Melissa Berry

I did not choose Melissa Berry as my estate agent, but unfortunately the person I purchased from did. Their assistance through the purchase was pretty lacking, although I would not judge them on this because I was not their client and I cannot speak for their service to the lady we purchased from. Unfortunately, on the day of completion the seller had not adequately prepared herself for the move. Our contract stated completion had to take place before 1pm. We arrived at the house at 1pm with the keys to our new house, but were unable to access it because the seller was still living there. She claimed only a few boxes were left to be taken to her new address, but the truth was that every single room was full. She had not yet transferred any items to her new address down the road. The house was inaccessible as the porch, hallway, front room, dining room, kitchen and play room were so full that no floor space was visible. We offered to help the seller move her items out but this offer was declined. At 2pm, no progress had been made. By 3pm, one small van had left the property along with the seller, but had been gone for one hour and not returned. At this stage we entered the property, which was legally ours from 1pm, and took photos to evidence the state of the property. At 3:30pm, we had been advised by our moving company that additional charges would be incurred as we had only paid for their services until 2pm (as our legally binding contract stated the property must be in our possession by 1pm). We then sent a notice to serve to the seller's solicitor requesting that the additional charges we would incur from the moving company be paid by the seller. None of this was the fault of the Estate Agent and I make no judgment on Melissa Berry based on these events above. However, at about 4pm, Melissa Berry of Melissa Berry Estates called my partner to 'reason with us'. She explained that we should bear half the cost of the additional charges because that would be 'reasonable'. She did not explain under what justification we should pay half this cost, or how it came to pass that she could apportion any blame to us, but she did make some concerning implications about us - namely that we were taking advantage of an older person for personal gain. She further went on to explain that a 'decent person' would be more understanding of this situation and not be so opportunistic. Please note, the notice to serve was only to cover additional costs we were to incur, there was no personal gain for us as we would still pay the agreed fee to our moving company. Melissa Berry concluded that as we 'could not be reasoned with', she had nothing further to say to us. When Melissa Berry received the photo evidence of the state of the house, we received no further contact from them. I can only assume the true extent of the state of the property had not been relayed to them. Unfortunately, Melissa did not find the time to call and apologise to us for the statements she had previously made. Obviously I would not use Melissa Berry to sell a future property of mine - I have never done this and have positive experiences with PurpleBricks so see no reason to - but I will in future avoid purchasing properties that are being marketed by Melissa Berry. I bear no grudge regarding the majority of the events on our completion date as Melissa Berry had little to no impact on these. And while I can also appreciate that tensions are high on a move day, I would not expect an estate agent to surrender to that stress and show the level of indecency that Melissa Berry did to us. I would not recommend Melissa Berry to anyone looking to sell their home. If you are interested in purchasing a property that Melissa Berry has listed, I would urge caution before proceeding with this.