Hi A little advice if anybody can. I recently found a property I liked and payed to the german agency (run by brits in Berlin) the 3000euro securement fee that the agent specified. They said they owned the unit and had bought it at auction and it needed to be a cash purchase. After viewing in Berlin and agreeing to purchase, the balance was payed to agent. this was 3 weeks ago and the German Solicior and Notary are in place. Yesterday I got a e-mail saying that the bank that owned the unit had pulled out as it decidied it wanted to sell as part of a larger group (i.e. part of 15 or 20 units). They have give me the optoin of another unit which is half the size in a slightly more central area at a socalled 7500 euro discount. This property I believe does not have the capital gain potential of the other unit, and to say I'm P***** OFF is an understatement. I have the solicitor viewing the land registry docs tomorrow to find out who actualy owns it as I smell a rat. I'm no mug as everything was done under the guise of research and advice from said Solictor. My costs so far are running at about 1500 euros. I have all e-mails to prove that they said they owned it. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO PREVENT BEEN RIPPED OFF BY THESE TYPE OF PEOPLE

Just out of curiosity, which was the agency? I was in Berlin last week and talked to numerous lawyers, developers and agencies and all of them were complaining about a company in Berlin run by Brits.

The only thing you can do really is to work only with reputable agencies with a proven track record. Unfortunately there are a lot of dodgy agencies out there and unless you are a fan of youtube you won't necessarily always see the negative side of some.

Where in Berlin was the first apartment and where was the second one you were offered? If you want to send me some more details I'll give you my unbiased opinion.

I do work for an agency but am not in sales and decided long ago to only use this forum on a personal basis to gather information, to discuss markets with people who invested in them and possibly provide some help for concerned investors in return so I won't be even telling you which agency I work for let alone trying to convince you to buy through us.

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I too would be interested in hearing who they are - pray tell. We deserve to be forewarned.

Teepeeseller, In negotiation at the moment. Solicitor say's they check out ok and all what went wrong as far as he says is true and confirms what the agent has said. But he is close to the agent having got lot of work through them, but I don't think its worth his professional integrity to hoodwink a client. If You read JMBROAD say's in the threads he's had confab with many in Berlin and never heard a bad thing yet. If it does not work out I will let the world know about it, but up to now sems like there trying to work things out, so I'll keep all informed as to the situ.
Merry Christmas and a healthy,prosperous new year to you all.

[quote=manicman;22605]Teepeeseller, In negotiation at the moment. Solicitor say's they check out ok and all what went wrong as far as he says is true and confirms what the agent has said. But he is close to the agent having got lot of work through them, but I don't think its worth his professional integrity to hoodwink a client. If You read JMBROAD say's in the threads he's had confab with many in Berlin and never heard a bad thing yet. If it does not work out I will let the world know about it, but up to now sems like there trying to work things out, so I'll keep all informed as to the situ.
Merry Christmas and a healthy,prosperous new year to you all.[/QUOTEo



Hope it works out fine. Equally if it all works out well let us know who they are.
How did you contact your legal advisor and who supplied the notary?
Take great care.

That was in the pm actually manic. But after talking to manic in pm's, the company he is working with isn't the one I'd heard all those bad things about.

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So back to the original question then - What is the name of the company you and the others in Berlin have heard such bad things about?

Everything I heard bad things about was second hand information from developers, notaries, lawyers and agents which is why I wanted to see if a client would confirm the reports from their side. As it was second hand information and didn't involve me personally I'm not going to broadcast what is potentially misleading information regarding a company and name them. Especially as they are reported to having very capable libel lawyers

It may well be that the Berlin office of the company is trying hard to be independent from the group and behave in a more reputable fashion than their other offices around the world.

Having said that, this particular company which is based in Spain has videos of salespeople on Youtube blatantly lying to clients and is quite infamous among investors worldwide with their name coming up normally related to aftersales problems, as can be seen when you "google" the company name. They are on almost every real estate forum I've seen with reports of dodgy activity.

If you are working with a real estate agency in Berlin which is British owned or operated and you are concerned it might be them, just "google" their name or do a search on Youtube and get some background information about them.

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As I suspected. Know the company concerned and you and everyone else coming into contact with them should also be concerned. They have been named many times on this and other property forums - before the spectre of court appearances caused us all to speak of them in cryptic, non specific terms.
Didn't want you to paint yourself into a corner, merely being able to ID them (through my own cognitions of course. Any information you have successfully hidden from us has not been available for me to draw my personal conclusion) is quite sufficient.

My company is Anglo-German and operating throughout Germany - my fear is we are all going to be tarred with the same brush.

ok Gents, I'm feeling a little vulnerable here, any chance you pm me and id them.