Attacking estate agents is not helping anyone

The extremely controversial estate agent review sites that claim to allow customers to share their experiences are coming under fire once again as progression in what the sites are able to ‘offer’ step up to the next level, publishing league tables. Sarah Rushbrook, Managing Director of Rushbrook & Rathbone, a property management agency, believes that the biggest issue with these sites is that however much they claim to have control they obviously do not.

Sarah comments:

“Usually when a relationship breaks down between an agent and a landlord or the tenant, it is not normally over one small issue, and it is often a situation where the tenant’s complaint is actually against the landlord (or vice versa) and not against the agent. The old saying ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ rings true and in most instances this is what these sites do.

"Unlike other review sites, agents are facilitators and not decision makers. For example, it is within the power of the hotel owner to sort out a problem with perhaps a room, whereas if a tenant is complaining about poor maintenance and a slow response time it is more likely that the agent is working away in the background trying to get the landlord to agree to works taking place. There are, of course, agents who provide an appalling service but as always the only people to complain are disgruntled tenants and landlords.

"It would be understandable if complaints where about the quality of the marketing or if their legal documentation was below par, but most are actually issues which the agent is relying upon a third party to achieve. A tenant might protest that their referencing is taking too long but when you look into it, it is not the fault of the agent or the referencing agency but their employer who has not provided the information required.”

With so many sites now that offer a platform for estate agents to be criticized, Sarah questions how they will help the industry going forward.

She says:

“Being able to attack an agent is not going to improve matters. If a particular agent is continually receiving negative reports then perhaps a pattern is developing, but I defy any agent to keep every landlord and tenant that they come into contact with blissfully happy, it simply won’t happen.”

Sarah also believes that offering the agent the right of reply is not helping either.

“Firstly, they do not have the time to respond to each and every review written and secondly, they would have to be certain that what they were saying was absolutely factually correct whereas a complainant can say exactly what he or she wants, true or false. There is also the fact that the perception of the agent would decline further if they were seen to be getting into a disagreement over the internet.

I would urge both customers and agents to treat these sites with caution. They are looking to make money from someone, and who really knows how they have the control that they claim over what is written.”