1) Is it legal for a company to withhold goods or a service until after the cooling off period has passed – specifically involving contracts signed in the consumer’s own home?

2) is it legal for the company to request the consumer signs a waiver of rights if they want the goods or service immediately?

My specific example is a contract signed in the home with an estate agent who would not advertise the house until after the cooling off period or unless we sign a waiver of our right to a cooling off period.

that’s spot on – its to protect you against ‘pressure selling’. it also means you can cancel your contract without penalty, UNLESS you sign the waiver to allow them to crack on.

its your choice – sign the waiver and he can get advertising, don’t sign and they are bound by law that any costs they incur during the cooling off period are theirs to bear if you exercise your right to cancel.

You want to sign a contract for a service/goods. You want to sign the contract and get the goods before the ‘cooling off period’. The supplier wants to wait for the cooling off period to expire before supplying the goods.

Isnt this what the law was intended for. To protect the buyer from being pressured into signing for something by pushy salesmen. The company has offered you their product/service. It doesn’t sound like they are pushing you into it. So why do you need a cooling off period?

Sounds to me like you want an extended demo before you chose to buy. If so why not ask.

Just read it again, why on earth would you have any issue with them. Me no understand.

My train of thought is that if you’re told you have rights to guard against pressure selling, using a waiver of these rights to get something immediately also contains an element of pressure selling. Does that make sense? I guess I’m thinking along the lines that to sign the waiver is actually akin to signing a different contract.

How long is the cooling-off period ?

Isn’t it usually something like 14-28 days?

Waiver is fine I’m afraid. If you want it immediately they are entitled to be paid (pro-rata) for any work done during the cooling off period.

You can still cancel in the cooling off period, but you won’t get all of your money back, only that which covers the period for which they didn’t do any work.

It’s the down side to wanting them to work immediately.

Are they worried they’ll advertise, introduce buyers and secure a sale within the cooling off period, at which point you exercise your right not to pay up? If the house is that saleable, I suggest you have no need for an estate agent, unless you don’t live near the property.

I don’t see who would need one these days, bar advertising on Rightmove, which can be had for under £100.

I reckon they know your house will sell fast so they don’t want to advertise it until they know you can’t back out as once your house is “out there” you’ll sell it no problem without them. As they operate on a no sale no fee basis they don’t want to lose out on their fee I suppose if you cancel early.

If you want to save money on the sale go with an online estate agent, housenetwork were simply brilliant with us and it cost very little for excellent service WAY BETTER than a normal EA just with no high street shop. There’s a money off code in my link about it here http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/online-estate-agent-housr-network-the-adventure-begins

I suppose a lot of people want to have the safely of an estate agent and they are useful to sort things out for you but the high street ones just seem very expensive for what can be a very shoddy service at times.

From the tone of the last 2 posts I get the feeling you guys think this is in someways a decent way to act.

I read about how corrupt estate agencies are. I read about how car main dealers are the devil, but a business protecting their interests by not working for you unless you pretty much guarantee them payment if they do what they promise sounds like the kind of people worth protecting your business against.

If you are confident of selling it, don’t use the agent. If you want the agent to market it, sign the waiver. Don’t hide behind a set of terms and conditions designed to protect some little old dear at home getting bullied by a grumpy salesman after his quarter target.

I wasn’t suggesting doing the dirty on the estate agent. It does seem odd though that they have they have found themselves a way of getting caught up in legislation aimed at the dodgy driveways and plastic window sellers. Shirley all it takes to avoid this is for them to say: “Pop in to the office on Monday to sign the paperwork, we’ll stay open late for you if it helps.” Job jobbed.

In practice I doubt they could justify the waiver as reasonable practice – in fact doing so contravenes the point of the regulation and appears to be unfair. Ultimately in a dispute someone else would decide (not them) and this outcome seems likely.

If you do wish to exercise your rights – ignore any additional conditions they try and impose – they are in no position to amend the regulations – just ensure you serve your notice on them explicitly stating your right under DSR and you do not acknowledge any 3rd parties right to vary the regulations.

They can say or do as they wish – but in a dispute it’s just a claim they are making to negate your rights – they will have to prove the exception they claim to the act is legit – in an action if they wish it to be enforced (good luck with that!).

Ultimately these things rely on good faith. Personally I would avoid an agent who thinks this is the way forward.

After all what do they actually stand to lose – if there not telling you porkies, why wouldn’t you continue?

good luck!

1) Is it legal for a company to withhold goods or a service until after the cooling off period has passed – specifically involving contracts signed in the consumer’s own home?

Surely the point of the cooling off period is for you to consider if you are doing the right thing. Seems perfectly reasonable for them to withhold doing anything until that period passes and they know that they are going to get paid for any work they do.