I thought i had purchased a site last august i paid a 2000 euro deposit and waited for the contracts to be sent out they never came for the past 3 months the estate agent has been blaming the seller the solicitor or anyone else he could think of today i got in touch with the seller he told me he had never accepted my offer or authorised the estate agent to sell it where do i go from here can the E.A. get away with this it can't be legal practice any help appreciated.
Estate agent swindling me
- Thread starter bms1
- Start date
Has it occurred to you that perhaps the seller is lying to you? That he has changed his mind?
Why don't you walk away and buy something else? You never had a contract and so neither side is bound.
mf
This would'nt have anything to do with the vendor wanting to avoid paying EA's fees by any chance, would it?
mf
M
mercman
Guest
Have you got the deposit back yet ?? Have you realised it is near impossible to read your post with punctuation marks inserted.
Actually, no. I'm a solicitor and trained to try and sift the truth from the various stories I am told! There is generally another side to what I hear and I try, rather than accept the first story I am told, to work out what is going on in the background.
mf
bms1 if you look at it logically, mf is not being cynical just balanced. You have been told by the vendor that they have never had any contact with the EA. What did the EA do? Go out and earmark a site for sale without the vendor knowing? Go out looking for private sales that they could co-opt? I am not saying it is impossible but it is not simple either and would require effort, investment and subterfuge on the part of the EA (given that they would still have to pay for the advertising for example, it wouldn't cost the EA nothing). The vendor though has a clear incentive to lie to you about this. If they have contracted the EA to sell the property when the property sells they have to pay them. If they can get you to accuse and sue the EA for the deposit they may be hoping that the EA will back out and they get away with not paying the EA for their services. I am not saying it isn't possible but I am suggesting you perhaps trust the vendor as much as the EA and don't assume they are telling the truth and the EA is lying.
Go after him for what ? you got your deposit back.
Why would the EA sell you the site if he was not engaged to do so ?
And now your negotiating with the the seller direct to buy the site. Seems like a case of trying to cut out the EA.
Brendan Burgess
Founder
- Messages
- 54,370
It's a tough one.
Either the vendor or the EA is lying.
Did your solicitor contact the vendor's solicitor? If the vendor had instructed a solicitor, then presumably the vendor had agreed to sell the site.
It seems much more likely that the vendor is lying. Do you want to buy from that vendor now? Will you be neighbours after you buy the site?
Brendan
Either the vendor or the EA is lying.
Did your solicitor contact the vendor's solicitor? If the vendor had instructed a solicitor, then presumably the vendor had agreed to sell the site.
It seems much more likely that the vendor is lying. Do you want to buy from that vendor now? Will you be neighbours after you buy the site?
Brendan
My solicitor never contacted the vendors solicitor as E.A. kept saying the details were been sent over to mine obviously they never arrived. I will probably not deal with the vendor as he is looking for more money than i thought i had agreed on .We will not be neighbours if the sale went through as the seller is a builder with alot of properties sitting idle doesn't live in the area so i doubt very much the couple of % he is saving from shafting the E.A. is a driving force in all this.My main greivance is that 3 months of my time was wasted i was looking at another site which i let go in favour of this one which is now gone and now i have to start all over again so i have actually lost a lot more time as i had stopped looking. The E.A. wouldn't return my calls for the last three weeks and i had to go into his office and fight with his secretary for my money which i got and still i have recieved no call, so if people on here think this is acceptable behaviour and a good way to run a business and should be allowed to get away with it then i must be very naive.Thanks Brendan for at least thinking the E.A. could be lying
"so if people on here think this is acceptable behaviour and a good way to run a business and should be allowed to get away with it then i must be very naive."
I don't think anyone said that it was a good way to do business. I think people suggested that there might be another side to the story, that neither party was bound in as no contracts were signed, that you suffered no actual financial loss that you could make someone responsible for.
Perhaps its a lesson that you could learn from in any future dealings with vendors or EA's?
mf
I don't think anyone said that it was a good way to do business. I think people suggested that there might be another side to the story, that neither party was bound in as no contracts were signed, that you suffered no actual financial loss that you could make someone responsible for.
Perhaps its a lesson that you could learn from in any future dealings with vendors or EA's?
mf