The role of estate agents

[jm05]

Hi there,

We accepted an offer on our house and was told by our EA that they had cash buyers for theirs, brilliant we thought a small'ish chain.

2 weeks pass and we are still under the impression that this is the case and we are therefore actively looking for houses ourselves under the impression that we were proceedable.

Our buyers dropped their number round last weekend and implied that they had 'just sold', query the confusion so I called our EA to verify the current status. They couldn't give us an answer as to what the situation with their house is, odd I thought.

This weekend we agreed for our buyers to come round to measure up, I asked the question what had happened with their cash buyer, they looked at me blank and wondered what I meant, I explained we were under the impression and accepted their offer based on them having a cash buyer (also as they were the higher offer) and they said no, they hadn't had an offer and infact when they placed the offer their house was not even on the market. Completely shocked by this point I asked how many viewings they've had to get an idea how quickly this is likely to move however they've had one viewing in the last 2 weeks, their house clearly isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

My husband and I were obviously annoyed by this news and shocked that 3 weeks into the process and given we have submitted their details to our solicitor that we were non the wiser they hadn't sold / why we had been told they had a cash buyer.

Is it not the job of the EA to verify the sale of their house so it is infact a valid offer? I am aware you can offer on a house without selling yours however surely within the last 3 weeks there should have been some check to verify it?

I'm also concerned that as we have provided their details to our solicitors, if we now change this we will be charged an admin fee!

I don't know whether it is the fault of our EA or whether we have been lied too by our buyers. We aren't in a proceedable position now and really no more forward than before we had sold, we also had 4 others offers and went with theirs being informed they had cash buyers.

We plan to ring our EA tomorrow to get to the bottom of it however I don't think they know themselves. I want them to revisit the other offers to see if they are still interested however with 3 weeks past I wouldn't be surprised if they have found their house already, I don't know whether at this point it's wise to put our house on the market?

Please can someone advise and inform me of what I should have expected from our EA's...

Thank you

Have you had a memorandum of sale from the EA with details of the buyers' solicitor?

That sounds terrible. At best they've got muddled up and given you wrong info at worst they've been dishonest.

Your estate agent should have checked. Our EA asked the buyers for proof of funds and also verified what stage their house sale was at. It was only after that was done we received the memorandum of sale.

That's how it should work

@ViaTheMatterhorn

Your estate agent should have checked. Our EA asked the buyers for proof of funds and also verified what stage their house sale was at. It was only after that was done we received the memorandum of sale.

That's how it should work

Nope nothing like that, we've had a letter to confirm the offer and that we've accepted it.

So I should be asking why we haven't received that since we accepted 3 weeks ago? That's ultimately 'the check' to verify?

I'd be asking your EA what checks they have undertaken to verify the buyers position. The memorandum of sale, as had been said, will contain both sides details, the offer, and both sides solicitors. Have you had that?

Raise hell.

The Estate Agents are at fault, their job to verify funding and check out the chain because unfortunately people do lie and you cannot rely on what people say to you.

That’s terrible, what a waste of everyone’s time.

I hope you get to the bottom of it tomorrow OP.

That’s awful, I’d definitely raise it with the EA.

We put an offer in 2 weeks ago on our dream home, and while the sellers were happy with our offer we were told by the EA they couldn’t officially accept it until we’d been verified which meant sharing our memorandum of sale for our house, our AIP and our solicitors details.