I have tried to sell a house with very poor service charge 3000 and want me to do viewings . Lies lies lies and do not do what it says on the tin abulute grabbage. Bout as useful as a chocolate fire guard .never use these just .con artists

March 2021: If you receive an unsolicited letter from this Agency you need to be very cautious of what could be a costly scam. I responded to a letter from them indicating that they would hold a web meeting and give me a quote for buying my house. I did not like there offer and declined politely. They had sent a link to my "account". I decided to check it. When I got into it I was shocked to see that it stated that I had instructed them to sell my house! It was also backed up with a full time-line: 1.starting with the date of the original letter, 2.the online contact time, 3.the phone call they made to me to setup the webmeeting, 4. the webmeeting, 5.and finally with my "instructions" for them to sell my house. Can you imagine if you missed this and when you sold your house you then get a demand for payment?
To be safe I sent the following:
"CEASE & DESIST NOTICE ref XXXXXXX Rd.
I have never instructed you or your company to sell my property or represent me in any way. YOU DO NOT HAVE MY PERMISSION TO SELL MY PROPERTY:
I HEREBY NOTIFY YOU TO CEASE AND DESIST : 14:48hrs, 02/03/2021
I was shocked to log into the web account and find the status to falsely indicate that you have had explicit instructions from to list my property or act as my agent. You are on notice that I regard your activity as ********* ( any such instruction must be specifically entered into and cannot be implied by being buried in terms&conditions). I will therefore be looking to reporting this worrying activity to the relevant consumer institutions. "
Please be aware of this worrying occurrence.

This agency is so dreadful. Very poor service, poor communication and poor marketing strategy. Didn't come out to house to value it, poor photography and didn't improve photos even though viewer feedback was that photos didn't do house justice. Didn't do floorplan until we did it ourselves and insisted it was added. This company locks you in to a 6 month sole agency agreement which costs you £1800 to get out of even though they are failing to sell the house. They managed to get us just one viewing in 8 weeks and that was sum total of their activity. Leave them messages and they dont call back even at times they say they are going to. Unregulated industry so people like this able to exist with their shady tactics. Disgusting.

Company is full of it multiple lies from various agents from day 1 . House Sat on the market a while now .I was mislead by this companies agent to believe they would be able to shift my property within 30 days for £3000 in fees upon completion... No such luck not even a reasonable offer from any buyers . Stuck with a 5 month sole selling rights contract ...can't wait to get my property up with an honest company locally and get the house Sold! Wouldn't use express again :(

I would not recommend this company, put our home up for sale at £110k told us to reduce it by £10k, had a look on line and it’s been reduced to £80k, phoned them up to inform that that I want to remove our property, and a refund of the upfront fees for the solicitor, no problem they said, we I’ll get that done immediately, give it a hour and your property with be off the market, 3 month later and numerous phone calls, it’s still on their website, and still no refund, wish I had seen these reviews before I’d signed with these muppets

Still waiting for reply to complaint submitted a week ago

Went to see a property,now one turned up so I gave them 30min grace then phoned the woman on the phone told me she would get back to me and never did.its clearly a matter of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.its ok to be a big company as long as you don’t loose your way,sadly they have not only lost their way,people are suffering as a result of their ineptitude

This company are absolutely hideous. I would never, ever buy a house through them again.

We visited a property for sale for £180,000. Put offer in for full asking price, advised that seller wanted £200,000. We agreed £200,000 as the property description stated this property was chain free, and we desperately need to move quickly. 16 weeks in, still not moved. The property wasn't chain free, in fact the sellers onward property wont be ready for weeks.

I would advise all sellers, sell with reputable firms. I would never use this company again, no matter the house.

is there a 14 day cooling off period like all company and contracts have.

very happy to have read these comments .have just read circular [received in post from this company]and was considering contacting them for more details.having read above comments I don't think ill bother.praise to the internet

Like Leo-9. I am also a responsible and successful agent, I own and head up a modest but well run agency.

I have just sold a nice flat (3 months ago) to a lady who was downsizing, and had just sold her own via EEA, enabling her to buy ours.

They (EEA) listed her property on the market at Offers Over £99,000.. the property had a home report valuation of £130,000..

During the ladys 3 visits to our flat (Vacant) I personally showed her round, this of course gave me the ideal opportunity to ask questions... as you do...

The one burning issue I had was why list at £99k when the property has a value of £130k.. her answer was typical, they had listed at £120k then over a short period advised her to reduce, they knew she was desperate to sell so capitalised on her timescales.. RESULT: Offer of £101,000 accepted. I understand she could quite easily have rejected this, and she did, however the buyers would not or could not increase and her circumstances dictated her reluctant acceptance.

I sold her neighbours property through the wall to hers in 2011 for £125k... identical semi detached....

The lady would never use them again and neither would any of her family, in the cold light of day they realised they could likely have done better selling it themselves..

The £3,000 in fees for this sellout is staggering..., I wonder why they are not members of the NAEA.

I have no axe to grind with this company, but I think people should be very careful and ask RELEVANT questions prior to sigining up

I am currently with this company and trying to find out where I stand legally. I have not received a contact from them and am unsure how long I am tied into my "contract" with them. I recall I signed a "sole agency" agreement with them but that is all. Am I still legally bound to deal with them when no contact received. Been with them since March and so fed up with their non contact and now ignoring tactics I need to get out of this and go with a reputable company. Would welcome any advice.

total bunch of idiots everyone one of them complete rip off from day 1

Totally frustrated and appalled by the way express misleads buyers. Saw a property advertised by express, it had been on market for a year and had been marketed at various prices ranging 150k to 230k. Put offer in at 180, which I thought was reasonable only to have it rejected, so spoke directly to vendor. They told me express had varied the market price so much to encourage viewings / bidding war and that they were actually looking for a figure of around 230k . So far we had been the only offer. Does express not know the poor state of the housing market at the minute? Sellers be aware the offers over system does not work, it's unrealistic to think people will offer 80k over advertised price. These people are clowns.

I am in fact a successful and responsible Estate Agent and I am appalled by the tactics employed by Express Estate Agency. I would recommend anyone to speak directly with the Ombudsman because the only way that sharp practice will be stamped out is by "pester power" to the relevant bodies.
I wonder if Ian Botham is aware of the business processes in place as his face is plastered across their website.

I have to agree totally with all of the above comments. My property was valued independantly at £140k. Express suggested I go on the market for £130K to try and attract buyers. Within one month they wanted to reduce to £125k and within a further 4 weeks they lowered it twice more £120k and then £115k! They know I will not accept anywhere near these prices yet they continue to persist to the point where they are rude and I had a falling out with one girl who rang me. Now imagine you are coming to view my property priced at £115k, but I know you are not going to buy it for less than £130k!
As I keep saying to express "anyone can give property away".
My advice would be to avoid these rogues, if the market is right your property will sell for the right price regardless of who sells it. If not we will all just have to wait!

Viewed a house last weekend advertised as "offers in excess of £70,000", liked it and put an offer in at 71k as you would expect. A day later, one of their "negotiators" rang me back to tell me a story about how the house was advertised mistakenly at OIEO 70k by a "young man who was no longer with the company" who was clearly overzealous, etc etc, and that the vendor was actually looking to get "as near as damnit" to 80k. OK I thought, mistakes do happen. Afterwards, we looked to find a day later that the house was STILL advertised at 70k on TWO different websites. Three days later, nothing has changed. I upped my offer in order to begin some kind of negotiation, only to be called back almost two days later by the same negotiator that again, to tell me that my offer just wouldn't cut it, and he thought he'd made it clear that the vendor wanted 80k. In other words, offer 80k or f**k off. Even 77-78k won't be enough. "Even though it's still advertised at 70k+?" I asked. Exactly right, he doesn't like to lose a sale or waste people's time, so, you know, that's just how it is.

I found two more properties in the area with the same agency with exactly the same OIEO 70k, so I think I'm going to ring up and go through the process again and see what happens.

From reading other people's comments on here, I'm starting to think this company is operating on the fringes of the law, and definitely outside of normal people's ethics, and that's before we consider a false or misleading advertising claim... I wonder if BBC Watchdog would be interested.

Thank you for sharing your experience here. Due to redundancy, my flat has been on the market for 4 months with a local estate agent with few viewings so I contacted Express Estate Agency. I've just had a visit from one of their 'Regional Valuers' and am thankful that something stopped me signing the contract. I have also been advised to drop the price by almost 20k to 'get buyers through the door'. I find it hard to believe that people are going to offer that amount more than the asking price and although I was firm that I simply won't sell for less than a certain amount, the sales pitch is very convincing! Thanks to everyone here for helping me to decide to stick with conventional, ethical methods. I'm not happy about pretending I'm going to sell for 20k less than the value of the property.

I too have been caught by EEA. I randomly checked some sites they should have put our house on, and nothing. Not heard from them in nearly a month now, and last call was to drop anothet £10k. Also 2% ( +vat ) is way to high a commission for the miniscule amout of work they do. I also feel their web page is misleading, implying they advertise with more organisiations that they in fact deal with. I will have my property removed and will seek legal advice on whether I can cancel the remainder of the contract. This whole saga with them will make it difficult to put my house on the market again at a realistic market value. I definately would not recommend them.

We have just sold a property with them - more due to our hard work than theirs. They reduced to the price without our consent and only one of the four viewers was in a position to proceed. We have offered to pay them 25% of their fee and for some reason they don't find that acceptable;0 we have turned down their kind offer of £200 off and are getting phone calls nearly every day, which is surprising as before the sale we could never get hold of them. We are now going to the ombudsman and reccomend that everyone else does the same in a bid to stop this scandalous agency from robbing anybody else.

I would not recommend this agency. They make so many promises and do not live up to them. They say they will keep in touch on a regular basis to keep you informed as to what is happening but they only contact you to ask you to reduce the price of your house. You are given the name of one person who you will be dealing with your sale but more often than not they are unavailable and you are passed on to someone who has no interest in you. We found it very impersonal. The voice on the end of the phone has never seen your property and are therefore trying to sell something they have no real knowledge of. They take no real interest in the sale even to the point that when I said we were going to another agent they showed no interest whatsoever. I think the name they use for their company is a joke and the only thing express about them is their rush to take your custom, talk about money, and the constant push to drop the asking price. Please read this and DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

Rrms. We were told the standard fees are £2490+vat but when the man was talking to ushe said£249.vat. Only when we signed thecontract did we realise the difference. The 58 you paid is for your energy certificate. You will have to chase them for that. If you have not signed a contract you are lucky. Mine is for 16weeks and i am taking it off the market rather than continue with this agent. I will list it again when my contract is up, with a local agent.

I have just made an enquiry to EEA re selling my house and am awaiting a call back... luckily I chanced upon these comments and now will steer clear of them... sorry to all who have bad experiences in selling or buying.. it stressful enough in this depressed market without being mucked about.

We have listed with EEA just over a month ago. We have not received any paperwork for our agreement to be listed with them. We are now getting very concerned reading these posts. I cannot find anywhere on their website their fees. They came to view the house to see if they could sell it, we told them we could go lower than 90,00 and they have listed it at 80,000. We paid £58.00 for the listing and nothing more, this has been our only payment - without paperwork we don't know what we are tied into - seller fees- how long we have to stay with them etc. A week later we found ourselves on their website, no paperwork, no contract and no explaination of their fees. A week later their chap came from for the EEC readings - again there is no sign of them on the lisitng.
Getting really worried - we have had an offer on the house and their are seriously bullying us night and day to take it when it is well below what we can afford. Can anyone advise us or show us where can we find their fees and what we are letting ourselves in for?

Thanks to all people who have commented on EEC , I will now stick with my original estate agent.

I have just been to view a property through this estate agency and have been left somewhat bewildered. Again, as in other cases the price was 'offers over' which I now realise is a totally fictional fictional price. the advert stated that there was no chain and that the buyer would take immediate possession. However, the sellers had not found another property so how can EEA state there is no chain? The sellers informed me that the agents fee was well in excess of £4500 which was over double what my agent would have charged and that he was stuck with them for 6 months as the sole agent. How can EEA get away with telling lies on property adverts and are they conning sellers into agreements that have more stipulations than they thought? This has really put me off purchasing this property even though I really like it.

I am into week 4 selling through this agency which advertise themselves as 'the best thing since sliced bread. I have been allocated a marketer of my property who has never seen it and can't visit as it is too far .He ,therefore does not appreciate the uniqueness of this quality conversion set in lovely gardens and with so many features begging to be described. No such luck ! My lovely place is 'described' in a few words under bullet points with not one important feature mentioned. This is so contrary to what they said would happen . I feel foolish to have listened to their false claims.I am about to pull out ,but can't afford to pay fees for nothing.

I want to say a massive thankyou to each and every one of you, that took the time to pass on your feedback. I currently have a house I need to sell and was considering them.

I have found that all these type companies work the same way, you get an Estate Agent's price for the property, you approach these companies and they want to knock 20% or more off the asking price.

It's purely a carrot to get some poor buyer all excited, but also an insult to those trying to sell and raise some cash from the sale to actually go on and live afterwards.

I shall be giving them a very wide berth and thank you again for saving me from yet more heartache and pain.

I hope it all goes well for each and every one of you.

ive just commenced contract with these, and finding a few problems, thus found this thread, which is brill, HELP, the part of no fee no sale, can anyone tell me if I do pull out prior to 12 weeks do i have to pay any disbursements etc...

I was just about to go with EEA until I read all this. I am now convinced to stick with the old and trusted methods. If it ain't broken don't fix it !!

Couldnt agree more with the comments on here!!!

We went to look at a house that was marketed at offers over £149,000 - After to doing a bit of research on the company and how they work i know they must be really looking for around £170,00... This didnt put me off, although i do think the estate agencys way of advertising is a totally scam! On viewing the property it was way bigger than the photos shown and after speaking to the seller they agreed that they was looking close to £25k above marketing price. There are 2 other houses on the street currently one for £199,000 & one for £195,000. So i know damm well no one in there right mind would be selling there property £40/£50k under what its probably been valuled at. Me & my partner decided we didnt want to get into a bidding war and we really wanted the house so we decided to go in and offer the £175,000 (which i still believe is a good price and if i was to bid on the houses that are already on the market on the street i would of gone in at this price also.

Now this is were the bad points start EEA are a nightmare to get hold of!! Everytime you ring up you speak to someone else or even worse they "take your number" and then you wait for a call back which to be honest they never returned my calls so again your back on the phone to them chasing them up. When we did finally get through to someone they would then try contact the seller and its just an on going battle. After 2.5 wks of the offer being accepted we still was no nearer to anything being confirmed. So i decided to go round and speak to the seller direct to find out much needed info, they agreed that the estate agency are awful and theve had the same problems there end. They said there contract had actually ran out --- so we both decided to leave EEA out of the equation and negotiate through solictors and low and behold it all ran very smoothly....

Want to know the stangest thing?? EEA never once rang us back to see why we had pulled out of the deal or why nothing was happening with the sale!! I dont think they have a clue with what is actually going on in there company there basically just a call centre and you get passed from pillow to post!

My advice dont sell or buy through EEA!!!

This company is a joke. I have recently removed our property from them. Like all the above our property was marketed at £174.950 after being on the market at £250000. I already told them we could not afford to go less than £200000. No problem they said you will most likely get more. The viewings started and the problems!!! The buyers were expecting to get the property for £174950. I felt uncomfortable with this marketing and informed the EEA of my concerns as the feedback I was getting from the people viewing was not good. They felt it was a scam and so do I. Then they market to you saying "Everyone we introduce is ready to commence with the sale Quickly. At least a couple of our viewers were most certainly not in a position to move quickly. One even informed me on the way out of the door she was now going home to coherce her husband into putting there property on the market.
This was the final straw I informed EEA I was removing my property from the market. 7 days later I was talking to a couple whilst in the garden and they asked about the house and asked if they could come back and have a look. They have now put in a offer subject to a valuation. The EEA phoned me up and informed me we would have to pay agency fees as the propsed sale took place with four days of out notice still to run. They had nothing to do with the sale and did not introduce them to ourselves. I will not be paying the fees as they did not either deliver on their promises, I did not sign a contract with them, I was told verbally I would have to market with them for 3 months and I have done this.
My advice do not market with this company and do not view houses with this company, they are underhanded and liars.

we viewed a property though them which was advertised for 210,000, because i had viewed the property through a local agent when the vendor was with the local agent, and the price at the first time was 290,000. At the first time viewing, i didn't think that we would be happy to pay more than 250,000 for that property and we didn't even put an offer below 250,000 to try due to the concern of offending the vendor. So that when we saw the same property was remarked for 'in excess of 210,000.00' we thought we might be able to get it for just below 250,000.

They played the same tricks as you guys have complained, such as the agent who deals with this property didn't answer your phone and just let other staff to ask for the last best offer, we initially offered a price of 240,000, which was 30,000 higher than the advertised price, and then the offer was pulled to 247,000. After a couple of days, they came back with the offer accepted.

Then we contact the solicitor, the lender and everything we need to do to proceed the purchase. But just yesterday, after the survey was done, they phoned to to inform me that the vendor changed his mind to sell the property to another buyer who offers higher price without giving us the opportunity to put a higher offer.

We are very disppointed, and dont know whether it is the agent's problem or the vendor's? I understand that the vendor has the right to withdraw before the exchange of contract, but without giving us a chance to offer a higher price(no matter whether we are able to), is it really fair???

I am in the process of selling my house through EEA. Again they promised me a quick turnover of viewings by marketing my property at 40k under the market value. The photos were terrible (I was told that the agent was taking photos to show his manager, not for the website, as my tenant was moving out that day and so the property did not look at its best) and the details were very sketchy, not even mentioning that the property had 2 ensuites and a main bathroom, one of its key selling features. The viewers even commented about how the property was much better than the photos.

The offers I got were of the advertised price and not over as they promised. I threatened to cancel my agreement for their time wasting, and all the sudden one of my offers increased by £15k. This was still £10k under my lowest acceptable offer. They then continously rang me to accept the offer, advising that the market was depressing further (against what the papers say) and that this was the best deal available. I reluctanlt accepted as I am going through a divorce, but only on a 4-6 week completion. I'm on week 6 and still no sign of contracts. EEA even sent the initial sales agreement paper to the wrong address. What a bunch of amateurs. I agree with another poster that they are young agents who only care about their targets.

Don't use them; go with a local agent and be realistic about your pricing.

Denis,23th september 2011

We are currently with this EXPRESS ESTATE AGENCY,but we wont re-command them to no one,they misled sellers as well as buyers,our property is value at 190K,was first put on the market by them at 169,950 then 2 weeks later reduced again to 159,950,all this is to start a biding war which they were hoping for but didnt happen,who in there own mind will bid 30K on top; especially in this dire market,they mislead people by telling them we are looking for a quick sell,which we were not, all we can say is think twice before signing up with these con artist all they are doing is looking after them self,plus they charge more than the local estate agent.

this is VERY intresting reading!!!

Same as you guys above im going to look at a house that is on the market advertisted at "Offers over £100k". . This seems fair enough for the house but looking at what ive read it seems that they are actually looking at offers at least £15k - £25k above this price. it seems unfair to advertise at £100k which obviously draws in the potential buyers who can afford within that range but then if you go on to make an offer all of a sudden they want at least £120k or get u into a bidding war to make u up ur bids!

Also have to say the estate agency customer service is pants!!! Took them 2 days to return my call just to get a viewing!!!!!

Hi steve

i am currently going throught the same issue you had with this company express estate agency.....i told them the same thing you did ....they just did not want to know.....they advised what is you last and final offer only to phone me back the following week saying that there was another offer slightly higher then your maximum would i like to offer more...? this company seems to be doing this a lot to honest buyers and i think if anyone has a problem they should be reported

if you need to report them then see the below .....

vj

If your grievance with your estate agent remains after complaining to them directly, contact the Property Ombudsman, the Surveyors Ombudsman Service, and/or your local Trading Standards Office. The Office of Fair Trading has powers to investigate estate agents who may have broken laws governing the industry.

Estate agents who are not members of any scheme should be avoided in the first place and can be fined.

Below is a list of useful addresses that you can contact when complaining about an estate agent:

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
12 Great George Street
London SW1P 3AD
Tel 020 7222 7000

The Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme
Beckett House
4 Bridge Street
Salisbury
Wiltshire SP1 2LX
Tel 01722 333 306

The Compliance Officer
The National Association of Estate Agents
Arbon House
21 Jury Street
Warwick CV34 4EH
Tel 01926 496 800

I went to view a property advertised as "offers in excess of £64,950", after putting in an offer of around this price I was told that there were many people interested so I should look to put my offer up, I do so and raised it to £76,150 as I still thought it was a good price even then. The chap said that they were going to closed bids and I should really put in an offer as high as I was willing to go, I stuck with my offer. Then a couple of days later they came back to me and told me I wasn't the highest offer but I was close and did I want to increase my offer to try to secure the property. Absolutely gobsmacked by this, I told them either it went to closed bids or it didn't and why didn't they just accept the highest offer. I had enough of being mucked about so pulled out. Has anyone else experienced this hustle? I think office of fair trading should really start to take a look at these guys.

I recently viewed a house with these estate agents, a beautiful house on the market at £54,950. My partner and I are first time buyers and are in a very lucky position of being able to pay cash. This house we found on their website was outstanding - '2 reception rooms' and 'no chain' and 'reduced by £25,000'.
We snapped up the opportunity for a viewing and immediately decided we had to have it (even though it only had ONE reception room as opposed to the TWO advertised AND not only was there a chain, but it seemed as though this chain could go on for five or six links, the current owner was still living there and had NOT even found himself a new property). We were so eager to make it ours despite this that we put in an offer that very same evening, we offered them the asking price - in cash, only to be told the next day that our offer had in actual fact been turned down because they were looking for more around the £80,000 price range! Now without a doubt this is out of our price range - hence the reason we were looking at a house for £54,950 and not £80,000. We were completely disheartened and all the lady at their office could say was "it is advertised as offers in excess". Forgive me if I'm wrong but surely that does not mean £25,00 excess?! They are a complete and utter joke of a company and I feel sorry for anybody else who has the misfortune to believe their lies and travel a distance to view a property under false pretences as we did.
I have seem numerous properties advertised by them with '£25,000 discount' etc. etc. yet I will not give them one more chance.