Useless agent: can I challenge fees?

[Themumdrumlife]

Not really sure where we stand on this... any advice would be much appreciated!

Went on the market with our estate agent in November. We had three viewings, two hosted by the agents and the third hosted by us. We ended up receiving an offer from the third lady who, we are told, was really impressed by the viewing. Offer accepted. Several weeks later, she had not instructed a solicitor and was clearly stalling for time. She was hard for reach and non comittal but when we challenged this with our EA, he made us feel like we were crazy and unreasonable to want solicitors in place nearly 4 weeks after accepting her offer. Low and behold, it fell through and we were back on the market again. She didn’t even have a mortgage in principal and couldn’t afford it- this had been missed by our EA.

We sold again approx a fortnight later. The subsequent viewings were completed by us and we received another two offers. We have been ‘under offer’ for months now and the buyers are now refusing to commit and in the heat of the moment, have refused liaise with our solicitor and our EA. Their solicitor is doing everything and our EA has pretty much washed her hands of the whole process- a ‘let me know when it’s done’ attitude.

What I’m asking is:

Since virtually all viewings have been done by us (apart from the ones where offers were not received and one post COVID when were not allowed to host), they have allowed one buyer to offer without correct paperwork and they have now cut all ties with the buyers, should we challenge them on the whole fee? We feel like we have done everything ourselves- they may as well have not been there!

Let me know what you think...x

My sale fell through last week after 3 months waiting due to buyers worries over job security. Disappointing but understandable. My estate agent is now under resourced due to Covid with furloughed staff and doesn't seem overly concerned about coming up with a plan to re-market my property to get it sold quickly so that I don't lose my onward purchase. That isn't the level of service I believe I agreed to pay for originally so I'm planning on calling them tomorrow to push them for a plan and either negotiate a lower percentage to reflect the reduced service, or tell them I'm also going to list with another agent as well.

Basically are you receiving the service they promised you and that you thought you were getting?

Unfortunately Estate Agents have you sign a contract and don't usually renegotiate.

We have been in a position where we changed agent and a viewer from first agent offered through the second. We had a lengthy and quite stressful battle to sort it out. Neither wanted to budge on 'their' fee.

It’s all about the introduction of the buyer, which they have done, agents rarely lose challenges.

Yes, absolutely. It really isn't just about introducing the buyer. You're paying for a service. If that is poor then you can challenge it.

We waited until the sale had gone through then refused to pay the whole fee, I think we paid 50% of what they were charging on the basis that we'd done most of the work (I wrote the sales particulars when the ones they produced were so poor, gave correct measurements of rooms when theirs were wrong, conducted viewings when estate agent failed to show etc). Went through the complaints procedure when they demanded the balance. Eventually when they wouldn't back down I took it to the ombudsman and they agreed with me that the service was so poor they weren't entitled to the whole fee & I didn't have to pay any more.

Failed sales are generally down to the economy, people not getting the loans they hoped for (or that the seller hoped for) and people asking too much for the property, the EA is way down the chain of blame in many cases, although obviously they just tell would be sellers what they want to hear about price etc. to get their business.