Avoid Foxtons or be left scammed and robbed
Please do read this review if you are ever asked to pay a deposit! I could save you some money there!!!!!
Where do I begin.....
I've recently had a terrible experience with Foxtons in London, I believe it is the crystal palace branch although the property I was purchasing was in Croydon.
The property I was purchasing was advertised by Foxtons. I found the flat through rightmove and zoopla. I clicked on the link and it took me through to Foxtons in which I was able to make an appointment with. The first time I viewed the flat, a young chap showed me around. Although he was very friendly he did not know anything about the property or anything else for that matter. Every question I asked he would say I don't know, you'd have to ask the estate agents. I did like the flat so arranged for a second viewing.
On the day of the second viewing, no one showed up. I rung Foxtons and they had no recollection of the meeting. I therefore rang another lady who worked with the developer, not related to Foxtons, and she was more than helpful, very knowledgable and by far demonstrated a level of competence that not a single Foxtons employee was capable of showing me. She showed us around, we loved it again and decided that we would like to purchase the property. Unfortunately and regrettably, Foxtons were the only estate agents that were advertising the property so we had to go through them, otherwise we would have chosen a different agent if others had advertised. I had heard terrible things about Foxtons, they proved to live up to those things during my initial experience with them. Low and behold they delivered and even surpassed the terrible things I was expecting off them.
Once the offer was made, I was constantly chased up by Foxtons who I felt were there to just service the developer and clearly not me. In order for me to reserve the property, a reservation fee of £500 must have been paid, along with a signed form. The £500 would make up part of the overall purchase price. The £500 was also fully refundable, regardless of the reason for pulling out of the deal, according to the form I was constantly chased up to sign and pressurised to do so immediately or fear of losing out on the property as the estate agent mentioned. The estate agent reassured me that for whatever reason, if I did not go through with the purchase I would get my £500 back and he reassured me of this on numerous occasions. Regrettably only over the phone and not by email.
Days before we were about to exchange, circumstances changed and we had to pull out of the purchase. 4 months later and Foxtons have finally got back to me about the deposit. Turns out they made me sign the form and not the developer. All guarantees made by the employee of Foxtons doesn't mean anything as he has now left them and there's no way to corroborate what was said. Theres no evidence of the form signed by the developer because the employee has left and they for whatever reason can't be bothered to go through his emails and check.
Eventually I receive an email saying the developer is refusing to refund the £500 in the absence of a signed form. He does not feel he has to as we did not go through with the purchase and there is nothing signed saying he has to return it. So I guess I wont be getting that back.
Throughout my entire experience of Foxtons, only one person was polite, courteous, professional and actually helpful. He did not put one foot out of line and I appreciate his helpfulness. All the other employees I have come across during this purchase at Foxtons, were not professional, one was very rude and snappy with me, others I swear had no idea how to do their jobs.
I would highly recommend to avoid Foxtons but if you must deal with them, in particular this branch, make sure you get everything in writing, especially all reassurances made by their employees. Make sure you do not pay anything over unless you have received a signed form with the developers / sellers signature. Just don't deal with them and let your solicitor deal with them, they're far better at dealing with crooks and fraudsters and can spot them better than I ever could.
Basically avoid Foxtons in crystal palace and try any other estate agent, even streets ahead were better than any employee at Foxtons.
11 January 2020
Unprompted review