Acaboom, a company which specialises in helping agents with successful market appraisals, has introduced a new feature aimed at tracking withdrawn properties.
As agents know, some properties are withdrawn from the market without any explanation, and after an agent has invested time and resources into marketing.
Unexplained withdrawals do prompt the question as to whether the vendor has struck a private sale with a buyer that the agent may have introduced.
The new Acaboon feature allows agents to tag a property as ‘withdrawn’.
It is then tracked against Land Registry data, alerting the agent if it appears within a 12-month time period.
Agents can then compare applicant viewings records against the new owner details, meaning that the agent can invoice their original client, the seller, for an effective introduction if there is a match.
Founder Brian Farrell – the entrepreneur who also founded floorplans firm Metropix, since sold to the Daily Mail owners – said: “We started researching how we could help solve this problem after an agent with offices in the London area found out that they had lost out on eight sets of commission.
“It means that agents would be saved having to do manual checks on withdrawn properties on the chance that something might show up when they look on the Land Registry.”
Comments (7)
I had a vendor once who back doored us but posted on social media about the renovations being undertaken at their new house complete with a reply to a comment saying oh we are on XXXX Road now pop over for a brew to a mate. Quick trip down said road to see which house had a digger in the garden and some legal letters later fee paid in full. Sneaky beggars but not too smart.
Or just diary your withdrawals forward and check yourself
To the vendors solicitors, pointing out that their clients might be risking a criminal prosecution for conspiracy to defraud!
To which you will be told we do not disclose any information regarding our clients and in any event this transaction has been completed and we therefore no longer act for the owner and suggest you make your own arrangements if you feel you are owed any fees !!
Unless your vendor informed you of their chosen solicitors upon instruction, you wont have a solicitor to invoice. Your vendor will also have moved home and you wont have a forwarding address. Also as previously reported and legal action is subject to interpretation as a judge deemed to qualify for a fee the estate agent had to introduce a buyer to a sale not just the property. Lastly this isnt a criminal situation but a civil action for breach of contract.
Bottom line here, keep track of your viewing feedback and anything suspicious figure it out long before completion takes place and then you are in a much better situation to get some money.
The recruitment equivalent is commonly called a ‘Back door hire’ or a ‘back door placement’, and it’s as rife in our industry as it is in estate agency I am afraid. It can be accidental, but more often than not it is a deliberate attempt to avoid paying the recruitment agency a fee. I hate to think how many fees my company has missed out on over the years!
And where is the estate agent supposed to send their invoice to exactly?