Where to begin? We visited a property that Phoenix had for sale at the beginning of February. The agent was very charming but his clothing did lead us to believe that he worked at an Audi showroom as he had Audi branded clothing, so we presumed he was doing Phoenix a favour and showing us around. We decided we wanted the property and made an offer for the full asking price the day after. Richard, who it appears is the only person employed at the company, although he does pretend to be someone else when you first call and he "puts you through" asked us if we would like to offer more money to "entice the buyer", we said no as already offering the asking price. He then asked if we would be prepared to put down £2000 for an "exclusivity deal" which we declined so he reduced it to £1000, which we also declined. Our offer was accepted and we were told that they wanted a quick sale as the owner had a new build to move into and wanted it done as fast as possible so we instructed our survey to be carried out by the mortgage company which cost us over £300. This is where the fun begins... We received the survey results and spoke to our solicitor who had been trying to speak to Richard and their solicitor for the contract. All sorts of excuses were given as to why nothing was forthcoming. As we were getting no contact from Richard we put a note through the owner's door to make contact directly to arrange a second viewing and to see if he knew what was happening. Richard then telephoned us and told us that he would have to be there when we went to the property as we wouldn't be insured. We got to the property on time but Richard never showed up so we went into the property and had an interesting conversation with the owner, who turned out not to be the owner anymore as he'd already sold it to Phoenix and he was waiting for them to pay him money from the sale of the house so he could move into his new place. The guy from Audi turned up just as we were leaving. Eventually our solicitor found out that there was someone else in the background also trying to buy the house. I called Richard, who after telling me Richard wasn't available and to call back later, finally took my call the second time and told me that it was a strange situation and his solicitor had not come across anything like this before but we were now in a contract race with another buyer. Our solicitor found this to be incredibly strange as this would involve all parties being issued with a contract and the first to complete would get the house. We had no contract. It appears that unless you hand over significant amounts of money to secure a time limited exclusive deal you will never actually get a contract from them. I called Richard quite often and he started to be Richard from the start, not passing me through to himself. He told me that his manager was now dealing with our sale because of all the problems with the solicitor etc. His manager would call me. He never did. The next time I called he told me "the vendors" solicitor had gone off sick (even though he was the vendor) and someone else in the solicitor's office was dealing with it and the contract would be sent that day, then the next day and then on 6th March Richard actually called me (I had always chased him previously for updates as in his words "he had nothing to update me on") to tell me that the contracts would definitely be issued on Monday 9th March. That Monday no contracts arrived, no shock there, I had a viewing on another property that day. A few days later the "owner" texted to ask if we had bought the property because Phoenix had been and told him to get out of the house immediately as it had been sold. Richard has never been in touch again, maybe he is waiting for us to call him.We completed on our new home 6 weeks later and have since moved in. Maybe we should give these a 5 star review as if it wasn't for Phoenix we never would have found this bigger, nicer and better value house. But I won't, as unlike Phoenix I wouldn't want to mislead anyone. DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THIS COMPANY!!
Unfortunately I cannot give zero out of five!I am writing this review as a warning to potential customers of this company. At best this company is unprofessional, inefficient and unreliable. At worst, the activity of this company borders on fraudulent. Unfortunately, the estate agent industry is not regulated, which enables this company to continue getting away with bad practice. This company (formerly known as Pegasus) has owed me 1.5k for 18 months. The Directors have ignored my attempts, and the attempts of the County Court to contact them and arrange payment, and seem to think it is acceptable to keep hold of money that does not belong to them.To date, several parties have made complaints about this company and its Directors to Trading Standards. If you have experienced problems with this company and/or its Directors, please get in touch with your local trading standards. The more people that complain, the more likely it is that an investigation will occur.The Directors of this company and their family have set up several parent and sister companies (Beachwood Properties Limited, Pegasus Estate agency, Rain Properties Ltd, Econa Properties Ltd, Rexel Properties Ltd, Wardle Properties Ltd, Wardle Property Alliance Ltd, Williams Properties Ltd), all of which operate in the property industry, and some of which appear to conduct themselves in a questionable manner.
Phoenix Agency is a UK Real Estate Agency based in Oldham, North West England. Phoenix Agency is located at 76 George St, Oldham OL1 1LS, UK.
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