Church and Hawes Avis 

This is a review for the South Woodham Ferrers branch

Two Months Lost Due to Poor Sales Progression and Communication

I accepted an offer on my vacant, chain-free property on 19 May after agreeing to a lower price because I was assured it would be a quick sale.

Nearly two months later, I discovered that the buyer had not even paid the monies requested by her solicitor to begin the conveyancing process. I was not informed of this by the estate agent. In fact, I only found out when I visited the branch in person.

The branch manager told me that he had only become aware of the issue the previous week. In my opinion, this makes the situation worse, as it suggests that little or no effective sales progression was taking place during the two months following acceptance of the offer.

Had I been kept properly informed, I would have put the property back on the market much sooner and avoided losing valuable marketing time.

I was also disappointed by the way the property was remarketed. The original marketing date remained unchanged, making it appear that the property had been sitting on the market for a considerable period, and my request to add wording explaining that it was unexpectedly back on the market was not actioned promptly.

Whilst the commission rate was competitive, good communication and proactive sales progression are far more important. Unfortunately, my experience fell well below the standard of service I expected.

As a result, I have lost almost two months on what should have been a straightforward sale of a vacant property.

Church & Hawes team took the stress out of me selling, they kept me up to date with everything & spoke to the solicitors on my behalf, I was so grateful & my move went smoothly.

Neil at the Maldon branch was great to work with. A good communicator during a very long drawn out buying process, he kept us informed and oiled the wheels to keep the process moving. Many thanks Neil!

I'm a chain free buyer and was interested in a property : half cash , half mortgage.
The property I was interested in was listed by Church hawes Burnham office
but they and the sellers kept it secret that another party had put in an offer which was accepted but the estate agent and sellers kept the property on the market due to the accepted offer was in a chain and not gone to sold subject to contract
I viewed , put in a reasonable offer to be immediately told of the other party who by this time had gone sold subject to contract.
the estate agent then immediately stated it's going to higher offer in so now going to best and final.
I went full price and was outbid.
The estate agent then contacted my broker and I stating we can bid again , despite the best and final , which I declined , I'm ok about losing out as not over paying for a property and estate agent valued it at.
The property then about 3 weeks later went back on the market.
I made an enquiry first thing Monday morning at 9.30am .
Church hawes Burnham on crouch , on the same property informed me the same person wanted it again.
I said that's ok they can have it .
I was pushed by church hawes to place an offer 4 times during the phone conversation.
Each time I said no..they can have it.
About 30 mins later I got a voicemail to call their office.
In the afternoon I got a voicemail to call them.
At 3.15 I called them to why 2 voicemails to which got told the person had just pulled out
If just pulled out then why voicemails earlier in morning to call them , just pressure selling and I feel lies, dishonesty (FOMO : fear of missing out )
Seem very suspicious of church hawes tactics by church and hawes especially the manager Nathan.
The property was on the market on 06/06/2025 yet funnily went back on the market on right move at the new date which is not under the removal from right move to rejoin under a new date within a certain time frame.
The property has now been pulled from the market for not selling from being on the market original date of 06/06/2025 ....6 months and guess what no sale because of greedy sellers and estate agents and lack of transparency, trust , dishonesty
Church hawes Burnham are aware as I sent them an email .
I will never deal as a buyer on any property ever from church hawes Burnham branch.
Due to the lies, deceipt, dishonest low level tactics& lack of transparency
And from looking at sites about this branch ...it's not the 1st time either.

I recently purchased a property and Church & Hawes in Danbury were outstanding from start to finish. Their team was extremely professional, consistently friendly, and they genuinely went the extra mile to keep me updated throughout the process. Rob (Robert Blake) was a great help and a pleasure to deal with

I had a disappointing experience with Church & Hawes during the sale of my property. I was advised to proceed with a buyer whose funds were dependent on a matrimonial court order, and I was reassured verbally that these funds were secure and that the chain was sound. Unfortunately, the funds did not arrive in time, the chain collapsed, and I ultimately accepted a £15,000 lower sale price and incurred an additional £2,500 in stamp duty as a result.

I raised a complaint with the Property Ombudsman, but the case was not upheld because they stated there was no written evidence that the funds had been guaranteed — not because the situation did not occur or because the outcome was fair. My financial loss remains real, and the situation was highly stressful and disruptive.

While the Ombudsman closed the case on the basis of insufficient grounds for a compensation order, I remain unhappy with the service I received and would personally not use this agency again.

We we tricked by these estate agents. We turned down a low ball bid from an interested party, partially because it was clear they were in a complex chain. Throughout the engagement we dealt with one estate agent - until one day another one from the same office rang us a few weeks later, explaining the first one was away and he had a great "cash" offer. It was below what we had previously rejected but good enough, so we accepted. We later discovered it was the same bidders! worse - their situation had not changed, its just this estate agent decided that cash meant after they had sold their property!! everyone knows that is rubbish, cash is cash...now! By this time we had as requested taken the house off the market, plus we were closer to when the bidder in theory might actually sell. Of course that did not happen as planned - by this time we were stuck. Eventually we did sell in this short chain, but we lost £18K off the original offer the same bidder made. There is no doubt, this estate agent worked very hard for the buyer, and never stood up for the seller who pays their fees. Just don't trust this estate agent.

After three months on the market with another local estate agent with no real interest, I put my property on with Church & Hawes in Burnham and within a week I had viewings, offers and a sale at full asking.
They were professional and supportive throughout and realistic with what I could expect from the sale.
They then went on to help me find a new property, again guiding me through the entire process.
I really feel the team are honest and caring in their approach to helping their clients move house and move forward with their lives.
I can’t recommend Church & Hawes enough.

Rob was the estate agent for the house we were buying. He went above & beyond to get this transaction over the line.. 5* service & would highly recommend.

About Church & Hawes in Burnham on Crouch! Not very happy at all with this company😡
They do credit checks with HomeLet which they use an old method and not an update system for credit checks. We have a good credit score with Experia, and they let us down with a bad score. Credit score it should be one and the same. I guess that's how they making money! Also we lost our money and the house! Waste of time and money. Why people go to them, when you can save lots of money when you can go direct with the landlord? Avoid this company!!

I have never been treated so badly by a company that is selling me something, let alone a substantial item such as a house. My local agent in Burnham on Crouch was downright rude and slow in communication. I would never deal with this company again or recommend them to anyone

was meant to be viewing a property that i subsequently discovered was opposite a petrol station. i called the agent as a curtesy to let them know that i wouldn't be coming to the viewing, but thought it would be interesting to see whether there was such a thing as an honest realtor (i am sure that there are, i just don't feel like i've met one yet, and i've dealt with a lot of them in a lot of different countries). the conversation went something like this:
me: i just noticed that this property has been on the market since 2019, is there an obvious problem with the property (remember, that i've seen on google street view that it is DIRECTLY OPPOSITE a garage, but this isn't something the agent at any point things might be worth mentioning, despite questions such as "i don't really want to make a 3-hour roundtrip if there is an immediate and obvious reason why this house isn't selling, assuming it isn't because it isn't ridiculously overpriced (apparently it is priced realistically, although i'm not sure what evidence there is to support that). "is the area zoned residential only, or are there businesses in the immediate vicinity, to which there was mention of post offices, pubs, etc., but not the fact that there is a petrol station across the street. multiple probing questions to which "there is a petrol station across the street" would have been an honest response, never happened... avoid this company, or at least this agent, like the plague would be my recommendation of C & H (Church and Hawes), Burnham on Crouch branch.