Haart: Customer Reviews
Number of customer reviews: 16
- 4 would use the agent again
- 12 would not use the agent again
Reviewed by Peetie on 7th October 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
I am not surprised I'm not the only one who has had a lousy experience with Haart.
They sold our property last year having given me all the stuff about having a 'huge database of people wanting just my sort of house in just my area' and wonderful virtual tours and floorplans on the Internet. We were being pressed by the seller of our next property and went with Haarts for the 'hassle-free' service they promised, despite the higher-than-average fees. We thought we'd get what we paid for.
What we actually got was a service which was lacklustre, inaccurate, slapdash and definitely very average. I had to send the brochure details back three times before they were correct - well actually they still weren't quite correct in a couple of very minor details, but as I said we were short of time. It took 3 weeks to get the floorplan done - and then only because I phoned and complained for the third time and the manager came out and did it himself. The picture in the first and largest newspaper advert was awful and they refused to put in another large ad to compensate, despite getting no viewings at all from it. We had to chase important information that Haart should have been bringing to us. Etc, etc that's just a sample.
In the end, we were so appalled by the service that we put in a formal complaint and were offered a derisory amount off the bill in compensation, which we refused.
Instead, we paid a proportion of their fee which we considered was reasonable - about 2/3 - and which was an average of local estate agent and Internet fees at the time.
Haart are now taking us to court for the balance, saying that we breached the contract by not paying the full amount. There are two sides to every contract and they certainly did not uphold their obligations. If they had done as they promised we would have paid in full with thanks. Who committed a breach of contract? Not us.
Reviewed by mad on 7th August 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
I'm glad I read those reviews.
I am considering putting my house on the market with them but after reading these I will probably go with someone else. My problem is their fee structure, we were quoted 2% and they don't want to negotiate at all on that - which is a shame as other agents are more relaxed about this (and their fees a low lower).
Reviewed by RoygBiv on 2nd July 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
We placed our property on the market with Haart when we were buying a property also on with them at the start of the year (Farnborough Branch). We had heard on the grapevine that where we were was not their backyard, but they assured us this would not make a difference.
At the start they seemed a little incompetent - spelling mistakes and completely incorrect errors on our sales literature and a couple of meetings where they did not turn up.
They were also reluctant to suggest an asking price for our property and placed the emphasis on me to suggest one. In the end they took what I guessed at price and the property went on the market.
It appeared online promptly but took a while longer to appear in the papers and their window.
Viewings were generally professional at the start - feedback was given within a day or so, but we had to chase sometimes. It also became apparent quite quickly that their policy was to get as many people through the door as possible - we therefore had people no interested who view for reasons that were obvious (i.e. no garage - the literature said this, so why did Haart push them to view?).
An offer was made, for below the asking price, which we negotiated via Haart to a figure we accepted. One of the reasons we accepted was that we were told the buyer was a cash buyer and in a position to move. This was confirmed in a letter from the Branch Manager. Imagine our surprise a week or so later when we were told that actually they had a property to sell first!
Nevertheless we pressed on, found a property and placed an offer ourselves, warning the vendor that it could be a while before we were ready to move due to our buyer.
A week or so after the offer, we were informed by the vendors estate agents (not Haart), that their client had been contacted by Haart direct, warning them that our sale was not likely to go through because of the position of the person offering on ours, and proposing that they rejected our offer and placed their property on the market with Haart. Needless to say, they rejected, but it left us in a sticky situation. In addition, the Haart Manager would not confirm (nor deny) that he had had this conversation.
Communication went quiet from Haart for a bit after this and in order to expedite a sale we placed our property on the market with a second Agent, which generated a bit more interest. In the meantime, the Haart Manager at the branch was replaced and we were pressured into contemplating reducing our price due to the market pressures. In several instances I was (indirectly) blamed for our property not being sold as the asking price had been my idea - despite the fact Haart would not suggest one.
We held firm as we are in no hurry to move and supposedly still had a tentative offer. However, Haart seemed to have no detailed knowledge of this offer towards the end of our agreement and we reached an empase.
The final straw was a viewing that occurred without us confirming with Haart that it was ok - the first we found was when they rung attempting to give feedback. When we queried why there was a viewing they ummm'd and erred and blamed it on a clerical error.
We have now taken our property of the market completely and will wait a year or so to see how the housing market pans out. However, when we attempt to sell again Haart won't be top of our list.
In conclusion, I would say Haart are run of the mill for estate agents in my experience - they want to sell your house, but want the sale quickly, rather than perhaps the word of mouth that can generate repeat business. In a sector where there can be little to separate one company from another, Haart has done enough (or not) with us to be viewed in a worse light that others we have dealt with.
Reviewed by grundy on 18th June 2008
Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
I unfortunately purchased a property which was misdescribed. When legal action was taken against the Seller, it transpired that they had been 100% open with Haart but Haart had been economical with the truth to say the least! Needless to say the Seller is now pursuing Haart.
Reviewed by Jeff on 16th June 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
If you are looking to sell your house I would urge you to look elsewhere. These guys a FRIGHTENINGLY stupid and unhelpful. Their latest viewing of the day occurs while most people are still at work, and they just don't seem very interested in selling houses. Add to that the fact that, when I asked for 3 bed houses with a garden and a garage they sent me adverts for 2 bed flats with neither, and I can't imagine you get much luck selling your house with these jokers.
Reviewed by Winger on 15th June 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
Well, we put our property on the market with Haart 8 months ago, at a fixed fee of 1.25%. Now they are pressurising us into reducing our asking price (which we agree with actually) but they won\'t reduce their fixed fee accordingly. They want it to stay based on the ORIGINAL asking price!
All we want to do is move to 1.25% variable fee rather than 1.25% fixed, but they claim their Head Office won\'t let them do that. Instead, they claim that Head Office have INCREASED fees to 1.6%!
So what was the outcome? They have asked us to leave if we won\'t reduce the price, even though we said we would if they make that minor change to their commission!
And they only phoned again yesterday asking when we would be leaving because \'their Head Office is giving them stick for not reducing the price of our (and other) properties!\"
Steer well clear, they are selling for themselves, not for their clients.
Reviewed by jamesp on 16th May 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? YES
I recently sold through haart in Burnham and found them to be nothing less than EXCELLENT. I am dismayed at some of the comments on here about haart as their staff seemed to be well educated and trained and were professional at all times!
Reviewed by Steamerpoint on 4th March 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
Haart are a joke. I had to type Prospective Customer because I am unable to select Employee. I worked as a manager for Haart for a few months before quitting as soon as my pay arrived in my bank account.
They rip customers off with their fees charging fees on a sliding scale. What they do is over value a property to win the business. Lets say they tell the owner the house is worth £210,000, but really it is worth £190,000. They then pull out a table and along the £210,000 line it says £4725 (Equivilent to 2.25% for example) they write this figure on the agreement and the owner agrees to pay this plus VAT on completion. Of course the house doesn't sell for £210,000. The vendor is pushed into dropping the selling price until they eventually sell for £190,000. The vendor is then asked to pay £4725, which is now equivilent to nearly 2.5% plus VAT. Had they put the owner on a fee of 2.25% the owner would have paid less commission and probably wouldn't have agreed to pay 2.5% on day one if he knew that this would be the eventual fee!
They treat staff very badly, moving them between offices 30 miles away with a few hours notice. Staff are unfamiliar with the area, branch and are completely ineffective. They are disorganised, heavily paperbased and spend more time completing stats sheets on how many viewings they have booked each day than concentrating of getting houses sold.
Staff worry about getting the wrong people around houses just to get their figures up. Moral was very low while I was there and people were leaving after only a few months of abuse. This left little local knowledge in any one office, yet staff were told to wing it and pretend they knew the area, often making big mistakes as they went.
They sponsor football teams in an effort to appeal to the local community, but it is more about advertising their name behind the goal nets for the TV cameras.
They are a nasty company and when they start putting their staff and customers first, before their huge profits, then maybe I could say a good word about them.
Their sharp practices were enough for me to quit estate agency when I left them and I returned to an office management job working with happy people where I was allowed to manage, rather than manage in name only. Avoid.
Reviewed by Barbara on 6th February 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
Hadleigh branch in Essex and especially some upstart manager called Steve Kelly....truly awful agent.....overly pushy and very un-professional attitude when valuing my home... I don't usually bother giving feedback but I felt I had to warn people off this agency.
Reviewed by timothy on 21st December 2007
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? YES
awful
Reviewed by roseandchan on 3rd November 2007
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
I used Haart's Thetford branch. Sold throught them but they never knew what was going on. In the end we delt with buyer on the phone. Their conveyancing goes to some big office up north, who also never know whats going on! Sale did go through but no thanks to this agent. Manageress has bad attitude!!
Reviewed by Ahsan on 10th October 2007
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
Booked an appointment with Haart to view a property, went to their office at given time. The guy who was supposed to take me to the property was not there. After a long wait another guy told me that he will let him know that I visited... in other way, buzz off.
Reviewed by AW on 22nd August 2007
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? YES
Helpful face to face. Leave "sold" properties on their website (and hence rightmove) when they are long gone.
Reviewed by jethro on 8th August 2007
Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? YES
The team pulled out all the stops when there was a problem with my purchase and sale. I was in a long chain and there were many complications including a person that had a sharia mortgage. The team at Haarts Arnold Nottingham were very efficient and informative.
Reviewed by Jo on 23rd March 2007
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
Reviewed by Netti on 5th October 2006
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use Haart again? NO
I have been very disappointed with FJ Lord (Haart company for London). I used them for renting a "fully-furnished" one-bed flat. I visited the flat while it was being "refurbished" or so I was told it would be. A month later when I moved into the flat (I signed the contract before checking the flat as I was moving back from abroad and had nowhere else to go to), the only thing that had been done had been painting of the whole apartment (it smelled very strongly for over a month), the carpets had not been changed (there were massive stains, from the boiler blowing up, I subsequently learnt) and there were no curtains. Windows were stained and water pipes and bathroom ventilator all very worn out and noisy. So much for the newly-refurbished flat I had put in an offer for... When I started asking for things to be done, I was asked to speak to various other people - they weren't sure which office or which department was supposed to be dealing with me... After speaking to about 10 people, I finally started withholding rent to get things repaired. Six months later, two weeks ago, everything was finally repaired. Last week, I got a notice that the landlord wanted to regain possession. I am glad I am leaving but will never use FJ Lord again. They misled me into putting an offer for a "newly-refurbished" flat, lied to me about the carpets being changed and were completely incompetent to get things repaired once I was in the property - the property managers had never even set foot in the flat and couldn't even tell me where the meters were! As an agency, they have various standard forms which are very much to the advantage of the landlords, so please beware before you sign anything with this agent.
