Purple Bricks Conveyancing

[xfawkes]

We've sold our house through Purple Bricks and following the advice of their agent, we deferred payment until completion.

We've now found that having deferred payment, we're tied in to using ezie conveyancing or we have to pay a fee of £360. It's actually cheaper to pay that fee and go elsewhere because ezie conveyancing are so expensive. We feel like we've been well and truly had and although it's clearly our own fault for not reading the terms and conditions carefully enough, I'm wondering if there's anything we can do?

Thanks for any advice

[Diana M]

Re: Purple Bricks Conveyancing

Purple Bricks' Ts & Cs state that the Pay Later option is only available on the basis that you instruct their conveyancing service, but were you told at the start how much the conveyancing would cost or have you only just been made aware?

Have you entered into a separate agreement with Close Brothers Ltd?

Di

[xfawkes]

Re: Purple Bricks Conveyancing

Hi Di,
Thanks for your message. What happened was that we received a quote for conveyancing and signed up (sadly without fully reading the terms and conditions).
We then had a terrible service from ezie conveyancing. I had lost the original quote and requested a new one which wasn't forthcoming, I spoke to someone on the phone who's English was so bad that he couldn't understand a word I was saying - he couldn't actually find our details on the system because he couldn't spell anything correctly.
With that service, we decided against using ezie conveyancing which is when we gave the go-ahead to another solicitor and informed ezie we wouldn't be using them.
It's only now that our new solicitor has tried to get the memorandum of sale from purple bricks (who have refused to hand it over) that we've found out what we've signed up for.
As I've said, I realise that we've done this to ourselves by not fully reading the terms and conditions but I do feel like we've been deliberately deceived and it would be nice if there was a way out of it.

[Diana M]

Re: Purple Bricks Conveyancing

We then had a terrible service from ezie conveyancing. I had lost the original quote and requested a new one which wasn't forthcoming, I spoke to someone on the phone who's English was so bad that he couldn't understand a word I was saying - he couldn't actually find our details on the system because he couldn't spell anything correctly.
With that service, we decided against using ezie conveyancing which is when we gave the go-ahead to another solicitor and informed ezie we wouldn't be using them.

If the conveyancer provided poor service then you may have an argument. What did they do wrong or not get right?

Unless I'm wrong ezie conveyancing is an introducer service which provides work for a panel of lawyers who are all regulated by the SRA. If that's the case and one of the lawyers messed up then you may be able to make a complaint against them (the lawyer) to the Legal Ombudsman.

You say you made a phone call to them which didn't go very well so you took your business elsewhere. I would think the way forward is to make a formal complaint in writing.

Di

[Anatonic]

Re: Purple Bricks Conveyancing

Sorry to thread hijack, but I'm in a similar situation...

We've instructed Purple Bricks to market our home as of yesterday (17th January) - and in doing so we opted to defer the payment of their fees on the proviso we use their Ezie Conveyancing service. We have therefore entered into an agreement with Close Brothers, to whom we will owe the fees either on:

(a) the completion of the sale of the property, details of which will be provided tous by Purplebricks (the “Property”); or
(b) the withdrawal of instructions from Purplebricks to market the Property; or
(c) the expiry of 10 months from the date of this agreement.

We can settle this agreement at any time directly with Close Brothers and this element I feel reasonably happy with.

However, we now wish to use our own solicitor for the conveyancing after reading terrible reports of the Ezie Conveyancing service. We've close friends that have recommended Purple Bricks for the selling of their home but have all said to use your own solicitor - should have heeded their advice earlier and simply paid up front to PB to avoid any 'penalties'

The PB Service Agreement is here: https://www.purplebricks.com/terms/service-agreement

And states that:
‘Deferred Payment Date’ means the date where any of the following occurs whichever happens first:

When the property sells and the legal process is complete or
If you withdraw your instructions for us to market the property or
If you choose not to use the Conveyancing Services – see further term below or
Ten months from the date when you agree to use our services.

I've no problem in paying this fee if we choose not to use their conveyancing and I'm happy for Close Brothers to direct debit for it, but the Conveyancing says it has a 'further term' which I cannot see in the full service agreement. In the email we received however, it states:
IMPORTANT: Additional Term - Conveyancing Services
If you decide not to take advantage of the conveyancing services at any time, having chosen to defer the cost of our fees, you will be required to pay an additional fee of £299.00 plus VAT when your property sells.

I just wanted to understand if there is any way we can avoid this? Or if it's simply 'lesson learned' in this case? £360 isn't the end of the world to then go and use our own solicitor in the grand scheme of things, but I wish I'd been more careful beforehand. Apart from instructing PB, there has been no other work done as yet, we have not had any contact with Ezie Conveyancing and have only received a quote for their services through our property expert (the introducer) - for the obvious reason they get a referral fee. No pictures have been taken of our property, nor an advert created to go live - we have simply had the valuation and instructed them. Is there any sort of cooling off here that could be applied? I'm guessing not but thought I'd ask the question...

Thanks all!

[gourmandflaneur]

Re: Purple Bricks Conveyancing

We previously instructed Purple Bricks but we deferred payment until completion also. We have now distinstructed Purple Bricks and sold through another agent. Does anyone know if we were still obliged to use the same solicitor?

[Anna Mira]

This is a little off topic but I have to ask because some of you may be able to provide me with a useful answer. In Denmark, like many other places, the vast majority of real estate companies follow the traditional business model with traditional commission fees. I have recently heard about a new Danish company that has built its business model around the concept of an online agency. I'm wondering if the company has a chance of survival in this market when consumers are used to completing the process of selling their homes offline? I doubt personally doubt that they would be open to selling their homes with online agencies when costs can be lowered so much (because it may seen to be too good to be true). I'm just thinking that many people are very cautious when it comes to foreign concepts of services online - especially when it comes to such a serious matter as selling their homes. I'd like to know what you think?
Here is a link to the company's website if you need more information about it in order to answer the question.
https://www.brikk.dk