Estate agent won't let me meet the buyer - can I insist?

[Mitzimaybe]

I've already moved out so the EA has done all the viewings. I've accepted an offer, things are proceeding. The buyer wants to discuss what I might leave or sell - furniture, white goods etc. I've asked the EA to give her my phone number but they won't. I'm at the house this weekend so I asked them to tell her to come round today but they haven't. I presume they think I'm trying to cheat them out of some commission. I'm not; it would just be so much easier to talk in person. If I still lived here and showed the house myself, I would have met her. What can I do?

Having contact details between buyers and sellers was the only reason our chain didn't collapse on our last sale & purchase.
Some daft small issues arose that when we left it to the solicitors & EAs they told us it would probably take weeks to sort out so we would definitely miss out moving date.... A few brief phone calls between vendors and we actually sorted it out in less than 24 hours meaning we all moved when we were supposed to.
Negotiating furniture, lawn tractor, curtains etc was far better in person and required a single conversation rather than a protracted back and forth as we thought of questions as they came up.
Some EAs are good, others awful but someties you just don't need another person in the conversation as it protracted the whole process

Jeeze it's the biggest financial transaction of your life. I would always want to meet or at least talk to the person on the other side of that transaction.

It saved our house purchase taking to the vendor, and cut through a lot of estate agent crap.

Similar to wonkylegs contact between ourselves and our buyers kept our chain going when we sold at the end of 2014. Someone below them in the chain was being a complete pita and some of the solicitors were far from helping the situation......

Me and our buyer were in almost daily contact via email and it really helped to share stuff, make suggestions, vent etc etc.

We weren't supposed to be conducting our viewings but as it happened we had to do the one that introduced our buyer to our house. We instantly knew she was going to buy - the tears of joy were a dead give away (no joke) - and we felt a rapport between us.....I know it's a business transaction, but whatever, I'm convinced it made a difference that we got on.

When she wanted to return - post accepted offer - to show the house to DH (who had yet to view!) and DC, we were delighted to welcome them into our home for a couple of hours when we talked through everything from thatch to woodburner and answered any queries. After exchange they came back en famille for a further lengthy visit so we could show them how such things as the watchman gauge for the oil tank and the hot tub worked.....

I can't imagine the EA being bothered with that sort of thing!

nowire. The EA didn't know that we were buying white goods etc. some were already included. We had already offered full asking price. This was the second house the EA did this on. The first one, we didn't meet the sellers and said no to going above asking price. They told us someone had offered over. We said no, then they came back to us and said the ones that offered over changed their minds and did we still want it as full asking. They lost their client a sale there.

Like many others on here having contact details kept our chain of 3 intact.

It was stressful as were in the middle but there is no way it would have gone ahead within the agreed timeframe without us communicating with each other.

When I bought my first house I rang the vendor with my offer - she gave me her number at the second viewing. The EA was bloody useless and hadn't answered the phone when I rang them.

We agreed on a few things that she would leave in the house and I'd buy and she and her partner even helped me move in using their van.

The same useless EA got thrown out by DP when we were looking to sell years later as he just couldn't back up anything he was saying about prices.

In terms of something simple like selling items, you really don't want to go through solicitors. An email address is enough. I am currently doing this with our vendor. Tons of emails clarifying this and that, asking questions which would have gone into the 200's with a solicitor.

More than the 200's, hundreds it should have said!

Survey has been done and legals are proceeding. I don't understand why there shouldn't be direct communication and it seems that a lot of you agree with me. I'll make a complaint to the EA and see if that gets me anywhere. I don't see the point of bumping up legal fees by getting them involved in long-winded communications over whether the buyer wants to buy a coffee table for £20 etc. when we could do it quickly and easily in person.

Agree with many pp - our last sale only went through because when our EA started playing silly buggers, we were in touch with our buyers. But, our sellers - their EA was brilliant - v professional, responsive; we didn't meet our vendors until after exchange, when we came round and they took us through all the alarm/boiler/what they would be fixing up next if not moving stuff.

I've just received the draft contract from my solicitors, which has the buyer's address on it. I might just send a note with my details and leave it up to her whether she wants to contact me or not.