Hijacked by EA

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pjq

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I sold my house on daft.ie without using an EA , I deleted my ad from daft in Feb. I now note that an EA still has my pictures and discriptions on his site , but his tel.no. not mine . He never had permission to use my pictures or to act as my EA.
He called me twice , once to say he had a client who was interested , I told him I would not pay him comission but that he could visit house if he worked out comission with his client , 2 mths later he he called and I told him that the house was gone.
Is this common practice for EAs ?
pjq
 
Did you ever have any dealings with this EA? Is there any possibility that there was some confusion here? If not and you are sure that they are acting unscrupulously then put your complaints in writing to them and maybe contact any professional body that they may be a member of (e.g. IPAV, IAVI etc.).
 
I once had an estate agent take me to see a house which had another estate agents sign outside. He had no keys to show me the house, then told me there was an accepted bid on the house, but if I wanted to better that bid he would go back to the vendor! I went to complain to the IPAV when I found out he was a 'property consultant' not an estate agent!!
 
No this is not standard by EA, normally to start advertising they would need to ask for your permission.
Not acceptable at all!
 
Gosh, I didn't know that anyone could just take photos like that from a website.

In my opinion there was some element of permission by the OP to allow the EA to show the house in some capacity. Whether the terms of that contract were explicit is something that is not really elaborated on.
 
Vanilla said:
Gosh, I didn't know that anyone could just take photos like that from a website.
Click to expand...
Just right click any graphic and Save [Image or Picture] As! Some sites include Javascript to stop this but you can then just disable Javascript temporarily. Most content (graphics, text etc.) is easily copied from the vast majority of websites since the information must be given to the browser in the clear so that it can display it. A possible exception might be Flash based and other "non standard" sites.
 
To answer some of the questions ,
He definitely took the pictures and discription from daft.ie , as I did not post them anywhere else.
There was no confusion or implied consent ,( unless "implied consent" can be caught like MRSA) when you advertise a house on daft you get plenty calls from EAs and you learn to be to the point ( note that the invitation was to "visit" not to show the house). In any event he was aware that the house is off the market since early Feb. , where does that leave his clients??
Finally he removed my items from his web site yesterday.
pjq
 
If he is advertising your house, then YOU are his client. Unless he is retained by a purchaser to find a specific property for them (the purchaser). Did you tell him that you would give him a fee if he brought you a purchaser? This would be all he needs to advertise the property on his website (not that it's acceptable or right).

If he has a proposed purchaser, they are most definitely not a client and he is not acting on their behalf.

I'm glad to hear he took your property off the website yesterday. Since I originally responded to your post, i have discovered another estate agent in my area behaving in the same manner, however they are advertising properties that are on a "regulated" estate agent's books without the photographs. It's very misleading for prospective purchasers. Unfortunately this person is unregulated so there is very little anyone can do which is ridiculous IMHO.
 
My parents 'bought' a house off one of these jokers about ten years ago. This was a fairly well known agency in Dublin South East, not one of the big ones, but not small either. Member of one of the professional associations.

Anyway, they put an offer over the asking price to the estate agent. The agent was confident it would be accepted. I remember being there when the crestfallen agent spoke to my parents with the news that he wasn't going to sell it. It was clear then that the price offered wasn't an issue. My parents and I formed the opinion that the agent was not in fact under instruction to sell this house at all. He possibly had a relationship with the owner in relation to renting the property, but that was about it.

There is no regulation of estate agents in Ireland. You do need to have a licence and put down an IEP 25k surety. The whole thing is run by the local Garda Superintendent, who has plenty of other problems to deal with, so if the guy doesn't actually steal your funds, the matter isn't going to get a great deal of attention. You could stop him from getting his licence renewed though, if you went to the time and trouble.

The IAVI and IPAV are trade associations. They are not regulators by any manner or means.
 
You should certainly make a formal complaint to the owner/head office of the EA and the IAVI or IPAV.
 
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