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Hello everyone,
I hope someone out there is able to help me as I am devastated with what the real estate agent is doing to us.
We viewed a house and decided to put an offer. The offer was accepted and the agent said that we have to pay a deposit and sign a reservation form. He said because it is a brand new development and a brand new house then it is very normal in the UK to pay a deposit. So we paid £3,000 deposit and signed the reservation form that states:
Reservation Procedure (Subject to Contract): Following reservation, an exchange of contracts is required within 28 days. In the even that you either withdraw from the transaction or are unable to exchange contracts within the specified period, the vendor reserves the right to withdraw the contract, at which point your reservation fee would be returned less £500 to cover administrative costs.
Few weeks ago (after the 28 days were over), we were advised by our lawyer of some new findings. We sought professional advise from surveyors etc and we were advised not to go ahead with the purchase of this house.
We (mum, my husband and I) viewed the house and met with the real estate agent about 4 times. Each time I asked the agent a specific question and her answer to my questions was always NO. At the end, our lawyer found that the answer to my question was in fact YES. I rang the agent’s manager and he insisted that we were told about this specific issue from the beginning which is totally untrue.
Now to cut the story short, the agent is refusing to return out deposit saying that we took ‘well over the 28 days’ and for that reason the developer does not want to return our money. He read the above reservation procedure for me over the phone yesterday and tried to convince me that this statement in English means that the developer can take all the money. I said that English is not my first language but I could still read and understand English and that sentence does not give the right to the developer to take all the deposit. He insisted that it is his right to take the deposit and said to me ‘let your lawyer deal with it’. Well we do not want the lawyer to get involved as this will cost us a lot of money and besides we do not feel he has the right to take our deposit.
Please advise me what to do next. We have lost a lot of money for the surveyor, the mortgage broker, the bank and the lawyer and we do not want to lose more. Please tell me what can I do to get my money back. The agent is very racist and it is very disturbing dealing with him as he tries to make me feel that I am a foreigner and do not know the rules here. By the way, he ignores all my calls, my emails etc which clearly shows his disrespect to foreigners.
Many thanks
I hope someone out there is able to help me as I am devastated with what the real estate agent is doing to us.
We viewed a house and decided to put an offer. The offer was accepted and the agent said that we have to pay a deposit and sign a reservation form. He said because it is a brand new development and a brand new house then it is very normal in the UK to pay a deposit. So we paid £3,000 deposit and signed the reservation form that states:
Reservation Procedure (Subject to Contract): Following reservation, an exchange of contracts is required within 28 days. In the even that you either withdraw from the transaction or are unable to exchange contracts within the specified period, the vendor reserves the right to withdraw the contract, at which point your reservation fee would be returned less £500 to cover administrative costs.
Few weeks ago (after the 28 days were over), we were advised by our lawyer of some new findings. We sought professional advise from surveyors etc and we were advised not to go ahead with the purchase of this house.
We (mum, my husband and I) viewed the house and met with the real estate agent about 4 times. Each time I asked the agent a specific question and her answer to my questions was always NO. At the end, our lawyer found that the answer to my question was in fact YES. I rang the agent’s manager and he insisted that we were told about this specific issue from the beginning which is totally untrue.
Now to cut the story short, the agent is refusing to return out deposit saying that we took ‘well over the 28 days’ and for that reason the developer does not want to return our money. He read the above reservation procedure for me over the phone yesterday and tried to convince me that this statement in English means that the developer can take all the money. I said that English is not my first language but I could still read and understand English and that sentence does not give the right to the developer to take all the deposit. He insisted that it is his right to take the deposit and said to me ‘let your lawyer deal with it’. Well we do not want the lawyer to get involved as this will cost us a lot of money and besides we do not feel he has the right to take our deposit.
Please advise me what to do next. We have lost a lot of money for the surveyor, the mortgage broker, the bank and the lawyer and we do not want to lose more. Please tell me what can I do to get my money back. The agent is very racist and it is very disturbing dealing with him as he tries to make me feel that I am a foreigner and do not know the rules here. By the way, he ignores all my calls, my emails etc which clearly shows his disrespect to foreigners.
Many thanks
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