Damage to flat which is being marketed

[nc1962]

I don't know what to do and I'd be so grateful for opinions. I'm selling my flat and it's on the market with an agent who has been showing people round.
It's empty as I don't live there anymore so only the agent and viewers have been in.

I got an email with some pictures from the agent, showing that the balcony door and window above it have broken. The window above it looks like it's fallen out.

I am struggling to see how this could have happened unless someone hadn't shut the door properly and it happened because of the bad winds recently.

It's a very old building with complicated windows and I think it is going to cost a lot to repair properly. In fact, I don't actually know if I'm going to be able to afford the repairs.

What would you do? I don't want to fall out with the agent yet as I'm 200 miles away and completely reliant on them to get someone in to fix it, but I'm struggling to see how the damage has occurred other than through someone being careless.

Has anyone had anything like this happen before?

Claim on your home insurance.

Unfortunately I don't have any. Feeling so stupid now.

I think you have difficulty in showing the damage was caused by an agent’s negligence. To save you the cost of repair if you can’t afford it I would have the window boarded up and accept lower offers to reflect this.

Sell a house with a boarded up window? Lol, do t do this, it’s very bad advice.

Don’t do this *

Not being insured could make you further problems if you do get an offer. As part of conveyancing it is expected that you insure the property.

You may have buildings insurance via your ground rent or management company. Worth checking your lease to see whose responsibility it is to insure the building. It's almost impossible to insure the buildings part of a single flat in a block..

I can take out insurance now, but it won't cover the window damage. Does anyone think that I would have any cause of action against the estate agent? Ive now asked someone who is a surveyor and they said that there's no way the door and window broke unless they were left open.

Building insurance is usually part of the service charge in a block of flats. I imagine your flat is leasehold? As Defiiantly says check your lease and management company. Good luck.

It is usual for any buyer to check there is house insurance in place whilst proceeding with any sale. It would be foolish not to cover for problems and accidents like gales etc. You can purchase empty house insurance on a monthly basis. This would be an idea if the house is old anyway.

Not repairing something implies there are other issues that have also not been repaired. Get it repaired to sell it.

Annoying as it may be you don’t have any actual evidence against the agent. Plus taking something like this to court could cost far more than a new window. You could try changing agents and then setting this out by email and ask for a contribution. Sorry OP but I think you have to get the repairs done, and change the agent if you don’t trust the existing one.

Definitely don't board the window up and try and sell as is as someone suggested - people will assume you haven't bothered to maintain the property and you'll lose far more in market value than it would cost to repair. If you have a good relationship with agent then I would speak to branch manager tactfully and sound them out. Otherwise though you just need to get it fixed - and quickly!

I will definitely get the window fixed. My DSis has kindly offered to lend me the money to do it. This isn't acceptable though- estate agents can't cause damage through carelessness and then leave the homeowner to pay for it. Does anyone think I can get them to contribute towards the cost?

Of course you should tell them to contributed. Not sure why other posters not evn mentioning the agent - they've caused damage, why should OP claim on insurance and have premium raised because of their negligence, even if she had insurance?
I think OP, tell then what the surveyor said, that AT LEAST they should share the cost. It's not like they don't have a good income/profit to do this either.
If they flat out refuse, you could clain via a solicitor but of course that wouls cost you.

*to contribute

@CatAndHisKit thank you! I am confused why no one seems to think it's the agents fault if they damage something! I would take them to the small claims court myself (unfortunately I've had to do it before with someone else). As they're the only people who have access to what's an unoccupied flat and they have it in writing that I'm hundreds of miles away and no one else has access, they'd be hard pushed to blame anyone else.

Well you dont actually know the agent did damage anything. If you accuse them and they say they didn't leave it open, then what?

I think you need to take some responsibility for the property. We recently sold an empty house and the estate agent did the viewings. But we would check in on the house to make sure lights hadn't been left on, and it was all ok.

I'm not sure an estate agent marketing a property for sale is responsible for it entirely.

@cloudchaos The agent is the only person who's had access to it. As I said in previous posts, I'm a over a hundred miles away. All they had to do was close a door properly.

You think an agent would have reason to do this for why? 😳

@Monty27 sorry?

OP I don't get why you think estate agent would do it. That's all.

The reason why I suggested sounding out the branch manager tactfully rather than go in all guns blazing is I've been in a similar position (sold an empty probate property and EAs caused damage - they were the only ones with access) but despite me challenging and challenging, I never got a contribution (or deduction of fees) if I remember correctly. I suggested to my solicitor we withheld part of their final fee on completion, but they said I couldn't do that either. They also left lights on for over 2 weeks so cost a load of extra estate funds there too.

That's all assumptions though. I've had people open windows on viewings before. Perhaps someone looking round opened a window. Perhaps someone tried to break in and failed but left the window damaged. Perhaps you left it slightly open and over time the latch has worn down and it just happened to break now. Who knows. The point is you can't prove the agent had anything to do with it. Why would they be opening windows anyway ?

It's also not really the agents fault you live 100 miles away though is it. They are being paid to market the property, not care for it while you're unable to. Who looked after it before you put it on the market? Did you have someone who checked in on it then? And not having buildings insurance doesn't suggest you're really looking after the place. If the property is mortgaged then you're probably in breach of your agreement with them. Again not the estate agents fault you decided against doing this. It's exactly why insurance exists.

If you decide to pursue this legally just be prepared to spend money on legal costs and not get anywhere. I'm not sure a random surveyors best hunch is going to hold up in court !

OP it was reallly foolish to be ubinsured. Sort that now.

However, I don't see how it's unreasonable to expect the estate agent to shut the door properly. Presumably they couldnt have locked the balcony door if they hadnt shut it properly, which means they've also left it unsecured.