Dodgy agent or what?

[tj]

Hi

I 've not mentioned this previously, but with all the talk of buying , selling, whether or not to go thru an agent, I thought you may like to comment.

When we bought our house like most we wanted the best deal we could get, having been in the business I knew how things were supposed to be done and kept control of things as best I could.

Infact all went well, no nasty surprises etc etc.

Except, for one thing which I felt was rather underhand of the agent, and was not aware of it until we signed the initial contract, and of course at the time, the seller ( our neighbour ) was also present.

In my days as an agent there was alot of "back to backing" whic continues today. What the agent did amounts, in my eyes anyway, to the same thing.

Bear in mind, I had asked the agent in advance how much his fee was, as a percentage of the agreed sale price.

When I looked at the breakdown in the contract, it turns out, he had actually taken our offer, which he confirmed as acceptable and then negotiated further with the seller on his own behalf thus in realterms increasing his commission to a little under 20 %, this had no effect on us obviously, but our neighbour received less money than we thought he would, so the agent basically stole 10% from him or looking at it anotherway 10 % from us!

you just can't trust these people,,,,

 

 

[Wendy]

Report him, at least let him know you are onto what he did. I would.

[Sunday Driver]

The purchase price of the property and the commission payable to the estate agent were set out in the compromise and acte de vente, which you and the seller were totally happy with at the time, because you both signed these documents.

Forget it....

 

 

[DW]

What your agent did is illeagal !  French agents are free to set their fees, however they must follow their fee structure which is advertised in their window and inside their premises.  The mandate of sale must also follow the same method of calculation.  There fees may be negociated down but must never be in excess.  Report the agent to the Préfecture or DGCCRF (direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes).

Dan

[bloodyestateagent]

Agree with Dan 100%. Report the agent, even if it was a while ago the prefecture/DGCCRF should still follow this up. You may even get the difference between the valid commission and actual commission refunded.

If you let it go it just encourages them/other dodgy agents to try their luck with unsuspecting buyers (normally foreign).

For anyone else, check the 'bareme' (detail of agency commission rates) which is shown in the window. If you can't see it then either ask to see it. If you are asked to pay more commission than is shown on the bareme then query it (or walk away).