witholding estage agents fees

[DannyK]

has anyone ever witheld some money on completion of a house sale, from estage agents.

we have had terrible service from our estate agents, and want to withold some money, and wondered just how much we could get away with. I have kept a diary of all the ****-ups from the beginning.

[lady_p_gold]

I would be extremely careful about this ... what exactly did they do wrong ??   My friend had terrible service from an estate agent and eventually the house was not sold.  At the time he was desperate for the money.  He then rented out the property instead.  Nearly a year later he met a neighbour in the post office and they told him that they had put in an offer, and my friend realised they had never passed it on, and he certainly would have taken it at the time even though it was substantially below the asking price (I believe they now have to pass on all offers and cannot decide for themselves whether it is too  low).  However he then arranged to sell the house to this neighbour and after exchange was horrified to receive a bill from the estate agents for the commission.  He refused to pay and they went to court and my friend lost because the judge said that whatever the circumstances, if the neighbour had originally seen the estate agent's board then that is what alerted him to the property.  So ... just beware of taking them on !!

[Oneeyedvic]

You will find it difficult to withold money, as the agreement you signed allows them to claim the money direct from the solicitor before your solicitor gives you any money.

Better, to firslty put your complaint in writing to the head person. Suggest that you want redress for your problems. If that does not work, find out if they are a member of an association and make complaints there. You may also like to contact trading standards, and as a last resort, if you can prove that you have lost out finanically, you may want to take county court action.

[petroneva]

As an Estate Agent I can tell you, in the main, if you have a genuine complaint and that you have had bad service, then, it's the same as consumer rights, you can tell them to get lost! ask your solicitor to withhold payment, make sure you have evidance of phone calls or non phone calls, thretren to take them to the obudsman or the press, go into there office on a busy Saturday and create meyhem! remember, everybody knows 5 people and those 5 people know another 5 people, don't let these cowboy Agents get away with treating you badly when selling the greatest asset you may ever have, you have rights.