful buyers (I've met some of them!) but could also be a dodgy agent.

Please update us NDP - did they give you a copy of the fax?

Just texted ndp to update you. It's back on again.

Thanks Ailsa. Good luck NDP

just had another email - off again!!!!!!

It's over. They came back this morning to 'show their daughter the house' and having talked to me face-to-face about their solicitor, and getting the survey done early next week with a view to completing in 4 weeks, they've gone away, phoned the EA and told them that they aren't buying it after all because the road is too noisy (something they've never mentioned before on their 3 previous viewing and 2 previous offers). I can't bear it.

Remarketing is not an option for me now, I just feel so sh*t. I'm prepared to lose DreamH and just take time to regroup and think about remarketing in the spring/summer.

I can't believe it.

That b@stards

should've been 'the' not that.

I'd really like it of we could just let this thread fade now, please ? Thanks all.

should've been 'the' not that.

I'd really like it if we could just let this thread fade now, please ? Thanks all.

Just realised it's Friday 13th, I should've known

OMG NDP that's truly shocking.
Sorry I know you want the thread to fade but I didn't want to read your post and not respond.

thanks fimbo, so it turns out that it was the buyer that was a tw@t and not the Estate Agent.