3937 Estate Agent Demanding More Money

If they sent you a recorded letter - there must be a record of it.. and a signature to show you accepted it! Tell them to prove it.

But even if they did send a letter - so what? I can send you a recorded letter to say I want to sell your children to make glue - does that mean you have to accept or agree to my outrageous demands?

If they don't have anything in writing agreed and signed by you and you have all the correct paperwork and receipts.. tell them to get stuffed.. or you will take them to court! :D

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Anastasia is right, unless they can prove this then there is nothing they can do. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]We did actually receive a recorded letter from our agent, not quite the same situation but our lawyer wrote back to their's pointing out a few discrepancies and we are still waiting for a reply four months later. I think they are just trying it on! [/FONT][/COLOR]

Tell them where to go, and think nothing more of it!!!

most of the above replies might give you a certain sense of satisfaction short term, however if someone does initiate some sort of proceeding against you its important here to answer this within a short time, i think its about a month, otherwise you are regarded as automatically in default and its much harder to work the thing out, courts are very slow here and very expensive so try and avoid this option

i think the wisest course is that suggested where a person representing you alone and legally capable gives a quick call to them and asks exactly what they are billing you for and why

this call alone could well shut them up and if not you will have fallen foul of the verbal agreement rules here and will need to negotiate the payment

i think its basically at your own peril if you ignore demands for money here and as a property owner you put your property at risk in a sense because if they cannot find you the courts always have your property to consider....

get some good advice, get it reasonably quickly and hopefully something can be negotiated ..... with mortgages if they helped in the arrangement much like the Uk i would presume they make their money off the financial institution.... however if they carried out some sort of detailed survey for you for the mortgage maybe you might find they are justified....

its quite hard to answer this without details... but whatever ... dont ignore them... its not that wise here

john's words are wise.
The first reaction, in front of a request like the one you received would be to tell them to go... where I'm sure you've thought to send them.
But it's never wise to ignore a claim.
It doesn't mean you have to pay just because they're asking for your money.
Normally the agents' fee is the fee fixed in the contract you signed with them and nothing more.
They could claim something else only if they're able to prove they've done something more and substantially "extra-ordinary" in respect of their usual job.

[COLOR=black]What Adriatica is alluding to is known as the Decreto Ingiuntivo. This is a relatively quick process and aimed at reducing the lenghty timescales that are the norm when initiating legal action. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]This involves a creditor seeking a hearing with a Judge in order to serve a default Judgement on a debtor for not paying a bill etc. Once the Decreto has been served, the defendant has 40 days to file his/her defence. However, there is a clear procedure for this and certain conditions have to be fulfilled in order to apply for the Judgement and to have it served.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Without knowing the specifics of your case it is difficult to comment or speculate, but it is totally absurd for the agent, already having received his commission, to now demand more money from you. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]The only way he could claim reimbursement of any additional costs is if you had agreed to cover them in the first place. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]Your best course of action is to seek professional legal advice and to demand unequivocal proof of what these extra costs are actually for.[/COLOR]

Thanks so much for everyone's comments - absolutely invaluable.
I'll now get a lawyer to reply to them.

Does anyone know of any good Italian lawyers based in London that would deal with this sort of thing?

Many thanks

A search of this site will find Giambrone & Law highly recommended!

............Oh, I suppose I should point out that [i]"other lawyers exist; the price of your lawyer can go up as well as down; your house is at risk if you fail to etc......"[/i]

in a sense i would say the one that advertises at the top of this page are fine... though costly if it does go beyond enquiring phone calls ... and actually ends up in a court... have you pm'd mr joseph .... with maybe more details... he can often and i know does offer initial help and is most probably without meaning to flatter the most expert person on here in the field of your query... i am sure if he has time he will be able to help point you in the right direction... otherwise like i say i know the ones that advertise at the top of the page but as in all cases involving lawyers it all seems to take time and expense... i wish there was another way to deal with these things

What does it say in the contract you signed with them?

[QUOTE=adriatica]in a sense i would say the one that advertises at the top of this page are fine... though costly if it does go beyond enquiring phone calls ... and actually ends up in a court... have you pm'd mr joseph .... with maybe more details... he can often and i know does offer initial help and is most probably without meaning to flatter the most expert person on here in the field of your query... i am sure if he has time he will be able to help point you in the right direction... otherwise like i say i know the ones that advertise at the top of the page but as in all cases involving lawyers it all seems to take time and expense... i wish there was another way to deal with these things[/QUOTE]
Maybe there is another way to deal with these things..

I believe this is the best forum on the internet regarding Italy - we are extremely lucky to have experts on many differing subjects. We have Charles Joseph for all legal/technical house buying procedures. We have Andy/Widow Twankey for all kindsa stuff I don't understand about heating and solar energy, we have a lovely wonderful Notaio and we have bellissima Gardahomes.. we have many more, but I dont want to embarass everyone.. and you get the gist.

Obviously, for these people to help all of us takes up a lot of their time and they have done this willingly and without complaint - always striving to give the expertise of their vast knowledge and training.

I have no doubt their PM boxes are full every day with requests for help. I am sure they have helped many members overcome great difficulties as they stumble along in buying and/or renovating a home in Italy.

I don't know if it would be possible or even if they would consider this option, but why cant they take on 'cases' within their field for a fee? I don't mean just the knowledge they generously give to us each and everyday on the forum, but a start to finish service for a set fee.

Let me put it this way - if I were to purchase a home in Italy, without doubt I would want the following people on my team; Charles Joseph to dot all the i's and cross the t's by making sure it was all done correctly - Notaio to do all the Italian legal side of things properly and Gardahomes to make sure it was all translated perfectly from Italian in English. If, after I bought my house, I wanted solar whatjamacallits and underfloor thingymabobs I would get Andy in on it..

Would I be willing to pay this team who I have come to understand and trust over the time I've spent here? Damn right I would!
Could it work? I dunno [ATTACH]754[/ATTACH] I aint an expert.. and I'm too busy packing a couple of suitcases full of contraband [ATTACH]752[/ATTACH]to take to Napoli to work it out. [ATTACH]753[/ATTACH]but I'm sure we have an expert here who could work out how it could be done!

[QUOTE=PAS 55]What does it say in the contract you signed with them?[/QUOTE]

.... but it doesn't specify what you get for that 3% and the estate agent is arguing that they had to do lots more work than usual for us. Nothing that I am aware of that is out of the ordinary howver, and certainly nothing that we agreed to pay extra for. E.g. they had to get some forms taken to the local town hall or something.... they did this without us understanding what they were doing, if it was normal etc.

When we signed the original contract however, they did verbally tell us that they would do lots for us - help with ficale codes, bank accounts etc. so that it all went smoothly.. so why they now want more money is beyond me.

Because they are trying it on but as it has been said you must respond in writing to them or it could get complicated.