Agent accuses Rightmove of hiking fees while the property market suffers
Regal Park Group's James Trigg tells The Neg his portal fee has been raised while the market grapples with economic turbulence.
An independent estate agent has accused Rightmove of hiking fees at a bad time as the housing market suffers from economic turbulence.
James Trigg, Managing Director of Regal Park Group in Peterborough (pictured), told The Neg he was “frustrated” with the increases.
“I have received an email today with Rightmove increasing prices again from 1st June.
After all what’s going on in the news with them being taken to court, it just seems poor timing.”
“After all what’s going on in the news with them being taken to court, it just seems poor timing,” he says.
“Frustrating especially as the housing market is not as buoyant as we’d like for this time of year.”
Sterling efforts
A claim against Rightmove was filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal recently, with a damages figure of £1.5billion. The action is being brought by Jeremy Newman, a former panel member of the Competition and Markets Authority.
Meanwhile, Trevor Abrahmsohn, Managing Director at Glentree Estates, threw his support behind the class action challenge to Rightmove.
In a message to Newman, he says: “I have read in the press about your sterling efforts on behalf of a group of estate agents trying to secure justice against the monopolistic actions of Rightmove.”
Bloody expensive
Last week, estate agent star of The Apprentice TV show Kieran McCartney slammed Rightmove as “bloody expensive”, and called on fellow agents to boycott the portal.
McCartney, who hit the headlines for the way he left the hit programme, told The Neg in an exclusive interview that agents “need to be strong” and stand up to Rightmove.
RIghtmove has always increased fees every year. year on year regardless of your circumstances, without any regard for their clients whatsoever.They will refuse to engage with you to negotiate – it is a disgusting authoritarian business who has no interest in whether their clients survive or not and certainly do not provide any customer service to those who pay them.