[H & Rick]

This is a warning to anyone in the process of selling their house…apologies it’s a bit long, but I needed to get if off my chest….:(

Our Story..........
We were granted our PR in November last year but had withheld our passports for our recky trip the month before. This gave us a 6 months cushion to submit our passports before the 12-month window in which we have to be in NZ.

We put our house on the market in November with a local estate agent "The Home Office" based in Newport South Wales and had what we thought was a good time frame in which to find a buyer and complete.
Viewings were slow before Christmas but picked up in January. By the 2nd Feb we had had an offer and the chain of 3 was complete.

Within a month we were informed that the sale may be a bit slow as the buyer at the beginning of the chain was a long distant lorry driver. Two months in and we were starting to get a bit concerned. By now I was calling the estate agent every week, who in turn would confirm that there was no problem and things were progressing at a steady pace.

We are now in week 13.......after being told last Friday that there was a problem at the bottom of the chain, but since everyone else was happy to stay in the chain they would just find a new buyer for the bottom and all would be well. The house at the bottom had only taken 2 days to sell originally.

I noticed today that the sold sign was removed, this was followed by a booking for a viewing; we were told we should keep our options open in case anyone can complete quicker.... we thought ok, we'll go with the flow.

It turns out that the house at the beginning of the chain was literally being held for a friend of one of the estate agents, who had not even managed to secure a mortgage. They then decided they did not want it over 4 WEEKS AGO!!!!! Since then the estate agent had been trying to secure a buyer or lose 3 sales.
The snakes had not told us any of this, as you can imagine all three of us are writing an official complaint to the ombudsman of Estate Agents.:no

I cannot believe we have wasted 6 months and have got nowhere…

The good news is we have our Blue Stickers:) …..the bad news is we now only have 12 months.

[Sam'n'Kelv]

What an absolute nightmare. You must be SOOO angry! Considering the amount of money these agents squeeze out of us you think they could provide something resembling at least an 'adequate' service. You have been very poorly treated.

In my own case, I'm having an absolute panic attack! We've only just put our house on the market (the FOR SALE sign went up today) and we are flying out on July 8th.

Fingers crossed!!

[Cardy]

Sorry to hear the problems you are having. We had similar with our buyers but decided not to let it delay us. I came with enough money for 6 months if the house didnt sell as we didnt want to wait till the house sold. It was a risk but 6 weeks after we arrived we had a new buyer and completed.

Have you thought of getting a mortgage freeze,emptying the house so you dont pay rates ,cancelling you gas and electric. We did all that and had no bills from the house whilst we waited for it to sell apart from the house insurance.

Had to take 6 grand off the sale price but still made a large sum

Anyway good luck hope you get a buyer soon.

Cardy:yes

[Helsandfamily]

Heidi,

I am so sorry to hear the trouble you are having. We had something similar when we last moved house ( Without the pressure though of trying to emmigrate.) It was a nightmare. the good news is though that when the "right" buyer did eventually come along the house sold within 4 weeks so don't dispair, ther may be good news around the corner.

Good luck

Hels

[saralou]

What a complete nightmare. I really hope it all sorts itself out soon. I'll remember your story when we put our house on the market as we are 15 mins away from Newport and we had considered using the Home Office but now we will have to think again!

[katandbob]

The good news is we have our Blue Stickers:) …..the bad news is we now only have 12 months.

Sorry about your problems - but hopefully it will sell in the year - Be pro active - stick it on EBAY?? but keep on their backs constantly (agends)- and if all else fails - could you rent it out? or come over - get passports stamped - this then gives you 2 yrs to get over???

Just a few suggestions - and loads of fingers xd, as its the worst part of this journey as far as I am concerned


Kat

[sarahw]

So sorry to hear your story - it stinks trying to sell your home! We had someone pull out on us (luckily the agent let us know at the time - surely you should charge them for timewasting - cost of your mortgage for a month etc. I don't believe they're allowed to do what they did to you). Good luck with the move - have you thought of getting another agency to agree to go dual agency for the same rate as the previous agent & then telling your agent you're going single agent with another agent or they can do dual with you for the same amount you are paying them instead of the dual rate?? I know its a bit cheeky & you kind of have them over a barrel because they marketed the property for a while, but we did the same & it worked for us & got us a quick sale once we had competition going on...

[jen]

How awful - I don't know how people who do business like that can still live with themselves. I hope you can get the word out about them & save others from getting burned doing business with those completely unethical people.

Best of luck to you with your house sale!

Jen

[H & Rick]

Thanks for the support and the positive words.

We have today received confirmation that we are being released from our contract with "The Home Office"....:raebanana

Had another estate agent around yesterday so fingers crossed..:p

Saralou - We cannot stress how much you should NOT use "The Home Office", they have been a complete nightmare. Even our solicitor warned us about them....but only after it all kicked off..:no

All we can hope for now is the HIPS (Home Information Packs) to be postponed....in our dreams..:(

[wiki]

All we can hope for now is the HIPS (Home Information Packs) to be postponed....in our dreams..:(

Keep your adverts from the no-good agency because if you can prove you actively marketed your home before the June 1 deadline you don't need a HIPS pack until December (maybe November) but certainly for a good five months - hopefully long enough to secure a contracted offer on your place.

Good luck.

[speckythecky]

Nightmare,

I hope you get a decent response from the ombudsman. as for releasing you from the contract I should hope so. They have certainly acted immorally if not illegally and so have probably broken the contact anyway.

Good luck withthe new agents and hope you avoid the hips

[zardell]

The snakes had not told us any of this, as you can imagine all three of us are writing an official complaint to the ombudsman of Estate Agents.:no

I cannot believe we have wasted 6 months and have got nowhere…
.




I felt to sorry for you when I read your post and yes, as someone else said, it is immoral if not illegal.

I truly despair of the way that some estate agents refuse to balance their commission against the emotional costs to their clients.

There are good and bad in all walks of life, but unfortunately there are estate agency 'snakes' are all over the world and NZ is no exception.

Good luck.

Julie

xx

[jen]

There are good and bad in all walks of life, but unfortunately there are estate agency 'snakes' are all over the world and NZ is no exception.

xx

That's the truth:

Censured real estate agent wins top award - A real estate agent disciplined for misleading a Hamilton couple over a house sale that cost them $35,000 has received a top sales award from his company.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/4044810a6479.html

[zardell]

That's the truth:

Censured real estate agent wins top award - A real estate agent disciplined for misleading a Hamilton couple over a house sale that cost them $35,000 has received a top sales award from his company.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/4044810a6479.html




Quote taken from the above article:-

"The measure of the man is not whether you make a mistake or not, it's how you put it right. I think it's about time he did the right thing."

Not that I'm one to hypothetically point a finger :uhoh , but I hope that LJ Hookers in Whakatane read Stuff !!!

But I'm sure that Hookers are not the only ones.........

Julie

xx

[Moorf]

Add Harcourts to Hookers Julie.... the first ever agent we had here was dishonest and didn't disclose what we later found to be potentially devastating rights of way on a property we had offered on...... and she knew all about them and was one of Chch's "best" agents.... all blinged up she was :laugh

[zardell]

Add Harcourts to Hookers Julie.... the first ever agent we had here was dishonest and didn't disclose what we later found to be potentially devastating rights of way on a property we had offered on...... and she knew all about them and was one of Chch's "best" agents.... all blinged up she was :laugh



Oh dear - you don't think we are falling prey to Whinging Pom Syndrome do you?..........:laugh


:exit


Julie

xx

[Moorf]

No, but she thought she was addressing "rich naive Pom".. wrong on both counts! :laugh

[zardell]

No, but she thought she was addressing "rich naive Pom".. wrong on both counts! :laugh



I'm sure I've met her - I wonder if she has moved over to Whakatane and is now working at Hookers ?? Sounds like the same person to me.

Nah, probably not, but her twin could be here working at First National or maybe she's the one from Harveys........:laugh

Julie

xx

[Debbie P.]

So sorry to hear of your terrible experiences with this estate agent. Is it worth 'shopping' them to the local newspaper? Or would that affect your case against them?

If you're not claiming money off them or anything like that, it may be worth seeing if a local journalist is interested in running a story on them, to warn other people off. Serve 'em right if they then go out of business.