More direct mail on the doormat, including another letter from an estate agent wanting to sell my flat for me. Thanks but no thanks. At least the letter, from Chestertons, was polite and friendly, apologising for the direct approach and setting out their stall in a pleasant, low-pressure way.
Much better than those dodgy geezers at Foxtons. A while ago I had a breezy voicemail on my mobile. “Hello Bridget, It’s Simon at Foxtons. Just to let you know we’ve got a couple of buyers very interested in your flat, so give us a call on 0207 …”. Clearly some ghastly mistake. Or identity theft? A prank? And how did they get my number? Help!
I was off work that day, so went into Foxtons to ask for ‘Simon’ and explain that we’d both been victims of a cock-up or worse. I even played back the voicemail to the chap on duty. No mistake; it seems I’d been the recipient of a “proactive sales call”. And they’d kept my number from when I’d been viewing properties years before. Lovely people.
Foxtons have also twice fastened ‘to let’ signs to my railings when they were acting for the owners of another flat upstairs, meaning I had to make lots of reassuring noises to friends and my team. No, I’m not moving. And if I was, I wouldn’t use Foxtons.
I’m not the only one. Class War are now proposing to picket Foxtons on Upper Street for their role in “driving up house prices in our part of town”. [Hat-tip: Johnny Void]
Ah yes, house prices, ever the hot topic at left caucus meetings.
Time to update the old slogans methinks.
What do we want? A maisonette with a bit of garden!
When do we want it? Before the stamp duty threshold changes!
TUC, off your knees, loft conversion now!
1234 – want to get your own front door?
2468 – time to buy some real estate!
Meanwhile it’s the Lib Dems in Islington who are defying the Labour government and building new council housing. Funny old world…
Watcyn Youd said
House prices directly affect the accessibility and availability of housing for everyone, but especially the working class – for them, particularly, the housing squeeze is increasing.
The social housing stock is decreasing whilst waiting lists increase. This inevitably leaves the options down to private rentals or owner occupation. However housing costs impact on rents, private rentals being considerably more expensive than social housing, and clearly purchase price puts most houses well out of reach for many people.
The trouble with Foxtons, and their ilk, is that they artificially inflate prices to increase their commissions. They also expand their operations into traditional working class areas, with their pricing policies, which further restricts housing availability for the working class.
We should all support Class War’s picket at Foxtons, the target is justified.
bridgetfox said
Thank you for your comments. I agree that Foxtons have a reputation for inflating house prices, which is bad news for anyone trying to buy a home.
Is it a sign of the times that Class War is now campaigning to make house-buying affordable for working class people (Mrs Thatcher’s big idea) rather than focusing on getting more socially rented housing?
Watcyn Youd said
I wasn’t answering on behalf of Class War, just my own opinion. As I said the price of houses affect the accessibility and availability of houses particularly to the working class – whether purchased or rented.
I shall be going to the picket purely as a protest against greedy grasping bastards like Foxtons rather than anything else.
Watcyn Youd said
PS As to your comments about Thatcher, that’s not how I remember the divisive shit’s attitude towards the working class.
ana carlo said
am i to take it then that we will see you there?
alltickets said
[spam - deleted by blog owner]
bridgetfox said
I have had to delete the previous comment which was spam advertising another estate agent. This is exactly the kind of intrusive unsolicited marketing that helps give the industry such a bad name.
WeHateFoxtons said
Hi Bridget,
Just a note to say how surprised I am by the amount of traffic our web site gets.
I found you by following the link you placed on our site (which has been shown over 7000 times!!) under the rather strong blog title ‘hate links’.
Until now the site has been left to its own devices; in fact I only set it up to appease a disgruntled friend that insisted he was not alone!
I recently checked it out and it comes up on the front page of Google for Foxton’s searches. Today I have given it a slight work-over (not finished yet) and added forums to allow better discussion and debate.
Perhaps you would care to visit and raise a debate?!
In the meantime I have upgraded your link to a live link rather than a dead url in recognition of your own good manners!
I wish you well and an eternity of peace from wayward estate agents (..and let us say a prayer for all those poor young and naive students they prey on)..
Anonymous said
I think you should both get a room, finally have sex and then get on with your lives like normal people