Estate Agent Problems

Casati

Im currently bidding on a house, and find I'm having to chase the estate agent continually - i.e if my bid is exceeded by the other bidder, the agent makes no attempt to call me, leaving me to continually call him for updates. I get the impression he doesn't want me to get the property. Do I have any rights here?

wexie

Casati wrote: »

Im currently bidding on a house, and find I'm having to chase the estate agent continually - i.e if my bid is exceeded by the other bidder, the agent makes no attempt to call me, leaving me to continually call him for updates. I get the impression he doesn't want me to get the property. Do I have any rights here?

in short....nope, none whatsoever, there is no statutory body or law preventing estate agents from delivering bad service and the majority seem to be delighted to be using this to their full advantage.

Also, you need to remember the estate agent doesn't owe you anything, you're not paying them, the seller is paying them.

Diane Selwyn

It sounds wrong though - the agent should be trying to get the highest price for the seller so surely that should mean trying to get you to outbid the competition and vice versa? If you have to chase them for updates I'd suspect that all wasn't straightforward with the sale.

wexie

Diane Selwyn wrote: »

It sounds wrong though

Oh of course, I'm not saying it's how it should be, just that there's little that can be done about it other than moan to the estate agent and that's not likely to help much.

And of course there is every chance there's something up with the sale, many houses on the market where the owner's don't really want to sell but are trying to keep the bank happy, many people testing the waters with all the reports of rising house prices etc. etc. etc.

Could be something as simple as people not wanting to sell until after holiday season....

Doom

Send an anonymous letter to seller about the EA

Casati

Doom wrote: »

Send an anonymous letter to seller about the EA

It seems like the seller doesn't want me to get the sale to be honest. Its a forced liquidation sale so I don't know who the 'seller' is

Henry Ford III

The E.A. wants the sale to go ahead at whatever price can be achieved.

That's what they do.

odds_on

Casati wrote: »

Im currently bidding on a house, and find I'm having to chase the estate agent continually - i.e if my bid is exceeded by the other bidder, the agent makes no attempt to call me, leaving me to continually call him for updates. I get the impression he doesn't want me to get the property. Do I have any rights here?

The more that you go chasing the EA, the more he knows he has a fish on the hook and wants to buy. Thus he is pulling the line in slowly hoping that either another bidder will come in, or a phantom bidder appears and then the price will rise.

Santa Cruz

Put a time limit on this matter and if no cooperation then walk away. It's not worth the aggravation

Casati

The property is fairly unique so I don't want to walk away from it, my impression is that he wants to sell it to the other bidder and doesn't want me bidding it up making it too expensive for this other bidder.

V. annoying but sounds like I can't do anything about it

BookBook

Casati wrote: »

The property is fairly unique so I don't want to walk away from it, my impression is that he wants to sell it to the other bidder and doesn't want me bidding it up making it too expensive for this other bidder.

V. annoying but sounds like I can't do anything about it

You can ask him which receiver is selling the house. You can write/complain to them (may take forever to get a reply). You can also make sure all your bids are in writing and if the worst comes to the worst you can lodge a complaint if you think you were the highest bidder.

The EA could be keeping the house for their friend or relative. I know at least two people who got their house through an friend who is an estate agent over other viewers. This same estate agent was selling a house I was interested in , I couldn't even get a viewing and I contacted them numerous times from the day the house went up on Daft. The house ended up being sold for 80k less than house for sale at same time two doors away. Other house was in better shape but not 80k worth.

Casati

BookBook wrote: »

You can ask him which receiver is selling the house. You can write/complain to them (may take forever to get a reply). You can also make sure all your bids are in writing and if the worst comes to the worst you can lodge a complaint if you think you were the highest bidder.

The EA could be keeping the house for their friend or relative. I know at least two people who got their house through an friend who is an estate agent over other viewers. This same estate agent was selling a house I was interested in , I couldn't even get a viewing and I contacted them numerous times from the day the house went up on Daft. The house ended up being sold for 80k less than house for sale at same time two doors away. Other house was in better shape but not 80k worth.

Its amazing that they are not regulated, its easy to see how EA can manage this type of sale to his personal benefit if he so wishes

TheDriver

They are regulated in theory. They also should have a bid book which can be consulted at any stage

the_syco

odds_on wrote: »

The more that you go chasing the EA, the more he knows he has a fish on the hook and wants to buy. Thus he is pulling the line in slowly hoping that either another bidder will come in, or a phantom bidder appears and then the price will rise.

Agreed. OP; you could be bidding against yourself, with the "bid" only being increased when you ring...