Estate Agents Grrr

lafors

Right myself and my wife are trying to find a house to buy and have been looking for a while, we decided to wait around to see what happened in the budget. We are also not new to the property market and in dealing with agents......

So we went looking at a good few houses over the past few days.
Now one house in Dublin in a decent northside suburb was on the market with a fairly large and reputable estate agent.

This house while being the most bizzare layout to a house I've ever seen had a very large garden at the back. Now we were very interested in the house, especially with the large garden. My wife thought, but whats the catch, (i.e. the price was similar to nearby properties with gardens only 1/4 the size), estate agent said, none....great.

So when we went home I did a bit of searching (Note: ALWAYS search on dublincity.ie for planning applications!!), and found the house next door has just been granted planning permission to build 4 houses in their back garden! The people who are selling this house had even put in an objection, which not only complains about the houses but also mentions a flooding problem already existant with the property (the bottom half of the back garden is very prone to flooding), which the council have never fixed.

So what I want to know is, do the agents have to tell you these things?
Do they have to abide by a code of ethics at all?
Or am I right in taking the attitude of "guilty until proven innocent" when dealing with them.

Apologies with the length of post

mikemac

Name and shame the agent!
You don't have to give the branch if that's too specific but I would

The defense they probably have is you never asked.;)

lafors

micmclo wrote: »

Name and shame the agent!
You don't have to give the branch if that's too specific but I would

The defense they probably have is you never asked.;)

Well I would say I did ask, as we asked them whats the catch.

I don't particluarly want to name them yet, I'm going to ring on monday, ask them to remove my details from their system and ring their head office and ask if they knew about this and if they abide by a code of ethics or something similar.

mikemac

Man, why is it on boards that people lash into Dell, Microsoft, NTL and loads of corporations but you ask them to name a business like a dodgy estate agent or car dealer and they never, ever do it.
I see this a lot in the motor forum.

Not aimed at you lafors, just an observation.

lafors

micmclo wrote: »

Man, why is it on boards that people lash into Dell, Microsoft, NTL and loads of corporations but you ask them to name a business like a dodgy estate agent or car dealer and they never, ever do it.
I see this a lot in the motor forum.

Not aimed at you lafors, just an observation.

You're right, I've seen it a bucket load on the motors section.
In this case I still don't know they knew, if I find out they do, I'll name them.

someuser90

name and shame++

i remember going for a rented flat, and the agent telling me how he *thinks* they won't be building anything on the neighboring site for another year or two. but construction had clearly already begun

K_P

OP, as far as I know estate agents have to disclose information if asked directly. Asking them what's the catch is way too vague for them to admit to anything.

When myself and the husband were house-hunting we saw a place we loved and were about to put in an offer. My mother-in-law remembered something about asbestos in that estate. One quick phone call to the estate agent later, when asked if the roof was asbestos they told us that it was, but acted like there was nothing in the world wrong with a potentially lethal roof.

Fair play to you on doing your research. But at the same time, what are we all expecting from estate agents? We all know they're sharks but no one running a business is going to talk down what they're trying to sell if they can help it at all.

SimpleSam06

micmclo wrote: »

Man, why is it on boards that people lash into Dell, Microsoft, NTL and loads of corporations but you ask them to name a business like a dodgy estate agent or car dealer and they never, ever do it.

The damage your post might do to the likes of microsoft or dell would be negligible. The damage it might do to a small local business or branch of a business could be significant, and therefore more worth their time to follow it up, which leaves sites like boards carrying the can. Truth might be an absolute defence against libel, but the nice people running the site don't need the hassle, especially when proper channels already exist for complaints which are better than complaining on a very public forum.

antoinolachtnai

Why are you expecting the vendor's agent to be a general purpose source of reliable information for you? You aren't paying the agent anything. He has no duty to you. If you want someone to research your purchase on your behalf you should engage your own agent.

I think you are being unrealistic here. You are not buying a consumer good. You are buying or renting a house and the rules are different.

It really doesn't matter what the agent tells you. You can't rely upon anything he or the vendor tells you orally. The only warranties you can rely upon are those in the contract of sale.

astrofool

It would actually be illegal for the agent to mention a bad point on the property, unless they are specifically asked. They represent the vendor, and are out to get them the biggest pile of money possible. This is why it's always worth getting a good survey, which would find the flooding problem, and to research the area, showing the planning permission. Buyer beware.

CreepingDeath

Ask an estate agent about ethics and they'll reach for a dictionary to look up the word.

While I completely despise estate agents and believe they cost me maybe €10k in phantom bids, in this specific case if the sellers didn't tell the agents about the problems next door then they have plausible deniability.
If you were selling a house would you tell the agent everything wrong with it ?

Your own solicitor would've found out about the planning permission for next door during the conveyancing process I imagine.

uberwolf

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Your own solicitor would've found out about the planning permission for next door during the conveyancing process I imagine.

Having incurred the costs, like yourself.

I wouldn't anticipate a straight answer to a straight question. You never know what the vendor has neglected to mention to them.

lafors

I think astrofool unfortunately may have hit the nail on the head....buyer beware.
I couldn't find any info on regulation in Ireland, theres some available for the UK, no use here though.

I'm more annoyed as to find out the possible problems with a property you have to pay, be it surveyor or solictior. We shouldn't have to pay to find this out, especially when it ends up being something that will stop you buying the property at all, its just money down the drain in an already expensive enough process.

Its agents who are helping to keep prices up by doing crap like this, and how is he acting in his clients best interests? If he was smart he'd be telling us about the houses next door and trying to sell it with development possibilities (which imho will end up happening to that property).

As for phantom bids, don't get me started on that!

mathie

Well here's a personal tale ...

Im currently selling and have just switched estate agents as our first estate agent was getting us very few viewings.
We're very reasonably priced and before people say 'or so you think' then realise that we're on at 60K less than the other houses in our estate (they're on at 380K to 450K)

So we just changed estate agents and in the last week we've found out that one person who viewed with our old EA is now viewing with our new EA. He said that while the old EA was showing him around our house that he was trying to get him to buy a new property in the estate (the old EA is also selling new properties in the estate). I'm wondering the legality of this?

Anyway it's not just the buyers who are hit by EAs it's the sellers too.

galah

we're currently looking for a house also - and I get the distinct feeling that the Estate Agent is the biggest bullsh*tter in the country - making up other bidders, insisting that the seller wouldn't even consider our bid (whereas I think he hasn't even told them someone is interested in their house, cause he wants to push for a higher commision), leaving out 'interesting' details like the right of way and other issues (when asked directly), and generally being totally unhelpful.

I realise we're the buyers, and he's working for the seller, but he's not working for either, really, since he's not even trying to get the property sold.

How these people can still operate like that is beyond me.

Unfortunately, he's the only agent for the area...But his behaviour makes me want to put buying a house on the long finger, and wait for houses by other agents to come to the market (we don't have to buy, FTB with fairly cheap rent).

EKRIUQ

Is it possible that the estate agent didn't actually know about the planning permission being granted. There's a lot of very sneaky sellers out there that are not going to disclose anything, even to the estate agent if they though it would hamper a sale. It's up to your solicitor to find these things out when conveyancing.