Ryan Woolfenden is a director of Leader Fox Estate Agents in Poole

On 9th February this year he gave Notice to Zoopla to terminate his contract, understanding the notice period to be 30 days.

On 20th March his account manager, with whom the firm has had a very good relationship, contacted Woolfenden and offered the five month free listing offer that the portal introduced in response to the Covid crisis.

An offer of free advertising seemed exceptionally good value so Woolfenden naturally accepted it, and in the process withdrew his Notice.

Later that same day the account manager got back in touch to say that the five month free deal was only available if a new contract was signed.

Not wanting to commit in this way Woolfenden politely declined the offer by email to the account manager and said he would proceed with the original plan – to leave as per the Notice given on 9th Feb.

On 8th April Zoopla Billing sent Leader Fox a statement for listing fees from 1st March and from 1st April.

Woolfenden responded by saying Notice had been given on 9th Feb.

There then followed a very protracted series of emails between him and Zoopla Billing, with them asking several times for copies of the original termination – which were sent but apparently not received – and several more requests for payment.

The correspondence culminated in Zoopla saying that as Woolfenden had withdrawn his original Notice at the time the five month free offer was made, the actual date of Notice was deemed to be 20th March – and some seven weeks later than the 9th February.

They appeared to completely ignore that it was Zoopla who first offered the free deal and then said it required a new contract, which Leader Fox had immediately rejected.

Zoopla also said that whilst the Notice period was 30 days it must also include a complete calendar month. Therefore the actual end date of the contract with Zoopla would be 30th April.

At this point Woolfenden, in a state of some frustration, contacted EYE and we asked Zoopla to explain why they were holding Leader Fox to the contract for far longer than appeared equitable.

In response Zoopla told us:

“This was a simple administrative error on our part which has now been rectified. We’ve apologised to the team at Leader Fox and wish them every success in future.”

Good as their word, Zoopla did indeed get the issue sorted, much to the relief of Ryan Woolfenden who told us:

“My local rep has actually been a pleasure to deal with and the decision I made was purely down to ROI so I was really surprised by Zoopla’s decision to hound me despite me furnishing them with all the relevant correspondence – more than once.

“Perhaps I’m cynical but after being told unequivocally that I must pay, one email from PIE and the issue was resolved. Funny that”