The nervous wait to exchange....

Repta · 20 Oct 2020 at 11:34

Curious if anyone has come across this before. Just had a offer accepted on a house but the EA want a £120 admin fee from us to take it off the market, is this normal?

Out of principal im tempted to withdraw the offer but seems a bit silly considering the grand scheme of things

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Oct 2020 at 11:39

No, that’s not normal. You are not the agents customer, the vendor is and they should be paying any fees.

mid_gen · 20 Oct 2020 at 11:40

Repta said:
Curious if anyone has come across this before. Just had a offer accepted on a house but the EA want a £120 admin fee from us to take it off the market, is this normal?

Out of principal im tempted to withdraw the offer but seems a bit silly considering the grand scheme of things

That's not normal. Tell them to do one.

koolpc · 20 Oct 2020 at 12:17

Repta said:
Curious if anyone has come across this before. Just had a offer accepted on a house but the EA want a £120 admin fee from us to take it off the market, is this normal?

Out of principal im tempted to withdraw the offer but seems a bit silly considering the grand scheme of things

Totally wrong

Temujin · 20 Oct 2020 at 12:20

Definitely not normal, but may be to check you're actually interested. I guess at the moment a lot of people are looking to buy but aren't serious.
if it's just a charge rather than something that would be a deposit of sorts i'd be concerned, i'd probably be concerned any way though tbh.

Bounce · 20 Oct 2020 at 12:30

well we were due to complete this Friday subject to the electrics being satisfactory.

Electrician was due to carry out an inspection this out this morning, they phoned the estate agents and they said they lost the keys :confused:

.

So its touch and go now if we complete on Friday, thanks to the balls up by the estate agents.

Repta · 20 Oct 2020 at 12:48

akaFonzie said:
Definitely not normal, but may be to check you're actually interested. I guess at the moment a lot of people are looking to buy but aren't serious.
if it's just a charge rather than something that would be a deposit of sorts i'd be concerned, i'd probably be concerned any way though tbh.

b0rn2sk8 said:
No, that’s not normal. You are not the agents customer, the vendor is and they should be paying any fees.

mid_gen said:
That's not normal. Tell them to do one.

koolpc said:
Totally wrong

Cheers, that's what I thought, told them to do one and withdrew the offer as they wouldn't budge. There will be plenty of other houses that come up!

HungryHippos · 20 Oct 2020 at 12:50

If I was the EA customer I would be annoyed if I lost a sale thanks to that move by the EA, wonder if they are aware of the EA doing that?

Vetting people for affordability and chain position and stuff I understand, but holding fees seems a bit weird.

GhostlyPea · 20 Oct 2020 at 12:50

Does the buyer know tha the EA is basically sabotaging legitimate offers out of greed? I'd be pretty upset if I new that was the case

- GP

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Oct 2020 at 13:10

In my experience I have found it’s easier to get the number of the buyer and bypass the agent entirely. Might be worth going to have a word direct, you know where they live after all.

fastwunz · 20 Oct 2020 at 14:03

Bounce said:
well we were due to complete this Friday subject to the electrics being satisfactory.

Electrician was due to carry out an inspection this out this morning, they phoned the estate agents and they said they lost the keys .

So its touch and go now if we complete on Friday, thanks to the balls up by the estate agents.

erm - you cant set a completion 'subject' to anything.......... if you withdraw you will loose your deposit.

Stuff like electrical checks need to be done BEFORE exchange??

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Oct 2020 at 14:04

Exchange and complete on the same day? Very common due to COVID.

Bounce · 20 Oct 2020 at 14:10

fastwunz said:
erm - you cant set a completion 'subject' to anything.......... if you withdraw you will loose your deposit.

Stuff like electrical checks need to be done BEFORE exchange??

No I have the contract, deeds and transfer of land registry in my hands. Completion date was scheduled for this Friday subject me to handing these documents before the Friday.

As for deposit well its not been paid yet either.

balky12 · 20 Oct 2020 at 14:21

Repta said:
Curious if anyone has come across this before. Just had a offer accepted on a house but the EA want a £120 admin fee from us to take it off the market, is this normal?

Out of principal im tempted to withdraw the offer but seems a bit silly considering the grand scheme of things

Going through this process myself and whilst slightly different I find it the conveyancers which seem to charge for everything. Yesterday got hit with two £45 charges for Bank Transfers, and a £50 odd charge for Archive costs... charging me to store documents relating to my sale and purchase for 6 years in line with FCA requirements imposed on them as a company. could have understood (slightly) if it was all paper and offsite storage costs, but now everything is in the cloud and electronic?

Week prior their was a 'Mortgage fee' which I questioned as I thought this was my mortgage broker fee. Nope. It's a fee charged by the conveyancers for handling a case which involves a mortgage....

Suddenly the initial fee to handle my move is considerably more...

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Oct 2020 at 14:25

Surely all of those changes would have been in the initial quote from the conveyancer?

The last two times I have moved they ask you basic questions up front and all of those changes are included in the breakdown of the fee when they quoted for the work. I didn’t have to pay anything which wasn’t on the initial quote and nothing cropped up what required additional chargeable work but they gave me a schedule of additional fees up front to give you an idea of what any additional work would cost.

Also storing documents electronically isn’t free, there will also likely be physical paper records to keep also.

Bounce · 20 Oct 2020 at 14:36

balky12 said:
Going through this process myself and whilst slightly different I find it the conveyancers which seem to charge for everything. Yesterday got hit with two £45 charges for Bank Transfers, and a £50 odd charge for Archive costs... charging me to store documents relating to my sale and purchase for 6 years in line with FCA requirements imposed on them as a company. could have understood (slightly) if it was all paper and offsite storage costs, but now everything is in the cloud and electronic?

Week prior their was a 'Mortgage fee' which I questioned as I thought this was my mortgage broker fee. Nope. It's a fee charged by the conveyancers for handling a case which involves a mortgage....

Suddenly the initial fee to handle my move is considerably more...

I have not had any charges like this, I got a quote up front by a local reputable conveyancer.

when I was looking for a conveyancer I had noticed they were all charging similar amounts, so I just went with the one which had best reviews , for the sake of saving £50-£100 its worth going with one with decent reviews and to be fair they have done everything well so far..

Junglist · 20 Oct 2020 at 21:21

Today was a palaver. Was the day we were supposed to be competing on and first thing at 9am we have an email saying they were having an issue getting the HTB money as some admin hasn't been completed! We were both furious and devastated. Spent the whole day just waiting to find out what would happen

we got the keys at 17:12 but jeez I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a rollercoaster of emotions all day

HungryHippos · 20 Oct 2020 at 21:23

Junglist said:
Today was a palaver. Was the day we were supposed to be competing on and first thing at 9am we have an email saying they were having an issue getting the HTB money as some admin hasn't been completed! We were both furious and devastated. Spent the whole day just waiting to find out what would happen

we got the keys at 17:12 but jeez I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a rollercoaster of emotions all day

Grats though! That is a very good ending even if not quite to plan timing wise.

mid_gen · 20 Oct 2020 at 21:45

Junglist said:
Today was a palaver. Was the day we were supposed to be competing on and first thing at 9am we have an email saying they were having an issue getting the HTB money as some admin hasn't been completed! We were both furious and devastated. Spent the whole day just waiting to find out what would happen

we got the keys at 17:12 but jeez I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a rollercoaster of emotions all day

Our seller went into labour this morning as we were about to complete

Eventually they managed to get moved at 7pm. Had time to move a couple of car loads of stuff and now just knackered. Van is booked for Friday to do the last of the move.

Can't believe it's finally done, 1st week in Jan had our first offer for this move accepted.

The_Arbiter · 20 Oct 2020 at 22:07

Labour and completion on the same day, that was an interesting day for them. I'm not even sure what other word i could use to describe such a day. But great you're in now!