We've agreed a lower a price for our house based on the enthusiastic lie by our estate agent that the buyer doesn't want a survey. We did question this unusual comment and were told that the buyer is 'in the trade' and so is happy with what he's seen. Because of this and the fact that he is a cash buyer we believed it. Fortunately the buyer lives nearby and confirmed to us (by chance) that he told the estate agent that he had instructed the surveyor the same day we had agreed to the offer and would never have said he didn't want a survey. This was a shock. We thought we had a guaranteed quick sale with no further likelyhood of negotiation. On this basis we accepted 000's less than we wanted. The poor buyer thought he was getting the security of a survey with the possibility of renegotiation if there was anything wrong with the property. The estate agent who said the famous words is now on holiday for two weeks, the MD is telling us the issue lies with the buyer and is telling the buyer the issue lies with us. Oh and we asked the MD to tell the buyer to put everything on hold (advise the buyer not to pay for a survey) until this has been resolved. The buyer says he's been told all is sorted and to go ahead and pay the surveyor. Does anyone have any advice?
Big costly lie by my estate agent - help
- Thread starter purpleskyixie
- Start date
Have you exchanged contracts yet? All you need to do is make the acceptance of the offer is based on completion within 28 days and make it clear that there is no room for negotiation. The buyer may still withdraw their offer and they might want the survey to make sure there is nothing major.
Tony
Tony
The buyer does want a survey and will withdraw without it. We are both victims. We both know we are both going to have to compromise in the end either one or other of us probably more so than the other. The alternative will be to drop out of the sale completely and we are prepared to do that as well, out of principle. I want to know what can be done to the estate agent for acting in such a way. I can't stand the thought that this is a regular ace up their sleeve for any negotiation that is not going as well as they would like. They have to be liable somehow.....surely.
I do hope you're able to resolve this issue. It would so wrong for the agent to be able to get away with this kind of outrageous behaviour. Reminds me of a distressing situation we found ourselves in recently. We had £30,000 invested in an off-plan property but because of huge, complex legal issues we were advised by our solicitor that it may well be wiser to pull out of the deal. She said it would take her a few weeks to try and secure a full refund of our money. We were devastated at the thought of losing our dream home but reluctantly agreed with our solicitor that to pull out was the wisest course of action. We promptly found another property to purchase (very much second-best). We were very open and honest with the estate agent. Told her that we were currently in the process of getting back our £30,000 and that should the new property still be on the market once we had secured this we would make an offer. We were then informed that someone else had made an offer but that he was currently on holiday, due back the following week. We were advised to make our offer now. Not wanting to lose yet another property and living temporarily in a box room with all belongings in storage (having sold our home the previous month) we felt under immense pressure to move with haste. We explained to the agent the gravity of our situation and that should we proceed with this purchase we would be giving up the ability to claim back the £30,000 from the off-plan property. She commiserated with us but said to look on the bright side as our offer had been accepted and we would soon be sitting in our lovely new home and could put the dreadful past behind us. Just what we needed....a kind and understanding individual!! We promptly instructed our solicitor to withdraw from our off- plan purchase andtherefore to give up on our claim for the £30,000 refund. We instructed her instead to proceed with this new house purchase. All was proceeding nicely, letters being sent between both sets of solicitors, acceptance of offer, survey being arranged etc when a few days later (a Sunday evening, when estate agents office was closed) I recieved a phone call fro the agent. The developer had held an Open Day at the property and had kept an appt with the chap who'd previously offered (not accepted at the time) and had now returned from holiday. Developer had told this chap that my purchase was going through so said chap raised his offer above mine and it had been accepted. Talk about being used as leverage for more cash! We'd been well and truly taken for a ride! We now had no home and had given up our £30,000 claim! We were distraught and demanded an explanation. Agent simply said she could do nothing about it as developer had kept the appt, not her!! This agent gets all the developers property to sell and so obviously isn't going to make any objection. It smarts even now to see his same agent selling all this developers latest property. Feel an immense sense of injustice. I apologise for appearing to hijack your query....I guess it touched a raw nerve. I sincerely hope you have some form of redress against the agent. They shouldn't be able to get away with their scheming deception and leaving a trail of unhappiness along the way.
Last edited: