Crooked estate agents exposed. Sleaze and spivs thrive in Blair's Britain.

On 21 Mar 2006 05:23:06 -0800, "Crowley" mysteriously appeared thru the usenet mist to inform us thus...

Who'd have thought it? It's tied up with the immigration scandal to drive house prices up and build a million more houses for third world tourists on our greenfields, esentially turning greenfield to ghetto for profit.

next you'll be telling us ;"ursine mammals use toilet facilities in arboretums"

LOL.

There's outrage on HPC tonight after the programme ...........

In message , Crowley writes

What kind of repercussions?

A few sackings at Foxtons this morning

In message , Crowley writes

At the end of the show they said that quite a few had, (conveniently), left.

I couldnt understand the forgeries of landlords signatures on tenancy agreements - I've not signed a tenancy agreement in 2 years - my agent does it on my behalf.

Overvaluing and then getting prices down is actually a necessary part of the job and is dictated by the local competition.

If someone wants to pay more than a property is worth, that is their problem, and their surveyors, and not the estate agents.

Managing expectations is also a necessary part of the job, although blatant lying is not necessary.

Absolutely nothing would change if Estate Agents had to have a qualification - they are currently subject to The Estate Agents Act and The Property Misdescriptions Act, an Ombudsmans Scheme, (some), amongst others. They obviously arent implemented well enough - so what makes people think that a qualification would make any difference.

The blame lies fairly and squarely with Trading Standards, and ultimately the government, (who are busy pissing about with the Home Inspection Report which will also achieve little). It could also lie with the general public who dont make enough genuine complaints to Trading Standards.

I think most complaints are about the fees charged - but these are made clear in the initial letter of instruction, so not really complainable.

And so on........

Sackings? I expect arrests at the very least. Some of that stuff was slam dunk fraud for financial gain.

FoFP

Hear, hear.

It's not a surprise that in a capitalist economy some companies cross the line into criminality. It's why we have, and need, regulators to implement the law.

There is nothing worse than a regulator which pacifies consumer fears but does not react to criminality.

Trading Standards complaints

Complaints about Trading Standards

Daytona

It will be interesting to see what happens - probably not much.

I have often said that if Trading Standards investigated, (mystery shopper), all estate agents, they would get many cases and convictions. In the same way, if the revenue investigated taxi drivers and corner shops, and other cash businesses, they would find some mega frauds.

No or it would have happened already. They can always claim the defence of agent provocateur or something. The most serious issue was the sharing of information between John Hunt's various businesses which should at least merit a look from the DP registrar and the business with the forged passport - which the Jill Dandoesque journalist may need if she doesn't want to end up with the same fate as her former colleague after this program was aired.

As Richard has said a number of other practises are standard for agents and in a lot of cases the market will regulate - after all everyone knows that estage agents are dodgy geezers so you never trust anything they say. Collusion between agents to fix the local market would have been more worrying.

I live in France where it takes 2 years to qualify as an estate agent - I think standards are higher but so are costs - 7% of property price is a typical commission. Agents are considered crooks here too but that is partly Mr Frenchman's dislike of parting with his hard earned for invisible services.

David - a satisfied client of Foxtons btw.

Trading Standards are incompetent lazy buffoons.

In message , Peter Saxton writes

Particularly when they came to see me under a completely false pretence. They had received a complaint from a buyer and, at the end of the interview, (under caution), pointed out that the representation they were concerned with had been made by the seller via their solicitor, and not me.