Just Another Reason To Hate Estate Agents

Ok, perhaps “hate” is a bit strong (or is it, really?), but there is definitely something about the tale I’m about to regurgitate which won’t help the reputation of estate agents. Well, one estate agency firm in particular, Foxtons. Who else could it have been, seriously?

In Foxtons defence- I’m not the type of person to wipe an entire industry with the same tar brush, but I can’t help but feel that during this dire financial crisis, the majority of estate agents would stab their own nan for a buck (even with the poor exchange rate), and that’s why this story has no shock value whatsoever.

So, let me set the scene. A Mrs Bicknall had a rather expensive house that she wanted to market, which in hand came with a rather attractive commission tag to the agency that got the sale. Her initial plan was to prosper through the competence of Foxtons sales team. When they failed to sell, sell, sell with in Mrs Bicknell’s idealistic timescale, she decided to appoint Hamptons (another estate agent) sales team to join the rat chase. To make the situation legit, she had to change Foxtons agreement from sole agency to multiple agencies.

While Foxtons were sole agents, they had shown the property to a Mr and Mrs Low. Unfortunately for Mrs Bicknall, they hadn’t shown enough interest to make an offer.

I don’t know how or why this occurred, but the Low’s also viewed the same property again under Hamptons supervision. The Low’s decided to make an offer and exchange contracts with Hamptons, meaning they snatched the handsome commission from Foxtons.

Foxtons had heard of this sale, and insisted that they were entitled to the commission because they initially introduced the Low’s to the property. To emphasise their point, Foxtons pointed to a clause in their contract that stated that Mrs Bicknell would be held liable if she sold the house to “a purchaser introduced by them”

Foxtons being Foxtons stuck to their words whole heartedly, consequently taking poor Mrs Bicknell to court. Well, you didn’t really expect Foxtons to let a buck or two slide by, did you? In great disappointment, Foxtons won their case.

Understandably, Mrs Bicknell was not satisfied with the result, so she decided to appeal. To Mrs Bicknell’s joy, the decision was eventually overturned. The appeal judge based his decision on the definition of “purchaser”. A purchase is apparently a purchaser when he decides to purchase. When Foxtons introduced the Lows, they weren’t purchasers. They became purchasers afterwards, when Hamptons had also put up a sales pitch, and pushed through the sale.

That makes sense to me. What do you think? I mean, if I had taken a liking to a shirt in store A, but decided to buy it from store B because they made a better sales pitch- store B made fair the sale. Right? Right. This seems like a classic case of, “we’re tight for money, let’s sue people over dumb shit to compensate, just like the Americans”

Rather interesting story. I don’t know why the Low’s didn’t bite bate when Foxtons had shown them the property, or why they insisted on seeing the same property through another agent, but I don’t really care. Admittedly, it does all sound rather fishy. But the point is, the Hamptons pushed through the sale and the Low’s agreed to buy through their service. Perhaps the agent handling the case at Foxtons put up a lousy sales pitch, or perhaps his general snake-oil swagger combined with the notorious Foxtons toy Mini was too overbearing, hence the betrayal. Hey, I can think of worse reasons to do business with another.

Moral of the story? An estate agency will sue their clients fucking ass if they think you snatched a few precious pennies away from them, and that’s why they’re probably one of the UK’s most hated professions (marginally trailing behind traffic wardens).

What are your thoughts?

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Eric Hundin wrote, on Apr 29th, 2008

	I found your blog on MSN Search. Nice writing. I will check back to read more. Eric Hundin
1

The Property Amateur wrote, on May 1st, 2008

	Thanks. I just hope you don’t scrape the content off my site like you appear to be doing with other sites on your personal website
2

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