Haart Estate Agents Review

Overall Rating

Well recognized estate agents, have online presence.

The above means nothing, when you have poor customer service standards

Before I start I have never complained about anything - I used to be a complaints manager for a bank - I hate complaints - but sometimes you cant help but complain, when you are treated badly - I am writing this purely so other people may make an informed decision on how this office has treated me - I hope they do not treat anyone else the same way, and I hope they read this and improve their customer care - I would not recommend or use Haart's ever!

I placed my house on the market with Haart's Halford St, Leicester with a very impressive valuer. I made my decision to go on with them on the promise of a quick sale - they had lots of people waiting for my property in a sought after area. So I signed.

What happens next . . . nothing significant, I asked them to drop the price, they did not do this straight away, I made a complaint to their head office over lack of service, I then get a call from a female member of staff "saying I have put a request into head office to view the property", joke number 1. I quickly explained to her that I owned the property and had just made a complaint. She sheepishly put me onto her senior, I spoke to someone in the office who gave me the typical estate agent spiel, and kept calling me "buddy" - I don't know him, this annoyed me.

It was agreed for me to end the contract due to lack of interest. On the day I passed the keys to another estate agent, I called the person id been dealing with in the office who tells me "that they have an offer just come in and the person is on the phone as we speak". I was very cynical, thought it was a tactic to keep me with them. I advised him to tell the person I want asking price only as had already dropped the price". I was advised he would call me back - I waited half an hour, then I get a call advising me that they could not speak to the offerer, and would know by Monday - (this confused me as only minutes ago he was on the phone). It took them over a week to tie down the official offer.

I was later told that the purchaser was a first time buyer, and the sale will go through before the end of the month, which was great, he called me buddy again, which I did not mind this time, the bearer of good news.

I was then put me in touch with Haart's own solicitors, and I quickly had all paperwork returned. I kept in contact with the office chasing the sale - I started to feel quite harassing towards them, but thats what there paid to do. Everytime I was told everything is fine, will complete end of the month. 24th March 1 week to go, I get a call from a very embarrassed solicitor advising me a terrible mistake has been made and I must change solicitors. Why ? Because my purchaser was not a first time buyer after all, he was selling a house and his solicitor was the same as mine-conflict of interest.

So now from being told all is okay, I am told everything is a mess. I speak to the branch and they were very apologetic and did not know how it happened. They had no clue as to what was going on with the sale. Joke No 2.

I put it down to them not properly chasing the chain, if they had spoken to the purchaser or his solicitors they would of found the issue. They did not properly do their job.

It took until 14th April until the house sold. In which time I had to make another £683 mortgage payment (interest only) so I lost that money.

The day before completion I go to the house only to find in MY house there are items of the new purchasers and also religious items left in my house from a blessing. When questioned the manager advised me she had authorized the blessing of my house, by mistake. She said their viewing man could not get in the house so she went to let them in, when they were in the house they asked if they could bless the house, she rang the office - confusion - no one knew what was going on (surprise) and she took it upon herself to authorize this without asking me the owner.

I made an official complaint and i received a reply back saying they did everything right and the service I was given is acceptable for Haart's and they does not think Haart's did anything wrong, and the delay is one of those things.

I escalated the complaint to a higher level and they fully investigated the matter and backed up the response to my official complaint, I was offered £50 to resolve, they did not have the decency or offer the customer service to speak to me and get my side of the story, it felt like they wanted to brush it to one side and hope it goes away.

I proceeded to pay half of the estate agents fees as instructed by my solicitor.

I escalated it to another, who was very professional and friendly, we had got into some good discussions about complaint process and customer services, sales techniques, objection handling (based on my professional experience), we started to have more open and honest conversations, they explained to me that the problems with the viewer and why the confusion occurred with the access to the property and the blessing.
She advised me that she would offer me £100 as a resolve to the complaint. I proceeded to decline and advise that I will be contacting the ombudsmen and also posting reviews on websites for others to read.

3 days later I get the official letter which I did not read, just filed it. A day later I get a letter from credit control requesting the remainder of the balance and if not paid by 4th July court action will be taken.

I ring Haart's credit control to explain I am in complaint process and she said she knew nothing about it (no surprise again). I proceed to read the letter to her and in the letter it read "I would like to extend my offer to reduce your fee to £100 in full and final settlement of your account", upon reading this I accept and post a £100 cheque in the post. I thought she had changed her mind based on a business decision not to get bad publicity as if one customer walks across Halford Street into another estate agent then they will lose thousands in their commission.

I get a call from the lady who advised me she has made a typing mistake in it should be reduced by £100. Joke No 3.

I then get a letter in the post which is a amended copy of the first letter back dated, which is not legal. I still have the original signed copy

So everyone I have dealt with at Haart's has made a mistake in some shape or form. I am now in the process of going to court and letting the judge make the decision, as the whole experience with Haart's has been stressful and a joke.

I truly hope that you who is reading this does not experience this same lack of customer service. I would recommend Halifax Property Services I did not go with them as I wanted a change - wrong decision to make.

I have confirmed that all content is factual and can be backed up with emails and correspondence between all parties involved.

I am sorry for having to take my time writing and your time reading this.
My apologies.

Members' Comments onNickol's Review

• Anonymous101 on 6th Jul 2007

  Great review, very informative, thanks

• MikeDunn on 6th Jul 2007

  This is extremely helpful and revealing! I briefly skirmished with Haarts at Petersfield Hampshire - their valuation was way out of line with others, and I was unimpressed with their "style". I used another agent (Henry Adams) in fact, located opposite Haarts, and Haarts kept writing to me, encouraging me to switch to them - even though their valuation was some 30,000 plus less than Adams - and in fact some 45,000 less than the house sold for! Yes, 45,000. And they wrote again, even AFTER the house was sold... they have no intelligent system for operating!! Avoid.
  
  Hope your problems are resolved - sounds awful!

• RoyGBiv on 26th Sep 2008

  Good review. I agree with a lot of what was said.
  We didn't proceed to complaints as we were in a position to pull out eventually, but can agree with so many things;
  people calling us 'mate', complete confusion over offers on our property, lack of feedback and cheap tactics to try and get us to stay.
  Won't use again. Doesn't suprise me to read they are closing offices all over the country.