An MP is asking the public to vote for the worst estate and letting agents - and the best - as well as choosing which agent is most in denial about their poor service.
Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow in north east London, has long campaigned against poor service by local agents, including what she claims to be double charging - For Sale By Tender - from some specific companies in her local area.
Now she has taken things further by naming agencies that she calls finalists' in her awards system for the best and worst in the local sales and lettings sectors.
The categories include The Best Letting Agent, Worst Letting Agent, Kindest Gesture From A Letting Agent, Best Estate Agent, Worst Estate Agent and Letting Agent Most In Denial About Their Poor Service.
The shortlisted agencies for worst letting agent in the Walthamstow area are Central, Victoria Knight/Dwell and Let It Direct.
The two in the frame for the worst estate agent are Central Estates and Your Move.
Three agents vie for Creasy's letting agent most in denial gong - they are Eastbank, Central Estates and Victoria Knight.
The MP also has three contenders for an additional category, called Special MP Award for Outrageous Behaviour in Walthamstow's Housing Market.
These are Glasspools for hypocrisy as a charity supposed to help people who are destitute but have put up rents £150 a month for residents in Walthamstow; Douglas Allen Estate Agents for double charging' - charging both the buyer and the seller of a property for the same sale; and Freehold Managers for increasing building insurance by 40 per cent for Warner leaseholders in Walthamstow by adding in a terrorism' surcharge.
We want to send a strong message in presenting these awards that Walthamstow won't tolerate those rip off charges or poor behaviour and will take their custom to those who treat our community with respect! says Creasy.
Voting takes place online, via Creasy's website, and the voting closes on December 20; awards will be presented in January.
Comments
"Other professions... pilots and the like are held to account when they get it wrong."
Did you REALLY post such utter billshut and expect to be taken seriously
Have you the capability of comprehending, to any degree whatsoever, what the possible consequences are when a pilot "gets it wrong"
Beggars belief.
Ms Creasy has been vociferous throughout the year in her criticism of Sale by Tender, regularly making inaccurate and unreasonable allegations regarding the process. Yet given the opportunity for healthy debate and sensible dialogue, Ms Creasy remains silent.
Douglas Allen has patiently and logically explained the process of Sale by Tender to Ms Creasy in extensive correspondence and provided her with numerous opportunities to give equally logical and considered responses. Naturally, as a politician, we expected Ms Creasy to enter into debate, possibly raising questions and posing counter arguments. However, despite several detailed letters to the MP, the only brief response to date has been to repeat her opinion and issue threats. This leads us to wonder why a politician would be so reluctant to enter into sensible dialogue with a local business who is employing and working on behalf of the people living in her constituency.
Ms Creasy has persisted in wrongly accusing Douglas Allen of Double Charging but misunderstands the meaning of the word double (two times, twice over, twofold). For example, if youre quoted 250.00 for a flight from London to Paris and end up having your card charged with 500.00, you would complain about being charged double the price quoted. And remember the TV show Double Your Money If you opened the box and got lucky, the 100.00 you had already won would be doubled and youd win 200.00 instead. Double = the same amount twice.
Douglas Allen do not double charge. Sellers pay a small administration fee of only 150.00 + VAT, which is purely to prepare the Tender Pack for prospective buyers. They are not charged any commission fees. In return for this nominal sum, the seller is given the opportunity to fully test the market with a limited marketing period (typically 4-6 weeks) and a sealed bid process encouraging the highest levels of interest. At the end of the process, the seller can be confident that the bid they choose to accept is the best price achievable for the property (or the buyer in the best position for them). The buyer pays an introduction fee to Douglas Allen only if and when their purchase successfully completes.
Our statistics throughout 2014 have proved unequivocally that Sale by Tender has achieved higher prices for sellers than Private Treaty, which is surely what sellers want and expect from their Estate Agent. If Ms Creasy is advocating that Estate Agents cease operating this process, wouldnt this deprive her constituents from a successful alternative to Private Treaty marketing that is proven to work better for them in a buoyant market.
It is a shame that Ms Creasy is not encouraging local employers and service providers to operate more innovative, yet still perfectly legitimate, business practices for the benefit of the constituent sellers of Walthamstow. It is also disappointing that Ms Creasy has chosen not to enter into any debate with Douglas Allen over a matter which directly affects those who have placed their faith in her and, for many, their most valuable asset.
Good for Stella Creasy, this is the sort of thing a good constituency MP does.
It is about time estate agents and incidentally solicitors were taken to task. How many stories do we hear of lazy incompetent and grasping so called professionals in the housing market. Other professions like engineers, teachers, pilots and the like are held to account when they get it wrong. My personal view is that estate agents and solicitors ought to be given a ranking based on customer service and fees, that way we might just get a more customer focused service and house completions would take weeks not months as some currently do and at a fee level which is an accurate reflection of the work done.
Housing professionals currently have a license to rip off house buyers and many do just that.
All bad agents should be investigated. So should all bad MP's, all bad solicitors, Undertakers etc etc. I must commend her on her publicity machine. It's the work of a genius. Find someone who is just as unpopular as yourself with the general public and focus all the hate onto them! Genius. More to the point it's worth noting that it's what bullies do all the time.
Look, who cares what the results might be Every town in the UK has at least one good and one shockingly poor estate/letting agent, so what is Creasy trying to achieve Beats me!
Allagents, "credibility" don't be so daft! Even an MP fiddling Exes are more straight!!
Why does the silly lady not just use allAgents, they have already done what she wants to do and with a lot more credibility!
How about allMP's.co.uk, that would be a good read.....
As John Bamonte says above, fair's fair, it can't all be one-way. If we're going to have awards for the best and worst estate agents, the same should happen for MPs.
I think the public would have a field day!
She'd certainly win the award for biggest self-publicist, hands down. She's everywhere, waging a one-woman war on the evil estate and letting agent industry.
I know this has been mentioned before, but where are the awards for worst MP I'm sure the whole population would want to vote on that and Stella Creasy would be a likely winner!