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Online estate agent Hatched has revamped its pricing structure to include VAT. It now shows charges from £540 including VAT.

Director Adam Day said he thought the inclusion of VAT in quoted fees is an industry first. He said he has come across no other agency doing it.

He said: It has always been one of the things that I detest in estate agency: 1.5% plus VAT!


It's not 1.5% plus VAT, it's really 1.8%. It makes a huge difference to the customer, somewhere between £600-£700 difference on the average sale perhaps.

Why on earth do the agents feel the need to hide the true cost to the customer It's not a business to business transaction where the customer can claim the VAT back.

Those same customers don't go into Tesco, or buy a car, and the shop/dealer says Oh, hang on a minute, we now have to add 20% VAT on top of that ticket price'!

Until now, though, because all the other agents added VAT to their 1.5% or whatever fee, it was always a little bit of a scary leap to take as we would have been the first and the ones taking the risk.

Similarly, all the other online agents have charges of £395 plus VAT, which really means that the customer is paying nearer to £500 than £400.

The new pricing model and website reflects our approach as estate agents - 100% transparency.

There's no valid reason why VAT should be excluded from estate agent fees. It's still a cost to our clients and should therefore be included in the price.

Hatched was founded in 2005. Earlier this summer, the Advertising Standards Authority refused to uphold a complaint against it, ruling that its claim to offer a complete estate agency service at a fraction of the cost was accurate.

As from last week, when Hatched revamped its website, it has started quoting all-inclusive fees.

It offers three pricing models - 0% upfront with a 0.6% completion fee (with a minimum of £1,200 charged); £150 upfront with a completion fee of 0.3% (minimum of £600); and £270 upfront with a completion fee of £270.

Hatched raised its fees back in April: its cheapest deal before that was £199 plus VAT upfront, or £240 in total, and the same amount again on completion - but continued to quote the fee plus VAT separately.

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