Foxtons

My complaint is regarding the real estate agency Foxtons.

My husband and I were mislead and blatantly lied to regarding their services and contracts. On Sept. 15th I called them to get some information on their services because we were thinking about putting my home on the market. They don’t like to give you any information on the phone because they want to send an agent to your home; I reluctantly agreed and set up an appointment for Sept. 16th. I specifically told him that we weren’t sure we wanted to put our house on the market but asked him to explain to us how their service worked. He told us they take pictures, put them on their website, put ads in the new papers, etc. He then gave us a price on what he felt our house would sell for and told us “it wouldn’t hurt to put the house on the market to see what kind of response you get; people do it all the time.” I then asked him if we wanted to cancel and take the house off the market would that be a problem. He blatantly says “no, not at all, just give us a call and we’ll take care of it and take it off the market.” We went in the house and signed the paperwork needed to put the house on the market. The very next morning (not even a full 24 hours) we called to say we didn’t want to put the house on the market and he says ok, no problem. Two weeks later the agent called me to ask if we received a waiver from them. I told him no and he says ok, well I’m going to fax it over, it’s just preliminary paperwork we need to take the house off of the multiple listing service. I thought it strange that he called me regarding this since we shouldn’t have been on the multiple listing anyway but didn’t think anything of it. When I received the document, it included a paragraph stating we would be locked into a 6 month contract with them and if we decided to sell within that time frame they are entitled to their commission. I called him asking why he faxed this over since he cancelled our contract two weeks ago and he says “oh no, I didn’t say we would cancel the contract I said we would take the house off the market.” Needless to say I hit the roof because we were mislead and lied to. Why would I want to use them in the future if they are being so conniving now? They did absolutely nothing for us and refuse to let us out of our contract. They didn’t take pictures, didn’t put a sign on the lawn, invested no time in trying to sell the home and they refuse to release us out of spite. I actually went to the local office to talk to the manager and he was just as obnoxious and rude as the agent. We told him that we had a couple of friends who sold real estate and they told us that a 6 month contract was unheard of, normally it’s 2-3 months and that’s with time invested. He had the audacity to tell us “well it sounds to me like you want to cancel with us so your friend can sell your house.” That was not the case as one of them is licensed in Maryland, but if that were the case why would that be a problem for them since no time was invested in trying to sell the house at all. In my opinion they are crooks and unprofessional and even though I am not selling my house right now, six months is a very long time to hold someone hostage for no reason other than greed.

Please do not use them – it’s not worth the headache.

D. Mitchell