Purplebricks Review (2023) – Everything You Need To Know!

DO NOT USE. Local agent doesn’t respond to call or messages you ask her to do stuff never gets back to you. I have other local estate agents phoning me to give me new properties on the market and ask me how I’m doing with purple bricks not much really. I would go with a local estate agent as least they have some get up and go.

DONT GET TAKEN IN. Been on the market with this lot for over 2yrs. They overpriced property to get us to sign up. Full of promises to begin with then , Got ya money don’t give a toss. First agent from Bricks deceived all the way along with lies and promises. Next agent one call to introduce herself then never another word from her. Heard from a new agent Monday 13 July, again first contact in 5 months. Now had enough of this lot. Putting house on the market with a proper Estate Agent this week. Wasted £800+ with Bricks.
In my opinion don’t even rate 1star.

A year ago we tried to sell our house with Purple Bricks. The house had no serious problems and we were asking the average price for the area. We did not get a single viewing through Purple Bricks. At the time I assumed that this was due to their representative in our area not being on the ball...

This year the house is finally sold and we are buying. I've made Three enquiries properties marketed by Purple Bricks in two different areas and none of them have resulted in a viewing being arranged. All I get is a standard text message claiming that they've emailed me a link to book a viewing. I have not received any such link.

PB ruined my life last year. Within 8 months of choosing them to rent out my home, I was £10k in the hole through unpaid rent and damage to the property. They recommended tenants who set up a marijuana grow op in 2 bedrooms and stopped paying rent after 3 months. When I raised concerns PB refused to conduct an early inspection. They deny any responsibility and say the loss is my fault because I didn’t check that they had arranged landlord insurance when I requested it. They hadn’t. They are an immoral, unscrupulous, callous Company and I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy.

Viewing at 11am in cardonald. Was there for 10:50 and three cars in driveway. No one answered the door no one contacted me and no arrived. We waited 15minutes. Disgraceful way to treat people who are looking to buy a home. Took us 30minutes to get to the place. Pathetic

Initially the agent was very good with his sales patter. Once the sale was agreed didn't see him at all.
Emailed the after sales service several times to try and see what was happening but they just said they were getting no response from the solicitor.
If you want to sell through them to save money and you are prepared to do your own viewings and do your own chasing with your buyers you can save a lot of money.
Our biggest issue then is that we chose a house to buy that was being sold through purplebricks.
The seller had chosen to pay later and use purplebricks recommended conveyencers.
Nine weeks since our offer was accepted. Their conveyencers have not got some paperwork off the sellers yet. They don't chase the buyers for information. They said "we expect the seller to be chasing us to find out what is happening"
After sales service team and the agent are as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
I would possibly sell again if it was going to save me a lot of money but I would never buy a house again sold by purplebricks.

Their reviews are pretty much fabricated. Do not use PB!
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/purplebricks-trustpilot-reviews

As a family we've used Purplebricks to sell 3 properties in the past few years. We received the service we'd expected without any disapointments. The individuals on the ground we dealt with were all former bricks & mortar Agents with local knowledge, etc. What was interesting and very unprofessional was the amount of correspondence from local Estate Agents that suggested Rightmove was going bust and generally slagging them off for not being bricks and mortar (included national chains and local independents). Everyone without exception had selling rates that were at least two to three times PB's rates. I was very shocked at the vehement nature of the correspondence that was sometimes in my humble view was libellous in content.

However, all the properties sold via PB and they coordinated all the viewings/negotiations.

Based on our experience I have absolutely no doubt a significant amount of online negative reviews are from their competitors and of course there will be genuine disappointed reviews for a swathe of reasons which may actually be nothing to do with PB (or any Estate Agent).

PB have successfully disrupted the market and lower priced competitors will follow and I'm sure many will not survive at their low price point. The online virtual office (which PB is) is likely to become the new normal for many traditional Estate Agents - which will retain a limited number of brick and mortar branches (even if it's just one). Technology is an amazing enabler and it is going to be a great asset and tool to Landlords and home owners going forward.

Estate/Letting Agents need to learn and embrace the technology quicker and compete on that basis. Those bringing real value to their customers and tenants will survive.

Found the PB employee 👆

Hello All,

I rented an apartment in Park Hill Rise @ St. Arvans Close from Dec 2018 to Sept 2020. My worst experience was with the Agent initially (PB) and then with the landlord.. I've never defaulted even a single time on timely payment in the 1.7 years I lived at this property. But if I had an issue it would run for days or weeks before someone would attend to it, they never respond on time...

But here's the thing. I handed over the key on the 9th September on time to (PB) the agent and I am still waiting for my deposit to come back to me...

I wonder if there are kind solicitors who help tenants to get back their deposit on time..
With a wife half way in her pregnancy and with having to wait this long to get your deposit
is very painful..

Some very good people within the company however nothing is co-ordinated properly The tenants cannot ever get hold of management Repairs are not followed through There seems to be no line of communication within the company which has led to expensive damage to my properties through issues not being reported or documented properly. They do not have decent local tradesmen as they are based in Birmingham and when I have got quotes from them they are absurdly off the record high so not worth using. A lot of useless correspondence is generated such as gas cert letters with no property name on them - so a waste of time. They have a landlord portal which is a complete and utter mess again without the information properly uploaded on them and the accounts department has made a lot of mistakes such as charging the one off let only fee for a year on the same property and the way the statements are generated with loads of blank pages does not work well with accounts systems like Xero. The whole experience is extremely frustrating and tedious and has led to unhappy tenants which is a first in my 17 years in this business because of their inability to follow through or organise anything properly so sadly I would not recommend this company. It is also impossible to get hold of people through a sea of answerphones and unanswered emails. A total contrast to my other managing agents who are all very good.

Absolutely useless. Had 3 different agents through PB , communication poor to say the least they did nothing to aid the sale of our house only put a for sale sign up and advertised it on right move once they have your money they disappear, totally misled into signing with them without realising we were signing up to use their solicitors to act on our behalf to sell the house . Then on the day of completing and moving an extra 400 pound had appeared from a system error that the solicitors could not track how or why this had happened , had us over a barrel as if we didn’t pay we could not complete ( this was at 14.30 pm on the day of moving with our removal vans packed and 2 removal vans waiting to unpack ) dishonest and useless !
WILL NEVER EVER USE PURPLE BRICKS AGAIN

If I could I would rate them minus 5 stars . I cannot stress enough .

My son has sold his house to someone useing PB,now 5 months in has been waiting to exchange with the owner of the property he’s buying for a month, they’re all packed and ready to move.
His solicitor has tried repeatedly to contact PB/solicitor whom his buyer was directed to use, unable to make contact e- mails and telephone calls are not answered.
Desperate to move in within next week or so, due to PB/Solicitor inactivity in responding, and with a late stage pregnant wife, the extra stress and anxiety is unacceptable and unnecessary.
Anyone considering using PB, my advice don’t entertain using their Solicitor it may seem cheaper, But in the long term will cost you more in time delays and affect your mental wellbeing.
Be warned!!!!!!!!!

Don't use these clowns!

Poor communication. Misleading advertising campaign. Hidden charges. Tie you into using a very poor conveyancing company, miles from home.

All of the above and more.

Do your research and pick somebody else; ANYBODY ELSE in fact.

I signed up to p/bricks 10 months ago, rep came to house over valued our home by huge amount!! Had virtually no contact with this rep, unless it was prompted by myself. In the time that has passed I have reduced the price twice myself.I have had two viewings (real ones).and one offer, which was withdrawn immediately. In January I received email stating my fee of over 1,600 was due for payment!!. The company who deal with payments, tried to go into my account and take the payment, the bank wudnt allow the transaction.They advertise on tv no sale - no fee, I was advised by the regional manager Liverpool that I was eligible for this, who stated in messages to various departments within the P/b co.I have since been advised that I am not eligible for this as my home was advertised in March last year, the no sale - no fee came into play in July of that year? Totally dumbfounded.Have tried arguing this fact, and advised the rep who advised me I was eligible for this has misled me, but in a gesture of goodwill they will deduct 100.00 from the bill. Since my complaint of lack of communication at all I have been bombarded with viewing appointments? Which are cancelled virtually straight away!!.what is P/b game. Also, the sign outside my home is still up, this will come down in March when the contract I supposedly received (not) runs out, but they want payment now?. I am 72 yrs of age nursing my terminally Ill husband, I feel exploited,intimidated,and basically taken for a fool!!.There TV adverts need overhauling, and taken off the screen until they give the true version of No sale No fee. I wonder how many more people have been duped with this offer!! Unscrupulous doesn't even touch it!!Take heed!!

We received a disgraceful service from PB last year.
It started off bad and went worse.We instructed our agent , NOT TO ERECT A BOARD,and she said she understood our need for this.Following day a board was put up ,and agent just drove off ,a few hours later we realised their first error,
I phoned and PB apologised.But it was too late ,all our neighbours had seen it.
The following day ,and before any viewings, a SOLD sign was put on the board ,in error again
( instead of house half mile away) My husband had to climb and get it down, again nosey neighbours had also witnessed this, we were a laughing stock.
We were then introduced to a couple by PB ,and we were advised they were 100% in position to buy our house.I repeatedly asked PB if there was any problem with our sale, as we didn’t hear back much ? They repeatedly reassured us nothing to be worried about.
A few days before we were due to complete and move ,our solicitor told us the buyers had disappeared of the face of the earth !!
We were all packed up , a whole lifetimes stuff in boxes.
We were devastated ,and PB were very unhelpful.Advised us to start again from the beginning .
We opted out of their solicitor at a cost of some £400 .
They are chasing me for the fee…for doing nothing !!!
Has anyone else had the same experience ? Did you pay ?

I signed up 10 months ago with PB agreeing to the fee of £1499. I really wish I hadn’t. Difficult to get hold of anybody. In the beginning I had to do some viewings myself due to staff shortages. I think my house was over priced and now 10 months later I find I’ve been charged extras £1808. I’m querying this in a complaint. The outstanding fee I can’t pay as I’ve not sold. It has been passed to an agency and they have agreed I can pay over a period of time interest fee, which is a huge help. I have now taken my house off the market. Not sure whether I go back to PB. I will still have to pay their fee. Not happy at all.

Afraid I've just fallen foul of Purple Bricks. I opted for the basic fee of £999 plus the viewing fee of £700. Within a month of the property going on the market and no viewings in that timeframe, I decided to rent instead, as the maintenance charges on the flat were mounting and a neighbor had inquired about renting mum's flat. I phoned the agent to advise I wanted to take the property off the market but had to leave a voicemail. Later that morning I had a call back and I asked what the fee would be, assuming there would be an admin fee but I was told the full £1700 was payable immediately and to my alarm they attempted to collect the money from my bank without first advising me of their intention but the bank did not release the funds. I contacted my local agent again by phone but had to leave a vm, and then texted to ask if there could be a waiver of the viewing fee as there hadn't been any. It's over a week later and he has not responded. I am about to arrange to pay the fee in three instalments, as I don't have the money to pay the bill as it was my intention to settle it from the sale proceeds. I feel that they were two hasty in attempting to collect their fee and should have received approval from me before attempting to do that. Also, as I never used their viewing service I feel they should offer at the very least a discount on the 700 pound fee for that service but their agent has not responded to my request about this!

I won’t bore you all with the disappointment I suffered with Purplebricks. I eventually took the property off the market and was invoiced more than I’d agreed to. The debt is now with a debt recovery company.
With hindsight I should never have agreed to allow Purplebricks to market my house.

The company should be taken to task as the service is appalling.