Geoff

Mar 3, 2020

Terrible experience

We recently had the misfortune to engage the services of the John Couch estate agency of Ilsham Road, Torquay, Devon, TQ1 2JG. After 9 months of abject and dismal failure to find even one prospective buyer who was in a position to proceed we took the decision to terminate the agreement. This failure to find a buyer was caused, in our opinion, by a ridiculous and unachievable valuation placed on the property by this agency. When respected property websites were quoting an average of £305,000 our property was given a valuation of £349,000 which served only to deter potential buyers. At this point we felt very strongly that we had been taken for fools and been subjected to a mixture of false promises, misleading information and a complete absence of the duty of care which was our legal entitlement. The closest we came to a sale was when an interested party was introduced who, in the exact words of the agent, was cash rich and the purchase of our property was not reliant on the sale of hers. Despite strong misgivings, we allowed ourselves to be persuaded to remove our property from the market for 2 vital summer months to allow negotiations to proceed. Subsequently, her sale collapsed and she withdrew from our deal. We later discovered that the purchase of our property was entirely dependant on the sale of hers and she had not even exchanged contracts. We felt, at this point, that we had been extremely badly advised by this agent having lost 2 of the best months of the year to sell a coastal property. This exercise in total futility cost us almost a £1000 in wasted fees. We look forward to this agency exercising its right of reply at which point the full story will emerge.