Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Property For Sale in Calis Beach & Turkey => Buying Property in Calis Beach, Fethiye and Turkey => Topic started by: Honest Joe on August 15, 2012, 10:14:40 AM
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For those of you who are selling, or planing to sell, your villa or apartment be aware of a SCAM by individuals posing to be Estate Agents.
A friend recently sold her house to a viewer who, as far as she was aware had come as a result of a For Sale note on her gate, received a threatening letter (translated into perfect English) from an "agent" the same day as the sale was completed, demanding payment of 3% of the sales value for "marketing" her property. She had had no contact with this "agent" prior to the sale of her villa and this is very obvious by the fact that they addressed the letter to her as “Dear householder”.
As far as she was concerned, the buyer had come directly to see her house, viewed the house alone, and negotiated the price privately. A Turkish friend spoke to the "agent", and confirmed that the agent had had no previous contact at all with the seller, and there was absolutely no obligation to pay anything to them. The "agent" apologised stating that there had been an error in the translation!!!!
This "agent" will obviously try this scam again and again - preying on individuals who will just pay because of the threats made in the letter - so if you do receive such a threat contact the Jandarme immediately.
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So how did the "agent" know the property had been sold that day?
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Well spotted Keith. i picked it up too. ;)
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So how did the "agent" know the property had been sold that day?
Maybe an informer in the Notary? It says the same day the sale was 'completed' so I assume someone will have notarised the sale?
Sounds like someone is getting backhanders to inform this 'agent' of private sales.
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It's pretty far fetched - someone tells an employee of the tapu/notary office to let him know when a sale goes through so he can then approach the seller (who doesn't know him at all) to say that he introduced the buyer (who doesn't know him at all) to the property and now wants commission. It's ludicrous.
If I had £10 of someone else's money I'd put it on the possibility that the agent was selling the property, perhaps it was his sign advertising it for sale, and buyer and seller tried to cut him out of the deal. There is just no way a plan to claim to have assisted in a sale could ever work when nobody involves knows you from Adam. Unless they agree to pretend they don't. And it's happened to most of us.
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Strange how he backed off then. Surely if he had advertised the property he would be able to provide evidence? If so then why would he just walk away from 3% commission? I know I wouldn't.
Not saying it happened but I think it's possible someone could try if they had the info needed.
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A question to honest joe - find out from your friend which agent sent the letter, and name them - if they make such major errors in translations then I think others should be aware of how poor they are.
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Yes ıt dıd happen. The 'Agent' backed off when threatened wıth court actıon by a legal bod. We thınk the turkısh purchaser had asked the 'Agent' to look for property for sale ın our area and she gave her thıs vıllas address to go and look at the area and vılla before makıng an approach to the owner. The agent does not work from an offıce ,she seems to just drive around lookıng for propertıes for her 'clients'.The seller dıd not have any contact wıth the 'agent' and she was never ıntroduced to her or saw her. She thought thıs buyer has seen her For Sale sıgn and came on speck. So the fault lıes wıth the purchaser. We thınk the agent she knew the property had been sold that day via the purchaser who may have saıd I found my own property and purchased ıt today to avoıd payıng her 'agent' 3%. The Agent can easıly fınd out whıch property she had bought. The letter left was not on company headed paper just a hand wrıtten note wıth a telephone number but very threatenıng.
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Right - so an agent drove around, saw a property for sale, didn't enquire about it with the owner (even though she was outside it) but gave it's location to a 'client' so they could go and have a look on their own. And the "Turkish friend" in post no. 1 is now a "legal bod". Forgive my scepticism, living in Turkey made me this way :)
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It reads to me that the buyer asked the agent to have a look for property in that area and she saw the one in question and passed the details to the buyer. If anyone should be paying the agent surely it should be the buyer as the agent had no contact with the seller.
Maybe she was outside the property but the seller wasn't home? It does seem strange that the agent simply passed on the details though as surely she would try and protect her commission by taking the buyer to look at the house and maybe trying to negotiate with the seller.
Or just maybe the agent never actually spotted this house and the buyer found it when looking around the area after being given details of another property. The buyer then told the agent she had found and bought a property she found herself and the agent decided to to her luck?
More to come from this story I think :)
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The turkısh frıend ın Post 1 ıs a legal bod. The seller went to hım for advıce. He phoned the Agent and sorted the problem out.
At no tıme was the seller aware an agent was ınvolved so the agent is at fault for not approachıng the seller fırst. The buyer ıs also at fault for avoıding payıng the agents 3% commıssıon fee by goıng dırect to the seller. The poor seller was pıggy ın the mıddle. I do not thınk ıt ıs a scam just a touch of stupıdıty by the agent.
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Yes ıt dıd happen. The 'Agent' backed off when threatened wıth court actıon by a legal bod. We thınk the turkısh purchaser had asked the 'Agent' to look for property for sale ın our area and she gave her thıs vıllas address to go and look at the area and vılla before makıng an approach to the owner. The agent does not work from an offıce ,she seems to just drive around lookıng for propertıes for her 'clients'.The seller dıd not have any contact wıth the 'agent' and she was never ıntroduced to her or saw her. She thought thıs buyer has seen her For Sale sıgn and came on speck. So the fault lıes wıth the purchaser. We thınk the agent she knew the property had been sold that day via the purchaser who may have saıd I found my own property and purchased ıt today to avoıd payıng her 'agent' 3%. The Agent can easıly fınd out whıch property she had bought. The letter left was not on company headed paper just a hand wrıtten note wıth a telephone number but very threatenıng.
Honest Joe & Quackers
I can understand that you probably felt it was being helpful to others in posting the info about this scam :) What I don't understand is why 'the seller' hasn't reported this (very loose description) 'agent' to the Jardarme & the 'Emlaks Assc'?, or has she? It's all very well advising others to report it but first they will have to experience the same as this seller! :( And, perhaps most importantly; why have you not named this quasi agent? Prevention is always better than cure, as they say..............
I think that the Tax Office would also be very interested in the activities of this 'agent'!
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I did not say it is was a scam as I do not think it was. I think it was a bit of 'stupid Agent and a clever buyer' and the seller got caught up in the middle. I will try and find out the name of the agent for you if you want. Seller now moved on to pastures greener.
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Sorry for not replying earlier to any of the postings since I made the original posting - I just hadn't followed it up, as I was just advising people to be aware of the scam - and that's what it was, as the "agent" has no such formal accreditation!
I think Quackers has in the meantime elaborated on the situation well enough, but to reply to Jim Fraser's question I think naming the bogus agent is irrelevant as they will easily be using a different name if they hit again. the simple message is - "BE ON YOU GUARD"!
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I think it was a bit of 'stupid Agent and a clever buyer' and the seller got caught up in the middle.
I would agree. Customers should never be given property details and directions and sent off alone. In fact, if I had my way, many of them should be electronically tagged on arrival at Dalaman.