A Purple Bricks Nightmare Where does a nightmare begin? My Purple Bricks nightmare began on 17/05/17 when I made the mistake of inviting one of their so-called ‘experts’ into my home to discuss selling my house. The Purple Bricks ‘expert’ valued my four bedrooms, double bayed, three floor house at £125,000. It eventually sold for £105,000. This led me to believe that a) The ‘expert’ was over enthusiastic (and shouldn’t be doing the job) b) The ‘expert’ was clueless (and shouldn’t be doing the job) c) The ‘expert’ deliberately over-priced my house to get me to sign the contract, knowing he could then sit back safe in the knowledge that Purple Bricks would get their £948.00 fee and he would reap his reward. I did get four pieces of advice from the ‘expert’ .“Reduce”; “Reduce”; “Reduce” and “Reduce” (see c above). As the weeks turned into months and I got more desperate to sell the house and move closer to my children I did reduce - £120,000, £118,500, £115,000 and £110,000. The photographs had to be re-done twice due to sub-standard photography (take on a pocket camera, the photos made the rooms look dark and therefore smaller than they were according to viewers). The floor plan had to be re-done as the ‘expert’ had made the bathroom look like a horse trough attached to the back of the house. The ‘For Sale’ sign that was put up on the fence kept blowing down in the slightest wind. I requested it be removed and attached to the wall. It was put up on a different part of the fence and kept blowing down. There was some concern over feedback when some viewers had said that they had posted feedback and I hadn’t received it. I got in touch with the helpline and they said they would pass the problem on to the IT section. No one ever got back to me. The months passed by. Spring turned to summer; autumn to winter. Ben the ‘expert’ did give me one more piece of advice. After 8 months he rang me and informed me that Purple Bricks were a dual agency. He suggested that I engage another Estate Agent to sell my house. He obviously had as much faith in Purple Bricks selling my house as I did. The date approached when I would have to hand over £948.00 to Purple Bricks’ credit company Close Brothers Retail Finance as per the 10 month deadline. I had had to sign up with Close Brothers when I signed up to Purple Bricks. Strangely enough, on the day before I was due to have £948.00 taken by direct debit from my account by Close Brothers, a buyer emerged and offered a very low price for my house. I managed to up the price to £105,000. £20,000 less than the Purple Bricks ‘expert (???)’ had valued my house. On 20/03/18 Close Brothers took the £948.00 fee by direct debit. (remember this for what happens later). And so the conveyancers Premier Property Lawyers took over the next stage. I had to sign up to these when I signed up to Purple Bricks. Bear in mind that the buyer had sold their house eventually with Purple Bricks and were signed up to the same conveyancing firm. There were no problems or hidden surprises. The people who wanted to buy my house, had a buyer for their old house and a mortgage agreed. The person who was buying their house had already sold his house and was having to live with his parents whilst the farce dragged on. I said I would move into a bedsit or flat whilst waiting to move into the house I’d set my sights on. No long chain. No unforeseen problems. No sudden revelations. And yet it took ten and a half weeks from me agreeing to the offer to my handing over the keys. A long drawn out affair with no apparent reason. It was the three people who were involved in the house moves that finally said 1st June 2018 would be the completion date. If we hadn’t been in contact with one another I don’t know how long this would have lasted. So 1st June arrived. I handed over the house keys. End of nightmare? No. No. No. Premier Property Lawyers took their fee out of the Proceeds of Sale. They also decided to take £948.00 agent fee to give to Close Brothers, despite having evidence that I had paid Close Brothers by direct debit ten and a half weeks previously. Lucky Close Brothers! I sent dozens of e-mails messages and made phone calls trying to get my money back. Close Brothers didn’t reply to 8 e-mails. Purple Bricks seemed unable to help. Purple Bricks post sale team continued to say they would ‘chase Close Brothers’ for the money. Premier Property Lawyers seemed in no hurry to reimburse me for the £948 that they had wrongly taken from me. Since Premier Property Lawyers had made the mistake, I would have thought the decent thing to do was reimburse me and then chase Close Brothers for the money themselves. Instead I was left with the worry of not knowing when I would get my money back or IF I would get my money back. Finally, on 18th June, Amy from Close Brothers rang to say my money would be back in my bank account on Thursday 21 June. On Wednesday 20th June, 2018 my £948.00 was returned to me. No apologies from Premier Property Lawyers. At least on 20th June, 2018 my Purple Bricks nightmare was over after 13 months and 4 days.