Someone, lets call him D here, email a full article one "Dissatisfactory Service from Agent" to SPH and Stomp and cc to me. So maybe I should share it here, so that everyone can take a look and learn a lesson from his story. But until the case is solved, I won't disclose the name of the agent. It is quite a long story.....
Transaction Address:
Selling @ Block 4xx Bukit Panjang Ring Road #0x-xxx Singapore 6704xx
Buying @ Blk 6xxB Punggol Drive #1x-3xx Singapore 8226xx
Agent: L (9xxxxxK)
Agency: E Pte Ltd
Complaint: D
1st OTP: Not exercised but extended to 2nd OTP
2nd OTP: Not exercised
3rd OTP: Signed but conflict of interest
Date & Summary of Events
13 June 2008
Signed exclusive to sell with L but was not given the carbon copy of the agreement.
10 June 2008
1st buyer signed the OTP, L did not give us the carbon copy of the OTP and comission letter.
22 June 2008
1st Buyer did not exercise the option and yet requested to extend further 14 days.
Advise L not to extend as it is a not right. 1st Buyers pleaded us to extend and amend the 1st OTP to further date. Advise L that rightfully, the deposit should be forfeited and if they are still interested to purchase, the buyer should re-sign a fresh new OTP.
L insisted to amend first and third page of 1st OTP and L assure us that the 1st buyer will exercise the 1st OTP.
26 June 2008
1st Buyer did not exercise the extended OTP and yet want to extend further. But we did not agree to it.
2nd Buyer Signed OTP, L did not give us the carbon copy of the OTP and commission letter.
8 July 2008
2nd Buyer exercised the OTP and we did not receive any documents. We gave F (L collegue) S$80.00 for HDB’s Appointment but did not receive any receipt. Requested F to inform L to hand us all the original signed documents as soon as possible.
21 July 2008
Sent Mr L a sms requesting for our copy of Option to Purchase
4 September 2008
Sent E a letter requesting for all original documents signed by us and receipts.
3 October 2008
HDB 1st appointment – L was late for appointment and we were attended by the seller’s agent (“M”). L was attending to our buyer interest and not accompanying us throughout the transaction. There was a conflict on the completion date, L did not rinitiate a solution but pushed it off to us to negotiate with both the seller and buyer and he just walked away. We had managed to convince both the seller and buyer to a compromised date. We are wondering if we are the agent or he is.
4 November 2008
Issued a lawyer letter to E requesting for all original documents signed by us and receipts.
6 November 2008
E resposed to our lawyer’s letter dated 4th November 2008.
8 November 2008
Received a carbon copy of E’s response dated 6 November 2008 to our lawyer but lawyer received on 10 November 2008.
10 November 2008
HDB completion – L still refused to let us have the original documents.
15.45hrs
1. Agent asked us to a side to discuss about the commission matter and enquire if we could settle this amongst ourselves.
2. We replied to him that we have leave this with our lawyer to settle.
3. He showed us samples of the company issuing letter of demand to their clients proofing to us that all of them are successful for collection.
4. We replied to him that we had been requesting from him all the documents and agreements since signing of exclusive agreement. And also told him that up-to-date, we had to take necessary legal action to retrieve our documents and agreements.
5. Agent replied that they will proceed with letter of demand to recover all monies due to them if we are not settling today.
16.35hrs
1. Agent followed up with the commission matters and told us to settle with him and see how we can work out on the commission.
2. Agent told us to offer to him the amount of the commission we want to pay.
3. Agent also countered-offer to waive off the $500 for the aborted transaction on the 1st OTP.
4. As a gesture of goodwill, although he did not render proper services, we countered-offer to pay him only 1% for selling, 0.5% for purchase and to waived off the $500.
5. Agent rejected the offer and demanded us to pay the 2% for selling , 0.5% for purchase and will waive off the $500. If not, he will take necessary action (i.e to issue letter of demand or writ of seizure) to recover back the full amount due.
6. We told him to go ahead and proceed as we had not received all the documents and agreements.
7. Agent replied that if we need to have the documents and agreements, he can get the company to send to us. We replied that since he said he can provide us the documents tomorrow, then in the 1st place why didn’t he provide us the documents when we requested for it for umpteen times.
8. In addition, he gave a sacarstic remarks that should we not settle the commission, everything will not go well for us. It is unlucky for us to drag the matter to next year.
9. Lastly, he added that at the end of the day, his company’s success rate of recovering back the monies is high as their role is only to render service.
10. He walked off with a glance.
23 November 2008
Seller handed over the house to us and we were not attended by L. No arrangement was made prior to the handing over. The inspection was done by ourselves without any witnesses.
- Noticed the followings:
a) ceiling in the Master Bedroom ("MBR") Toilet with cracks, moulds and spalling;
b) MBR has water-spot near the toilet entrance and cracks on the ceiling;
c) Walkway ceiling near the Bedroom 1 have cracks, water-spot and spalling;
d) Cracks on the wall in Bedroom 1.
e) Shortage of one key in the MBR cabinet; and
f) Kitchen cabinet short of 2 dividers rack.
- Replies from the Seller to the above as follows:
a,b,c,d) The cracks and spalling was due to the poor humidity in the toilet and earthquake.
At that point of time, we asked the seller how to settle the issue, they said that we just need to re-paint the ceiling and clean the mould weekly will solve the issue. However, we told the seller that it's not just crack, can see the ceiling is spalling and there is signs of water-spot. We told the seller that, since they said that it's just hairline crack, then we will arrange for the HDB to assess it, then decide how to settle who's responsibility to bear the repair as they indicate that HDB has inspected and approved the flat for sale and HDB should bear the repair work and NOT them.
e) Seller can't remember where they placed the key.
f) Seller informed us via sms that "That one no longer exists"
2. Completion date was on 10 Nov 2008 and seller requested to extend stay to 28 Nov 2008 but the extension letter was not signed due to the seller typo error. We have been informed by the seller when signing the OTP that if they have to move out later than the completion date, the seller will compensate us with the market prevailing rental rate.
3. During the 1st appt, Seller agreed to let us do the final inspection ONLY when they vacate the house. We reminded the Seller again on the completion day that the final inspection will be done when they vacate the house and they agreed.
4. Now they turned the tables and said that we should have done all inspection before the completion date.
5. Seller did not compensate us for the conservancy charges from 1st Nov till 23 Nov. Their agent told us not to talk about it.
24 November 2008
Our lawyer letter dated 24th November 2008 was sent to E in response to their letter of 4th November 2008.
13 December 2008
We handed over our keys to the Buyer.
We received a call from L’s office, that L need to come down to inspect the house at 1600hrs.
When we asked who will they be representing, L’s office answered the BUYERS and said that L will be the buyers' witness. This annoyed us coz why when we took over our keys to our Punggol flat, there wasn't any inspection done by L?
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