Estate agents in the UK. Not happy, dont pay.
Feb 14th 2008, 9:49 pm
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2003
Location: Auckland
Posts: 169
Estate agents in the UK. Not happy, dont pay.
Hi everyone
We finally sold our house on 21st December last year, having had it on the market since Aug 2006. It was very difficult to keep the house going in the UK financially and very stressful at times, although the new lifestyle in NZ did help, and I have been more stressed in the past on smaller issues.
I have written before that it is probably better to accept the 1st best offer you get, if they can complete with no chain and are genuine. The problem is you never know if the are genuine. We had a buyer who kept us waiting for 12 weeks, then pulled out on the day of completion!!! This was at the same time had gone conditional on a property in NZ, expecting the house in the UK to sell. So you can imagine how we felt.
We funded the mortgage on our credit cards. If anyone wants to know how, send me a PM. We couldn’t rent the house. It was 150 years old and the electrics were ok, but not to a standard the council would have signed off on for a rental.
We shouldn’t have had a mortgage living outside of the UK, it clearly states that in the terms and conditions. We didn’t have insurance as it wasn’t valid if you are out of the house for more than 60 days. Everytime there was a storm, we held our breath. We had two break-ins because the Agent didn’t secure the property following some viewings. Our fence was damaged in high winds. We had family going to the house every week to collect post and fix stuff.
One of the biggest stresses was dealing with the estate agent. The problems are too many to list, but mainly were poor communication, incorrect advertising and not securing the property. For this reason we refused to pay the bill in full.
Now this is very unusual with estate agents and I strongly recommend everyone to do this IF you are not happy with the service. Normally the estate agent gets paid by the solicitor on completion. We instructed our solicitor not to do this. We reviewed the bill and agreed to pay 1% instead of 1.25%. We sent them a cheque as full and final payment. This was not queried and the estate agent accepted it, much to the surprise of our solicitor.
The reason they accepted is that they knew there service was not good enough and that to chase us for the amount we had reduced it by was not worth there effort for someone now living abroad.
It wasn’t about the money, but the principal. If you get someone to paint your house or do some building work and it’s not to the required standard, you don’t have to pay the full amount.
So I encourage everyone who gets poor service not to pay the full amount. Keep a log of the poor service. Usually the emails you will be sending will help this.
Good luck to everyone trying to sell in the UK. It is very hard and pressure on everyone.
I would strongly recommend you take the best and 1st price if you can. It will mean less stress in the long run for you, your family in NZ and the UK, and it draws a line. Whilst its still for sale, family in the UK hold out hope you will come back and can’t move on with their lives in the same way that you can’t. You have invested a lot in your move to NZ already with visas, medicals, moving. A drop of money now, will pay off in the long run, I guarantee.
Paul
We finally sold our house on 21st December last year, having had it on the market since Aug 2006. It was very difficult to keep the house going in the UK financially and very stressful at times, although the new lifestyle in NZ did help, and I have been more stressed in the past on smaller issues.
I have written before that it is probably better to accept the 1st best offer you get, if they can complete with no chain and are genuine. The problem is you never know if the are genuine. We had a buyer who kept us waiting for 12 weeks, then pulled out on the day of completion!!! This was at the same time had gone conditional on a property in NZ, expecting the house in the UK to sell. So you can imagine how we felt.
We funded the mortgage on our credit cards. If anyone wants to know how, send me a PM. We couldn’t rent the house. It was 150 years old and the electrics were ok, but not to a standard the council would have signed off on for a rental.
We shouldn’t have had a mortgage living outside of the UK, it clearly states that in the terms and conditions. We didn’t have insurance as it wasn’t valid if you are out of the house for more than 60 days. Everytime there was a storm, we held our breath. We had two break-ins because the Agent didn’t secure the property following some viewings. Our fence was damaged in high winds. We had family going to the house every week to collect post and fix stuff.
One of the biggest stresses was dealing with the estate agent. The problems are too many to list, but mainly were poor communication, incorrect advertising and not securing the property. For this reason we refused to pay the bill in full.
Now this is very unusual with estate agents and I strongly recommend everyone to do this IF you are not happy with the service. Normally the estate agent gets paid by the solicitor on completion. We instructed our solicitor not to do this. We reviewed the bill and agreed to pay 1% instead of 1.25%. We sent them a cheque as full and final payment. This was not queried and the estate agent accepted it, much to the surprise of our solicitor.
The reason they accepted is that they knew there service was not good enough and that to chase us for the amount we had reduced it by was not worth there effort for someone now living abroad.
It wasn’t about the money, but the principal. If you get someone to paint your house or do some building work and it’s not to the required standard, you don’t have to pay the full amount.
So I encourage everyone who gets poor service not to pay the full amount. Keep a log of the poor service. Usually the emails you will be sending will help this.
Good luck to everyone trying to sell in the UK. It is very hard and pressure on everyone.
I would strongly recommend you take the best and 1st price if you can. It will mean less stress in the long run for you, your family in NZ and the UK, and it draws a line. Whilst its still for sale, family in the UK hold out hope you will come back and can’t move on with their lives in the same way that you can’t. You have invested a lot in your move to NZ already with visas, medicals, moving. A drop of money now, will pay off in the long run, I guarantee.
Paul
Feb 15th 2008, 9:20 am
#2
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Morecambe
Posts: 1,659
Re: Estate agents in the UK. Not happy, dont pay.
I'm planning on renting my UK house out for at least 2 years. Had numerous letting agents round over last few days and that is bad enough. Dont fancy going through what you've gone through.
Feb 15th 2008, 10:09 am
#3
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 5,763
Re: Estate agents in the UK. Not happy, dont pay.
1.25%??? Bloomin' 'eck, we paid 6% in the US! 
(OK that was us, as sellers, paying both buying and selling fees, very normal there, but still 3% per agent)
(OK that was us, as sellers, paying both buying and selling fees, very normal there, but still 3% per agent)
Feb 15th 2008, 10:30 am
#4
`
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 38,612
Re: Estate agents in the UK. Not happy, dont pay.
Normally the estate agent gets paid by the solicitor on completion. We instructed our solicitor not to do this
Feb 15th 2008, 12:16 pm
#5
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 35
Re: Estate agents in the UK. Not happy, dont pay.
Also check that if the solicitor has paid the agent directly that the right amount has been paid. Our agent requested (and was paid) 1.4% of the original asking price rather than 1.4% of the achieved sale price. I checked our contract and it stated quite clearly that they should have only taken 1.4% of the achieved price, it was a bit of a mission getting the difference refunded from the agent, not something I would have liked to try once we'd left the country.
