Advice needed please

[ILF]

Hi everyone.

I'm new here looking for some advice

I engaged an estate agent to sell my house

We agreed a sale with their buyer

Less than a week before the completion date the buyer pulled out and we lost the sale as well as the opportunity to buy the house we were planning to buy on completion of the sale

We decided to take our house off the market at that stage as a result

Approx 2.5 months later we got a letter through our door from a new cash buyer asking if we would still consider selling our house?

We accepted their offer and sold privately approximately 4 months after taking our house off the market

Approx a year later out of the blue we received a letter before action from a debt collection agency claiming we owed a 5k selling fee on the house we sold to an estate agent who they claimed was their client ie the estate agent who we had initially marketed the Property with. Based on selling the house privately within 6 months of taking it off the market

The letter was one of those letters that tries to look scary and talks about bailiffs coming round etc if we don't pay within 14 days. I looked the company up and they have countless threads about them on the internet where they buy parking fines from companies etc and chase without following proper debt protocols

I won't name them or the estate agents at this stage

the letter was addressed to my wife. Prior had also had calls to her mobile and voicemails from the same debt collections agency but had ignored them as we assumed it was a scam

All the threads regarding this debt agency suggest ignoring their letters as well but this was for a large amount so I decided to call them to find our what our options were

during the call they were rude as described on all the threads. And basically kept saying you have one option which is to pay in full within 14 days or you will be given a CCJ

They put the phone down on me with that message

It appears the estate agent I have dealt with sells all of the personal contact details of customers who withdraw a house for sale to this debt collection agency

Who in turn monitor addresses of the clients to look for sales etc within contracts that could lead to charges

I've checked our contract and it does state that we are liable to pay for any sale of our property within 6 month's of withdrawing from sale

We didn't realise that. If we had we would either have delayed selling our property til after 6 months or spoken to the estate agent to see if we could negotiate a lower fee to sell privately etc

Regardless

Is it legal under GDPR rules for an estate agent to sell our personal details to a debt collection agency when we don't have a debt with either of them at the time?

Without informing us or getting our permission?

I've already established they haven't followed protocol as the estate agent has never contacted us to claim a debt is owed nor contacted us to say they have passed our personal details to a debt collection agency

Ie name, address, phone numbers etc

I've now contacted the estate agent to question what's going on and they have confirmed they sold our contact details to this agency

And would receive a commission when we pay the debt collection agency

What would you guys do in this situation?

I'm loathe to pay the debt collectors a penny as they basically use scare tactics as the norm to get people to pay

At the same time I'm feeling the estate agents haven't protected my privacy by passing on personal details. And moreover have passed our details to a company with such an awful reputation

I'm more inclined to talk to the estate agents and see if a deal can be done etc but I'm also reading where other victims of this debt agency have sued the original creditor for passing on their personal information

Sorry it's a long one

Any advice much appreciated

[atticus]

I question whether these agents are entitled to a fee. Look for details of a case concerning Foxtons. I think the agent needs to prove it was effective in introducing the purchaser to the transaction.

[atticus]

https://www.hilldickinson.com/insigh...cause%E2%80%99

[dslippy]

Double check your agent's terms.

[R0b]

Is it legal under GDPR rules for an estate agent to sell our personal details to a debt collection agency when we don't have a debt with either of them at the time?

Without informing us or getting our permission?

Maybe, maybe not. The common misconception is that the GDPR operates on a "consent-only" basis and that is absolutely untrue. There are 6 principles where your data may be processed lawfully, one of those principles being consent but other principles include where it is necessary for the performance of the contract which you are subject to, and another relevant principle is a legitimate business interest.

The estate agent may have terms in their contract that said they have a right to pass your details on to a debt collection agency or they may rely on the legitimate business interest principle because they have reason to believe you owe them money. Of course if you can prove no debt existed and it was the estate agents mistake, there may be an argument that the processing/selling of your details to the debt collection agency was unlawful.

As already stated, check the terms of the agents contract if you signed one and see what it says or if you're not sure what you are looking for, post up the terms and conditions and we can have a look to see if there's anything to support you - just make sure to redact any personal information before uploading.