Not Happy With Your Estate Agent? Here Is What You Can Do About It.
Choosing an estate agent is one of those decisions that is hard to evaluate properly until you are already in the middle of the process. You can read reviews, ask for recommendations, and sit through valuations, but you only really find out what working with someone is like once your home is on the market and the weeks start ticking by.
If things are not feeling right, you are not alone. It is one of the most common frustrations sellers experience, and it is worth knowing what your options actually are.
Start With a Direct Conversation
Before doing anything else, have an honest conversation with your agent about what is not working. It sounds simple, but many sellers sit on their frustrations for weeks rather than raising them directly, and meanwhile the problems continue.
Be specific. Is it the communication? Are you not getting regular updates? Is feedback from viewings not being passed on? Do you feel the marketing is not doing justice to your property? Are calls or emails going unanswered for days at a time?
A good agent will take that feedback seriously and act on it. Most genuine issues can be resolved when they are raised clearly and given the chance to be addressed. Give your agent the opportunity to put things right before drawing any other conclusions.
Put Your Concerns in Writing
If a conversation does not lead to the changes you were hoping for, follow it up in writing. An email summarising what you discussed and what was agreed creates a clear record of the issue being raised and the response you received.
This matters for a few reasons. It keeps things professional and factual, it gives your agent a further opportunity to respond properly, and it creates documentation if you later need to escalate things or exit the contract.
Understand Your Contract
If things still are not improving, the next step is to go back to your agency agreement and read it carefully.
Most sole agency agreements include a notice period for termination, commonly 14 to 28 days, though some can be longer. Some contracts also include a tie-in period at the start during which you cannot leave without penalty, so check whether you are still within that window.
Pay attention to the terms around introduction fees as well. Some contracts include clauses that mean if a buyer is introduced during the period your contract was active, and they later purchase the property, you could still owe the original agent a fee even if you have since moved on. These clauses vary considerably between agents and it is worth understanding exactly what yours says before making any decisions.
If the contract language is unclear, a solicitor can advise you quickly on what your obligations are.
Making a Formal Complaint
If you believe your agent has genuinely failed to meet their professional obligations, you have the right to make a formal complaint.
All estate agents in the UK are required by law to be members of a government-approved redress scheme. The two main ones are the Property Ombudsman and the Property Redress Scheme. Before escalating to either of these, you should first raise your complaint formally through the agent's own internal complaints procedure and allow them a reasonable period to respond.
If you are not satisfied with their response, or they fail to respond within eight weeks, you can then take your complaint to the relevant redress scheme. The scheme can investigate and, where appropriate, award compensation.
This route is there for situations where something has genuinely gone wrong, not just for cases where a sale has been slower than hoped. But it is good to know it exists.
Switching Agents
If you have decided that the relationship is not working and the terms of your contract allow you to move on, then changing agents is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
When you are thinking about who to instruct next, take your time. Think carefully about what did not work with your previous agent and ask specific questions about how a new one would handle those things differently. Ask about their communication process, how often they will update you, how they handle feedback from viewings, and what their marketing approach looks like beyond just posting on Rightmove.
A fresh start with the right agent at the right price, with properly prepared marketing, can turn a stalled sale around more quickly than many sellers expect.
One Final Thought
Selling a home is stressful enough without feeling like you are not being looked after properly. You deserve clear communication, honest advice, and an agent who works hard for your sale every week it is on the market, not just in the first fortnight.
If the experience you are having does not match that, it is worth doing something about it.
We hope this helps, whatever you decide to do next.
