Lillicrap Chilcott

A review left by someone who is obviously still unaware of the law relating to selling property in the UK, even though it was explained to him on numerous occasions. Every Estate Agent has a legal obligation to report every offer they receive on a property they are marketing, up to an exchange of contracts. In this instance the person who put in the second offer, had viewed the property prior to Mr Brownsword but had chosen not to offer at that time. When the second offer came in, the seller wanted to accept the higher offer but gave Mr Brownsword the opportunity to carry on and purchase the property at a price less than the higher offer but more than Mr Brownsword’s first offer. Mr Brownsword decided not to proceed with the purchase, so the higher offer was accepted. As an agent, Lillicrapchilcott fulfilled their legal responsibility to report all offers to the seller and it was entirely the seller’s choice as to which offer was accepted. It annoys me in this situation that Mr Brownsword, in his ignorance, likes to blame the Estate Agent. As Estate Agents we have no vested interest in these situations occurring, they involve a lot of grief, for little or no gain to us. As an Estate Agency, we would rather these situations didn’t happen and thankfully, due to the highly ethical and professional way we run our business, they seldom do. They are the result of imperfections in the process of selling property in England and as Estate Agents we have to deal with the consequences. For Mr Brownsword to quote his “Cornish Solicitors” as having said they “would not do business with us again if this is how we ran our business”, either means they had only considered Mr Brownsword’s very one sided version of events or are also blissfully unaware of Estate Agents legal obligations. We were not the creators of the situation Mr Brownsword found himself in but nonetheless had to deal with the aftermath. We also have the proof to back this up. In full possession of the facts, I suspect many members of the public may feel that Mr Brownsword is somewhat disingenuous, as the seller, completely without obligation or legal necessity to do so, generously refunded his out of pocket expenses out of the kindness of their heart. This is indeed a rare event and I feel most people would have thanked their good fortune. Sadly, quite frequently, a buyer will decide, weeks after agreeing to purchase, that they have changed their mind and they simply walk away , leaving a vendor to start again from scratch . Regrettably , occurrences such as those fail to receive publicity, and the vendor has to pick up the costs incurred and start again. Conversely, on extremely rare occasions, when a vendor walks away from a buyer BUT PAYS THE BUYER’S COSTS VOLUNTARILY , we see correspondence like this . Not at all fair , but that’s what happens . Lillicrapchilcott always have and always will operate with the highest standards of professionalism, ethics and courtesy.

Lillicrap Chilcott have just "investigated" the above matter internally (ie a director investigates a fellow director/colleague). I had advised, and provided proof (attached), that their Director, *, had lied to me twice regarding the date of the other higher (gazumping) offer. Director, ** investigated and responded saying - "He (*) made an error of judgement in my opinion..." Understatement of the year - and a very poor excuse for lying to clients! Dishonest Dominic has been cleared by Lillicrap Chilcott's own rigorous internal investigation process! As previously stated, avoid Lillicrap Chilcott like the plague - unless you like being gazumped and deceived!

We took our complaint to The Property Ombudsman - and won! Lillicrap Chilcott were fined as a result. We regret the day we did business with this estate agency.

Lillicrap Chilcott has not been fined . I quote directly from the Decision of the Property Ombudsman :- ‘ I should make it clear that I have supported the complaint only to the extent that Lillicrap Chilcott should have informed the Complainants that another offer had been made prior to their journey and explained that the Seller has not yet considered the offer . Accordingly , I make an award of £50 in compensation . This is the full and final settlement of this complaint .’ Perhaps the Complainants would now care to remove all their libellous statements from this entry on Allagents