Lawsuit against a French real estate agent due to high prices

Estate agents are obliged to give realistic valuations of properties and should be able to justify the prices they recommend. If the valuation from the agent was too high, you can claim a refund. The courts say that agents must be able to justify their price based on the prices of similar properties sold at the time the valuation was given.

A recent case in Normandy provides an extreme example. A married couple approached an agency in 2012 to sell their home and move to a smaller one. The agency estimated that the house would sell for €400,000, and based on this price, the couple listed their home for sale and bought another, smaller one from the same agency for €309,000.

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They took out a bridging loan to make the purchase; however, the house never sold, and they had to extend the loan due to additional costs. Ultimately, the house was sold for only €242,000. The couple sued the agency, accusing it of inflating the price of the first house to sell them the second and profiting from the commission. The agency could not prove that it had researched prices for similar properties, and the lower court awarded compensation of €82,638. The amount was reduced on appeal to €28,500, which represents the commission earned by the agency and the costs of additional interest on the loan.

In another case, the agency was forced to pay €2,000 as compensation for "disappointment" after a house, which they had valued at €450,000 in 2006, was sold for only €260,300 in 2008.