Vendor FAQs
We cover the whole of Plymouth area.
Yes we do. The Market Appraisal will be conducted by one of our *fully qualified Valuers and the appointment will be followed by a letter detailing our valuation of the property and our fee will also be quoted. All Market Appraisals are backed up by comparable evidence to give you the confidence that the valuation is as accurate as possible it can be.
If you require a Market Appraisal for purposes of Probate there will be a charge of £90.00 (including VAT), however if the property should eventually come to the market with Cross Keys Estates, this will be deducted from the final invoice.
*Cross Keys valuers are qualified to at least NFOPP Level 3 Technical Award in Sale of Residential Property.
As we are a local, Independent company we are able to charge fair and sensible fees for the sale of your property. Our standard fee is 1.50% of the agreed sale price plus VAT but we consider each case is different and our Valuers will discuss a fee on the initial Market Appraisal.
We operate a “no sale, no fee” policy should your property not sell after the initial 8 week period. Should you remove the property from the market during the initial 8 week period we do reserve the right to charge an administration fee of £120.00 (including VAT).
Yes, we are part of the following:
- The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA)
- The National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP)
- The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)
- The Property Ombudsman
- Plymouth City Council “Buy with Confidence” Scheme
We use the main property portals, Rightmove, PrimeLocation and Zoopla and also advertise on our own website.
The Company has also invested heavily in the latest, state of the art cloud software that intelligently matches applicants with properties and has a massive range of functionality to assist us in the marketing of your property.
We have Company Facebook and Twitter accounts where we regularly post your property on so that you can share or retweet to your friends and followers.
There is, of course, the old fashioned way too, which is our Property Consultants using their knowledge of buyers and getting on the telephones to inform them that your property has come to the market for sale!
Yes, we ask that you sign a sole agency contract for 8 weeks. You are able to give 2 weeks written notice on expiry of the 8 week period. Should you wish to be released before the end of the 8 week agreement we reserve the right to charge a fee of £120.00 (including VAT) which will cover any administration fees incurred for the marketing of your property.
Our Accounts department will raise an invoice on exchange of contracts which will be sent to your Solicitor acting for you on your sale. The invoice is usually settled by the Solicitor from the completion funds on the day of completion of the sale.
As well as our fees, there will be other fees that you will have to consider when selling or purchasing a property. It is sensible to work out if you can afford to move by getting all of this information together before you put your property on the market. Examples of the fees you may have to pay are; Solicitors fees, Stamp Duty, Survey fees, Removal Company costs and so on.
By law, we have to collect Identification from anyone who places their property on the market for sale. This is in line with Money Laundering Regulations 2007 so please do not get offended when a member of staff requests this from you.
*Yes, we are passionate about doing our utmost to keep money in the local economy so we do our best to always recommend local firms to the Plymouth area to you. If you should require a Solicitor, a Mortgage Broker, a builder or indeed, any kind of firm associated with moving home then we will be more than happy to make a recommendation.
*It should be noted that if we have a referral agreement with a firm of Solicitors we will receive a referral fee should you decide to use their services after our recommendation to them.
An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a guide that would-be buyers or tenants get when they look at a property. It shows how efficiently a home uses energy, the cost of running a home and recommendations of how to improve the energy efficiency of the property.They are needed whenever a property is built, sold or rented.
An EPC must be ordered before any property can be marketed. It contains information about a property’s energy use, typical energy costs and gives recommendations about how to reduce energy use and save money. The EPC gives a property an energy rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient) and is valid for 10 years.
Generally the answer is yes as there are very few restrictions to this. The properties that DO NOT require an EPC include:
- places of worship
- temporary buildings that will be used for less than 2 years
- stand-alone buildings with total useful floor space of less than 50 square metres
- industrial sites, workshops and non-residential agricultural buildings that don’t use a lot of energy
- some buildings that are due to be demolished
- holiday accommodation that’s rented out for less than 4 months a year or is let under a licence to occupy
- listed buildings – you should get advice from your local authority conservation officer if the work would alter the building’s character
- residential buildings intended to be used less than 4 months a year
Yes, for a fee of £78.00 (including VAT) we will visit your property, conduct the EPC and produce a fully compliant report. We have two fully qualified Energy Assessors employed within the Company who are able to produce an EPC whether you are using Cross Keys services to sell or not.
If you should wish to register a complaint against the company or any individual representing the company, you should in the first instance contact:
Craig McMillan Duncan Compliance Director Cross Keys Estate Agents Limited, Cross Keys House, 51-53 Devonport Road, Stoke, Plymouth PL3 4DL
Email: craig@crosskeysestates.net
The in-house complaints procedure is as follows:
- A written complaint will be acknowledged by Cross Keys Estates in writing within 3 working days.
- A formal written outcome of the company investigation will be issued to the complainant within 21 days. This outcome of this investigation will be deemed final.
- If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you are entitled to refer it to The Property Ombudsman. This complaint must be made within 6 months of the date of the agents’ final written response. Our membership number of the scheme is D00723
The contact details for The Property Ombudsman are as follows:
Milford House 43-55 Milford Street Salisbury Wiltshire SP1 2BP
Tel: 01722 333 306
The Agent is a member of TPOS (“The Property Ombudsman Scheme”) and follows the TPOS Code of Practice. The Client agrees that the Agent may give information about the sale of the Client’s property to the Ombudsman, if the Client has registered a complaint and he asks for that information. The Client also agrees that the Agent may give the Client’s contact details to TPOS (if they ask for it) to help them monitor how the Agent is following the Code of Practice.
Yes, absolutely! We encourage all of our clients to take some time to write a review about your experience with us on the All Agents website which is the UK’s largest customer review website for the property industry. The link to do so is below:
