Complaints against estate agents reach record high
A record number of complaints were made against estate agents last year.
The property ombudsman dealt with 1,338 new cases – the most since the office was established 20 years ago and 28 per cent above the previous peak reached in 2008.
Christopher Hamer said the figure was unacceptably high, especially at a time when transactions were well below normal levels.
The most common complaint I found from when I when I owned an estate agency went like this:
EA - Your house is worth ?x
HO - I want ?x + y
EA - We have an offer for your house at ?x
HO - That was quick it must be worth atleast ?x +y + z then, tell them we will accept that and put the price up.
EA - The buyer has dropped out
Weeks later:
HO - Annoyed, why aren't you getting any interest in my house!
EA -
To know whether this is a problem, more understanding of the reasons for complaints would be needed.
I suspect that many are about differences of opinion over the value of the house, and that is, in fact, understandable.
Looking at local houses on the market, most are priced very high for today's market, often at not much less than the peak. That is either poor advice from the agents, or people pushing for too much. If the former, that is good cause for complaint, if the latter, then not really the agents fault.
Complaints against estate agents reach record high 
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