THEY may typically be known as the silver-tongued salesmen willing to turn on any amount of charm to secure a sale.

But in a rare candid moment, one West Hampstead estate agent left the niceties aside and told a buyer exactly what he thought.

West End Estates director Steven Morris saw red when his client Jason Korsner emailed to complain about the firm’s handling of a property they had just sold him and accused Mr Korsner of treating the agency’s staff like his “whipping boys”.

In an email, he said: “I have to say we regret you purchasing this property as well, as nearly all of our clients are happy with our services and it’s not nice to hear your comments, which quite frankly only seem consistent with the way that you have conducted yourself throughout this transaction. Many times [the company’s agent] Darren was frustrated after speaking to you as your arrogance and attitude is laughable.

“I only spoke to you once in Darren’s absence and found you to be pretty obnoxious.”

The rant came after Mr Korsner emailed to complain about the company not removing a storage heater and providing him with a full set of keys.

He said he was so gobsmacked by the reply he thought it was a hoax. “If it hadn’t been so offensive and shocking, I would have found it hilarious,” he said. “My initial reaction was that it had been sent as a joke or someone had hacked into the agent’s computer.

“It is the kind of letter someone might write after one too many beers, to get out their frustration, but you wouldn’t press send.”

The 38-year-old journalist admitted that he had become increasingly impatient with their agent over delays in receiving information about the studio flat he was buying in Belsize Grove.

He said: “I’m not pretending that I was an angel. We had some heated discussions because I felt they were withholding information from me. Things went very slowly and it took four and half months to exchange in the end.”

But Mr Morris told a different story, saying that Mr Korsner had been “vile” all the way through his negotiations with West End Estates.

He said that things came to a head when Mr Korsner sent an “anger-filled” email making a string of “unsubstantiated” criticisms and questioning the honesty of estate agents.

“I’ve been in business 20 years and we’ve never had a complaint about us,” said Mr Morris. “He gave us a really hard time and we’d had enough of this guy and my client can vouch for that. I only spoke to this guy once and he was foul to me.

“Those were the keys we were given, I can’t just conjure up keys. As for removing the storage heater – we don’t remove things, we sell property. “Maybe my email was a bit strong, but I’m in my right to call him obnoxious. Obnoxious is a word in the dictionary and he was obnoxious.”