Aberdein Considine & Company

Aberdein Considine (Inverurie) – Beware Fee Extortion

Selling a property is stressful and expensive at the best of times but when the selling agent (A&C Inverurie) refused to recognise my right to cancel the agreement as per clause 1 of their T&Cs which states “after an initial 12-week period the agreement can be cancelled by either party with 7 days written notice”. A&C invoke clause 3 which is essentially written to prevent switching to another agency or trying to do a back hand deal with a potential buyer. I was not trying to do or have done either but was still sent a demand for the maximum penalty of £600. This was later followed up with emails and recorded delivery letters threating all sorts of court action and additional expenses if I refused to pay their extortion money. Clause 3 states they “MAY” charge up to £600.

It should also be noted that clause 3 does not reference or state that it invalidates clause 1 it references clause 2 as their right to a “sole agency” agreement.

It’s not an easy decision to delist a property but with only 2 viewings in a year the market was clearly telling me I needed to do some considerable refurbishment.

Earlier in the year I had sold a 600k property through A&C and used them for notary work. In previous years I had used them to draw up residential leases and I would probably have relisted the property in question (500K) with them again when the time came. This poor client focus and lack of business acumen will cost them more in lost revenue as obviously I will never use A&C again.

If you are thinking of listing your property with A&C and for whatever reason have to delist, be very careful, they will come after you aggressively after applying the maximum possible using this discretionally punitive penalty.

I would recommend using alternative estate agencies who are not out to extort fees from their clients.

I am happy to share the terms and conditions with anyone who requests them.

Worst ever experience I have deal with
I have lost a lot money dealing with them was not my choice bank gave it to my I recommend to avoid them if possible they a slow did not share any info off any stages off progress and a lot more…

Absolutely useless company, used for a remorgage and totally useless, i
have actually been lied too on several occasions today by one of there solicitors trying to blame other people for them not doing their jobs on Friday and Missing dead lines and in turn costing me hundreds if not thousands in extra fees and money.
Avoid at all costs and use anyone else they are terrible and take zero responsibility in there actions and don't care.

I was appointed this solicitor by Birmingham Midshires for a remortgage. I have done about 20 remortgages over the past 10 years, all with various solicitors from lender panels. This company far outshone all the others in terms of its poor communication, response, customer service, efficiency and professionalism.

The only way you get any information from them is if you phone them up. They do not send emails or have a portal. You talk to a different person every time. You get given the wrong information. There is no sense of customer service because they know they will never have to deal with you again. Thank goodness I knew the process, because otherwise I am sure the completion date would have been delayed by several weeks more than it was. I had to push push push at every stage, and even then they failed to complete on the planned date after having assured me everything was in place. In fact they hadn't even asked for release of funds when they told me that, so there was no way completion would be taking place. Then when I suggested they had been less than efficient, their response was pretty much a shrug of the shoulders and 'so what?'. They could barely be bothered to be civil. I was left out of pocket, but again, why should they care? It won't stop them getting more business from Birmingham Midshires.

I checked them out on Trust Pilot and on another review website and I am not alone. There are many many similar complaints about these people.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

NB I had to tick the 'below £250' boxes below as there was no free option - this firm's fees are paid for by Birmingham Midshires - another reason why they just don't care about you.