VeryUnhappy said about Country Properties

Services : Sales( As a Buyer )Date: 22nd Jan 2019

We put in an offer on a property that was clearly advertised as "stamp duty paid by vendor" so I mentioned this when placing the offer and they confirmed that was the case. 3-4 weeks before expected completion the estate agent called to say the seller wasn't prepared to pay for the stamp duty anymore so after threatening to pull out of the sale he eventually agreed.

Initially I didn't blame the sales staff but then it became apparent that they hadn't mentioned the stamp duty to the vendor when they put forward my offer and then tried to blag by saying "stamp duty was only being paid if the full asking price was achieved". When I pointed out to them that I had screen shots of the advertisement where it mentions nothing of the sort they promptly (within 10 minutes) deleted any mention of the stamp duty from the property advertisement and I pointed this out to them that I had proof of both adverts.

After sorting the above illegal advertising issue we then found out that there was a parking dispute with the next door neighbour parking across the driveway for the property. We approached the neighbour and he threatened to take us to court and refused to move his car when we moved in.

After the above problems we decided the property wasn't for us so I emailed the agents to inform them of our decision and that it was because of the parking issue and we didn't want to live in a small cul de sac with neighbours that would give us grief and to apologise to the vendor. Within 12 hours the property was remarketed but I never even received an acknowledgement from the sales team, I understand that they were probably annoyed at losing the sale and the time spent allowing me access to the property but that does not excuse such a lack of professionalism and quite frankly rude behaviour.

I notice in the re-advert they have not mentioned the stamp duty or the parking so are clearly trying to dodge this so that they don't have to mention it to the next prospective buyer.

All in all a very poor experience, this actually stopped me booking a viewing for another of their properties that we were interested in as I couldn't face dealing with them again.

As I work in the industry I am aware of each law that they have broken and how things are meant to be done. I would recommend not buying or selling through this branch. They give the whole of country properties a bad name but the branch I am currently dealing with for my purchase have been fantastic.

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