Good riddance

Every cloud has a silver lining: Caught in the crunch - 4000 estate agents could be forced to close.Everyone has their own story about estate agents. (Remember that old joke about Peter Mandelson: Why do people take an instant dislike to PM? Because it saves time. For Peter Mandelson, read estate agents.) If you are bored by them, skip this post.

We bought our house in July last year. I sold my flat privately, and it was the most painless, most efficient, smoothest sale or purchase with which I have ever been involved. The estate agent through which we bought the house, however, was a nightmare to deal with, lying to us about the vendor's intentions, not returning critical calls, etc. We are still waiting for some of the documents to arrive from him! It was only when the purchase looked like collapsing because the estate agent told us the vendor had rejected an entirely reasonable request of ours that we contacted the vendor directly and discovered he was an entirely reasonable man. It was the agent playing dirty.

I've bought four houses in my life. Every estate agent with which I have dealt - all from big, so-called reputable firms - has lied to me. And I mean lied, as in telling me things which he or she knew to be fasle, rather than merely offering me false information by mistake.