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Estate Agents in "all scum of the earth" shocker

Started by 23 Daves, March 21, 2006, 05:25:33 PM

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23 Daves

We're having this debate ridiculously late in the day really, but nonetheless:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4826444.stm

Estate Agents and Letting Agents are among my least favourite people in the world.  The system in Britain is pretty much tilted in favour of them doing whatever the hell they want, and the consumer just gets the shit end of the stick every single time.  To anyone on this forum who happens to be an estate agent, I offer no apologies, unless of course you're one of the few ones in your particular office who happens to be taking some sort of moral high ground.

As someone who is completely unable to get a mortgage, my dealings with agencies have been limited to lettings arrangements, and in this respect alone I'm almost certainly missing a few thousand pounds out of my life.  I've had the works – deposits taken for mess that was already present when I moved into houses.  Landlords mysteriously refusing to answer their phones when I moved to another part of the country and needed a deposit back.  "Hidden" fees which weren't stipulated verbally at the beginning of the agreement (my present agency slipped a £150 fee in after we'd agreed the terms and conditions and believed everything was settled – if we tried to pull out of the deal at that point, our holding deposit would have been taken.  Crafty, and probably contestable, but we did badly want to move into the property).  Landlords moving us into half-completed properties which go against every health and safety regulation going.

If any other industry behaved in this manner, they'd be litigated against, have watchdogs set up by the Government, and would almost certainly be confronted with endless beauracracy.  Since the Thatcher years, however, I've always got the impression that British Governments have had a very soft spot for quick-buck property developers and dealers, and are quite keen to keep the status quo as it stands for the good of the economy.  At least, I can't think of any other justifiable reason why things are left as they are.

In other countries, things are much different.  In Quebec in Canada, Landlords have to justify each and every rent increase to the local council.  If their reasons are found wanting, then the rent increase is rejected.  In Australia and New Zealand, the deposit gets held by a Government authority, and the landlord has to prove that he or she has the right to take it – not the other way around.  In Britain, it's pretty much a free-for-all.  

And that's before we even start talking about actually buying houses....

Sherringford Hovis

I'm glad I didn't see this programme, it would've put the shits up me as we're trying to bung our gaff on the market, and had three 'quotes' for the house in the last week off some smarmily cheap-suited cliché-syllabic pricks, varying by as much as £45K between the highest and lowest. They really have no idea, they're just making shit up as they go along. I could understand this amount of difference if it was a ginormous place, but it's a pissy little one-and-a-half bedroom house where this guesswork alters the price by more than 25%.

Anybody had a good/bad experience with any of these "pay once and see your house online"-type sites?

Fuck living in a house - I'm thinking of getting a boat instead!
There's more than a few Arfur Daleys afloat though - these people even admit that what they're selling is the remains of two old tubs glued together. I walked past it this afternoon and the welding looks like it was done by Stevie Wonder after a whole day snorting pure espresso beans:
http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=36511

Jemble Fred

Quote from: "Sherringford Hovis"Fuck living in a house - I'm thinking of getting a boat instead!

Now there's an idea! Do it, do it, do it! It should solve all sorts of moving problems, and hopefully I'd get to visit, and risk drowning in my sleep, which is always good.

You're the kind of dude who'd know everyone along the river for miles, within a week of becoming a mariner. Is there a decent canal network between Bath and Guildford?

I thought it was an example of pisspoor journalism. The way she had her cover blown in the first estate agent was amateurish.

danielreal2k

She was no Roger Cook was she.

Cant the Government do something about corrupt agents? ohh they're corrupt too.. doh.

variant

She also seemed to try and make the programme about herself and how brave and daring she was being.

Having said that you don't need to a 'whistleblower' to know that estate agents are useless liars - just spend 5 minutes with one of the arseholes.

Incidentally was it true that Roger Cook was allergic to cucumbers?

I seemed to remember he confronted a mechanic who had been welding the back of one car to the front of another- the mechanic waved a cucmber under Roger's nose, producing an effect similar to Superman and kryptonite.

variant

Which makes me wonder if the mechanic kept a cucumber in his drawer just in case roger cook turned up.

Make me smile

I am just about to move to a new flat that I will be renting. I have received the contract and it all seemed fine, just a standard tennancy agreeement, but hidden away was a clause to the effect of:

"The tennant agrees to pay a £70 closing fee when the contract comes to an end".

It's a six month contract and if I do not choose to renew it at the end (which would cost £117 anyway) they are going to charge me for it! I have lived in 15 rented places and have never come across anything like this.

Surely the point of a six month contract (or any contract for that matter) is that it lapses after six months and as long as I have given appropriate notice, the contract ceases to exist.

Has anyone else had experience of anything like this?

Purple Tentacle

When we were renting, our landlord had to pay a month's rent to his estate agent if we stayed there for an extra year.  I suggested he give us our deposits back, and we'd not tell the agent, which he accepted.  Probably not that useful or relevent to this discussion I suppose.


We keep on getting cunty letters from random estate agents saying "We notice you're selling your house. Here are some other houses you might be interested in", despite us not doing anything of the sort. I guess they're sending the same letter out to everyone, and hoping to snare people using the law-of-averages, spam style. Estate agents really are cunts.

hencole

My only experience of estate agents was enough to convince me that most, if not all are criminals. I can't think of any other profession that has ever lied to my face so blatantly in all my life. When you then tell them that you know what they are telling you isn't true they just lie further. Not in a nice way, but in a very aggressive way. They use threats and pretend that deals may fall through. All of it is nasty bullshit of the highest order. If I was a more vunerable individual it could have caused me long term distress. I actually can't put into words how terrible they are, and I'm not going to post examples as it will just enrage and upset me too much. If the estate agent who in the main dealt with me was hanging off a cliff and only I could save them, and I would get £20,000 for doing so I would genuinley have to think about it a long time. Not because it's a difficult decision, but rather I would want them to suffer before I crushed their fingers under my boot before watching the fuckface plumet to their deserved death.
I'd also like to add that I'm being quite restrained in my above assesment.

In my experience, I've found estate agents and recruitment agents (although they're starting to call themselves headhunters now) on a relatively even level of cuntishness.  I would concede, however, that an estate agent is likely to cause you more financial harm

SetToStun

On the general scale of cunticity, I would have to agree that estate agents are right up there - above traffic wardens, PE teachers and chuggers. However, I feel I should stick up for the last letting agents I used - they were ace. Maybe because they're a very small local chain or maybe because the shiny-suited lie-babies all go into property sales where the commissions are bigger. At any rate, the office was entirely staffed by women all of whom seemed to be either middle-aged and kindly or younger and pregnant. They were all quite lovely and I'll use them again next time I move, no doubt about it. They even took my side in a dispute about returning a deposit (the landlord was trying to shaft me), thereby proving themselves to be angels.

Anyway, back on topic - estate agents? If you set fire to the lot of them, I'd still rather walk a mile over broken glass to find a toilet than piss on them.

Make me smile

Quote from: "aaaaaaaaaargh!"In my experience, I've found estate agents and recruitment agents (although they're starting to call themselves headhunters now) on a relatively even level of cuntishness.  I would concede, however, that an estate agent is likely to cause you more financial harm

I would have to put recruitment consultants at the top of the tree, with estate agents second. They only pip lawyers because I have never had any direct experience of dealing with them, I only have a nebulous idea of their cuntiness.

Other cunt professions: squaddies, rugby players, security guards, doormen.

For balance, lovely professions: postmen, the Danish.

imitationleather

Quote from: "Make me smile"For balance, lovely professions: the Danish.



You're right. They are lovely.

Purple Tentacle

Phwoar, much better than the Eccles Cakes you get over here, eh lads?

Make me smile

Quote from: "imitationleather"
Quote from: "Make me smile"For balance, lovely professions: the Danish.

(picture)

You're right. They are lovely.

Has anyone here ever had a Danish pastry in Denmark? I really love Danish pastries, but I suspect they bear little resemblance to the orginal Danish product..like, ummm... Guiness from Ireland. Or potatos.

imitationleather

I hear that suicide bombers over here are nothing like the ones you get abroad, as well.

But, seriously, no I've never had a Danish pastry in Denmark. Actually, what do they call them in Denmark? Hang on, hasn't Fantasy Football League already done this gag?

butnut

I had a croissant in Copenhagen which was quite disappointing.

I dare someone to make a more pointless post than this today.

Make me smile

Quote from: "imitationleather"I hear that suicide bombers over here are nothing like the ones you get abroad, as well.

But, seriously, no I've never had a Danish pastry in Denmark. Actually, what do they call them in Denmark? Hang on, hasn't Fantasy Football League already done this gag?

Didn't Bridget Nieieieieilsen stick a Danish pastry in David Baddiel's face?

Purple Tentacle

Quote from: "butnut"I had a croissant in Copenhagen which was quite disappointing.
I dare someone to make a more pointless post than this today.

State of the board thread required NOW!

Get out.

Eight Taiwanese Teenagers

Quote from: "variant"Which makes me wonder if the mechanic kept a cucumber in his drawer just in case roger cook turned up.

He had it down his trousers, wrapped in foil. Causes problems at the airport though.

Make me smile

Quote from: "butnut"I had a croissant in Copenhagen which was quite disappointing.

I dare someone to make a more pointless post than this today.

Well more fool you for not reading this review of the Copenhagen Bakery and Cafe before you went.

"if you are craving a flakey, butter croissant, Copenhagen's is not going to do it for you."

If you can't be bothered to do some research before you go, don't come whining to us!

butnut

Haha, marvelous.

Before uncapslocked gets all upset about his new country, the croissant I had was in a cafe in the main station in Copenhagen, and I bought it as an attempt to get rid of some Danish money before I flew home. Although seemingly from your research, even the best places don't do great croissants.

ColaCoca

Quote from: "Make me smile"

"The tennant agrees to pay a £70 closing fee when the contract comes to an end".

Not that I expect anyone to have any sympathy for the landlord here but to prove just how much of a racket it all is, the agent is probably going to charge them a similar amount to check you out at the end of the tenancy.  £140 to spend 20 minutes walking round the flat and ticking the inventory off in other  words.

My Giddy Aunt

Out of interest out of those getting very huffy about estate agents how many are London based issues?
Anecdotally they seem an awful awful lot worse there than elsewhere, in general.

Incidentally, im pretty sure if a landlord tries to increase your rent there is provision for challenging it whereby it gets independently reviewed as to whether its at a reasonable market value. I think.

sproggy

It might be interesting to see if Purple Tentacle would oblige us with one of his super excel spreadsheet charts.  Plotting UK house prices against UK interest rate and average salary.  I would do it myself if I wasn't so sure how angry I would get knowing that estate agents still charge a fixed 1% to 2% of the final exchange price as comission.

Purple Tentacle

Quote from: "sproglette"It might be interesting to see if Purple Tentacle would oblige us with one of his super excel spreadsheet charts.

God, I hate being associated with excel spreadsheet charts!!

I need data to plot charts, and the idea of spending any time gathering data on estate agent comission, interest rates and rising house prices makes me want to impale myself on the nearest y axis.

That's time I could be using constructively, like reading Wikipedia articles about the phasers on the Enterprise A, and refreshing my email inbox until home time.

The Widow of Brid

Letting agents can fuck right off.

We're currently dealing with letting agents for the first time (all our previous places have been rented directly from the owners) and have just spent two days waiting to hear whether our offer had been accepted, only to be fed some guff about how it hadn't because of our cats. (Two spayed females, which were mentioned before we viewed the place, and which we'd been assured were no problem).  

The real truth I suspect is that it was a very nice place, moderately priced, and someone else suggested a willingness to pay over the stated rent.

AMG

I spent a whole 6 months as a lettings agent. For a large controversial London-based one associated with minis no less.

The truth is that I didn't meet many people who were anything other than completely decent, and 90% of deals go flawlessly, but the nature of being the middle man is that you spend most of your time getting it in the neck from both parties. Spending two days waiting to hear whether your offer is accepted, while not great, is pretty run of the mill. The agent can't say yes on behalf of the landlord, and if you can't get hold of him or have to argue about something there is not much that can be done.

That said, I have seen people get screwed too.

A £70 closing fee sounds pretty shocking - what the justification is for that I have no idea.  There is another London agent that takes a £500 deposit before the offer accepted, which differs from most in that it is non-refundable. Meaning that if the landlord doesn't like your references, you lose the cash and don't get the flat. Pretty appalling.