Can E/Agents refuse to divulge info?

bubblesmoney

Katykat wrote: »

Thanks folks. Son only wants to pay the asking price, he just has a feeling that it is already cut & dried. It is a house he has wanted for ages, but it seems he's going to lose out.

mention to the EA in writing that you need to contact buyer as u strongly suspect that they are not passing on the details to the vendor. mention u will get vendors / banks details from land registry records and send them a written complaint about the EA not letting u view the property.

i think i will do this too, once i sort out the purchase that i am chasing at the moment. if the EA who fobbed me off for himself or his buddies thinks he pulled a fast one on me, he has got a thing or two coming as i will be writing to the vendor of that property when my purchase comes to fruition. even the neighbours werent there so i couldnt inform them when i went to the house to complain to the vendors. right now i dont have time to waste on that angle now.

hopefully rightmove and other property websites will get their act together to remedy the situation and will give an option on their website where one can request a viewing / make an offer etc and copy goes automatically by email to vendor and EA to eliminate these kind of underhand tactics by some EAs

Incisor

bubblesmoney wrote: »

mention to the EA in writing that you need to contact buyer as u strongly suspect that they are not passing on the details to the vendor. mention u will get vendors / banks details from land registry records and send them a written complaint about the EA not letting u view the property.

Waste of time. You will only P off the agent big time and make such a name for yourself, that the agent will never give you a viewing on anything

i think i will do this too, once i sort out the purchase that i am chasing at the moment. if the EA who fobbed me off for himself or his buddies thinks he pulled a fast one on me, he has got a thing or two coming as i will be writing to the vendor of that property when my purchase comes to fruition. even the neighbours werent there so i couldnt inform them when i went to the house to complain to the vendors. right now i dont have time to waste on that angle now.

hopefully rightmove and other property websites will get their act together to remedy the situation and will give an option on their website where one can request a viewing / make an offer etc and copy goes automatically by email to vendor and EA to eliminate these kind of underhand tactics by some EAs

No, you just need to accept that the EA and the vendor may not actually want your offer and walk away if you can't find a subtle way of getting the message to the vendor. Their loss.

Ulfar

Sign on to land registry and get the lender details from them.

Contact the lender direct, make your offer and see what happens.

This is the route I had to take with the purchase of my first flat which was a repossession.

The estate agent has to pass on offers unless they don't meet the sellers explicit instructions i.e. they have set an amount they don't want offers below.

If you are offering asking price then this obviously isn't the case.

The estate agent won't get their fees and could potentially lose business from the bank.

bubblesmoney

Incisor wrote: »

Waste of time. You will only P off the agent big time and make such a name for yourself, that the agent will never give you a viewing on anything


No, you just need to accept that the EA and the vendor may not actually want your offer and walk away if you can't find a subtle way of getting the message to the vendor. Their loss.

i wonder how they decided it wasnt worth even considering giving aviewing. it was the only time i contacted them, i never viewed any properties thru them before, told them after they queried that am ftb with mortgage in principle and interested in the property and already had viewed properties in the same development and keen on that development etc. next time i call they didnt have my details and back to square 1 theat person wanted my details. third time same thing again and that time i complained that why wasnt i getting any viewings for both properties. that person got back to me in a few minutes that 1st property was off the market (it was on rightmove and agents website for weeks after that) and will follow 2nd property vendor and later no response and that property is still on the market even now. i couldnt be bothered contacting them again after that. i dint make offer on that property, i didnt even get to view it. i liked the house and even before viewing was prepared to offer close to asking price but that was not to be as could not get past the agent at all for even getting a viewing. it becomes suspicious if the same thing happens for 2 houses by the same EA. viewed other houses in the same development via other EAs and mostly buying a place there now for a lot lesser than what i was willing to pay for that other property.

turned out good for me in the end as buying very similar property for 25k less now if things turn out ok in the next week or so. the other EA got back to me that vendor for the house i am presently after who earlier rejected my 135k offer is now willing to consider that if my finances are ok, so will be considering this and meeting their (EAs)mortgage/financial advisor on tuesday as apparently they wont proceed unless their FA tells them i can buy the house, that FA called me and wants me to get payslip etc and was trying to sell me a mortgage, i told him i didnt need his mortgage as already had a staff mortgage without charges from my spouses employer but he said maybe he could beat that, i told him the rate and no fees etc and he shut his gob after that, anyway still need to seem him as thats what the EA says the vendor wants. but still wary as to why they need my paysilips etc, i have a fax from my spouses employer for 128k mortgage on house worth 135k. thats the standard letter the employer gives based on purchase price of house, i am only looking for a 45-60k mortgage and paying it off in 4-5y, the bloody mortgage is a fraction of our annual salary excluding extra time and have to run after some estate agents FA to convince him i can afford house, bloody jerks just doing their best to get anyone to get a mortgage thru them, i wont even use them if they give me a lower rate for the hassles. cant understand their view but thats their problem, its just a house afterall for me and i can still find other houses if this one doesnt come thru.

dander

I believe that when a bank is selling a reposession they are legally bound to try and get the highest price they can - this is by way of protection for the person that has been repossessed - to stop the bank selling off way below market price just to get rid of it and then hounding the original owner for the difference.

Consequently you will usually see adverts in your local paper saying that there have been certain offers on certain properties and asking other potential bidders to get in touch with a higher offer within a certain timescale.

So even if the EA is trying to flog the property cheaply to a friend, then your son would see the offer advertised in the paper and would be able to contact with a better offer. Equally, before his offer is accepted it, too, will have to be advertised.

bubblesmoney

dander wrote: »

I believe that when a bank is selling a reposession they are legally bound to try and get the highest price they can - this is by way of protection for the person that has been repossessed - to stop the bank selling off way below market price just to get rid of it and then hounding the original owner for the difference.

Consequently you will usually see adverts in your local paper saying that there have been certain offers on certain properties and asking other potential bidders to get in touch with a higher offer within a certain timescale.

So even if the EA is trying to flog the property cheaply to a friend, then your son would see the offer advertised in the paper and would be able to contact with a better offer. Equally, before his offer is accepted it, too, will have to be advertised.

do the adverts have to be in a local paper or will any paper in the country do. i dont remember seeing any such adverts till now. also if one decides to make a higher offer then wouldnt one have to contact the same EA and they might tell the bank that the person is a time waster or will take a longtime to proceed etc and deal might fall through etc. so some EAs can and am sure do get away with mischief.

moggylover

bookduck wrote: »

Yes, very true and in some cases the EA will not put his offer forward even if it is better as the EA may have mates put in a bid. It may be illegal to do, but does not stop some of them.

Your son could always contact the Land registry and for a few £, the will tell him who the owner is -2 days though, I'm not sure how fast they are. Neighbours are another source. Council are usually tight lipped, but he may get lucky

Land Registry info is available on line in a matter of moments as long as you have a charge or credit card to pay the £3 to £6.

mealmond

No an Estate Agent does not have to disclose this information nor would the client want that to happen.

There may be two ways around this problem but I would asvise strongly against making direct contact, you will only end up speaking to the people employed by the bank to see it, the agent is only a third party.

In the window of the property there may be a notice that the agent has to diaply, a chattels notice, this may have the company details for the company employed by the bank.

I recently had a similar situation and there was no way, and never before, would the company want a customer contacting them directly, at the end of the day that is what they are paying the agent for, normaly on a reduced fee.

Some information was required, proof of cash, and of course, as an agent, I was stalling for time, for whatever reason, not. The customer would not and did not believe this request for proof of funds was required before the offer would be considered.

In the end, they faxed proof of cash straight to my client after getting permission to release those details, the sale then proceeded.

If it is a repo, there should also be either a public notice or twenty eight day notice in the paper, as an agent I would tell any interested party when that advert was, if requested. I would not do this to cause problems, but because it is my duty to achieve the best price.

I hope you get it sorted, but at the same time I hope the agent does there job.

On a similar note I am finding with repo's as the moment, people are making really low offers, well under value that would never be accepted and then they are shocked when they are refused, I get accused on a regular basis of not putting offers forward, nothing to do with the offer being £30 to £40k less than the asking price, but that's life I suppose.



Martin

poppysarah

The HIPS I've seen have the owner details in. For repos it's the bank /bs.

They have to let you see the HIP although not always give you a copy you can mke notes from it.

bubblesmoney

mealmond wrote: »

No an Estate Agent does not have to disclose this information nor would the client want that to happen.

There may be two ways around this problem but I would asvise strongly against making direct contact, you will only end up speaking to the people employed by the bank to see it, the agent is only a third party.

In the window of the property there may be a notice that the agent has to diaply, a chattels notice, this may have the company details for the company employed by the bank.

I recently had a similar situation and there was no way, and never before, would the company want a customer contacting them directly, at the end of the day that is what they are paying the agent for, normaly on a reduced fee.

Some information was required, proof of cash, and of course, as an agent, I was stalling for time, for whatever reason, not. The customer would not and did not believe this request for proof of funds was required before the offer would be considered.

In the end, they faxed proof of cash straight to my client after getting permission to release those details, the sale then proceeded.

If it is a repo, there should also be either a public notice or twenty eight day notice in the paper, as an agent I would tell any interested party when that advert was, if requested. I would not do this to cause problems, but because it is my duty to achieve the best price.

I hope you get it sorted, but at the same time I hope the agent does there job.

On a similar note I am finding with repo's as the moment, people are making really low offers, well under value that would never be accepted and then they are shocked when they are refused, I get accused on a regular basis of not putting offers forward, nothing to do with the offer being £30 to £40k less than the asking price, but that's life I suppose.



Martin

thanks martin for explaining things from an EAs perspective. i will go show them my mortgage in principle approval, payslips etc but will not give them any copies of any of my financial documents, i would rather lose the house than find myself in a mess later with people inappropriately using my financial documents

i guess i will have to buy the details from the land registry to find who the vendor was for the property i didnt get a viewing on earlier and then inform the vendor. but there might be a hitch if they have already sold to some one the EA knew and then in that case i will only get the details of the present owner. is there a way i can find out who the owner of a property was last month if the property was subsequently sold later. that previous owner might have a claim against the EA for unscrupulous practices.

i fully intend to pursue that end of things and provide a wriiten statement that i wasnt given viewings even after repeated requests to the EA, once i sort out the house purchase i am presently after. i havent got anything to benefit from pursuing that end of things but if someone thinks they can pull a fast one over me and getaway with it, then that EA has a things or two coming when i send my letter to the vendor directly about the cousre of events (if i manage to get their details).

i think it is unethical of EAs to not even give viewings to people for weeks in a row when they dont even know anything about the prospectibe buyer.

anyway i guess it is difficult to get viewings when they are accompanied viewings. sometimes one cant get a viewing even for weeks. and when u get viewings then they get cancelled at short notice because some EAs dont have enough people for accompanied viewings. today even though i was supposed to have 2 accompanied viewings they call me an hour before and inform they cant make it and that only date they can offer is next weekend. no wonder repocessed properties get very low offers. thats precisely because EAs make it so difficult for anyone to view the property even when the prospective buyers try their utmost to view the property and they wont even accept an offer even when one makes it (i made one today as well) but fob u off saying offers can be made only after viewings. if they dont give viewings then that leads to a chicken and egg situation.

anyway i called them back and told them i cant wait till next weekend and will decide on a property this week mostly and that very similar house a few streets away from the house marketted by them, i have received an offer from the vendor via EA and that might accept that mostly on tuesday, but that i am more interested in the house advertised by this EA and am again making an offer even without seeing house but cant proceed on that without seeing house and if possible to let me see house before tuesday and even if i see house offer will be same as for other house and if they are interested to consider my offer (on the back of mortgage approved in principle, with good deposit and only looking for 4-5y mortgage, getting discounted staff mortgage and can proceed on purchase process ASAP etc) then to let me view property, then they got back to me saying i can view on monday but only for one house and not the other as they dont have slots available !!!! (those houses have been on the market for months and months. this will be my 1st viewing via this agent). it would be a lot easier for prospective buyers if the EAs actually tell the prospective buyer to get lost rather than make them dance to even get a viewing forget even getting to the offer stage.

this type of problem particularly affects repocessions and vacant property which have accompanied viewings. and gets a poor deal for the seller and repocessed person who gets chased for the shortfall due to EAs creating hassles for viewings and even refusing to accept offers before viewings. i havent had problems for viewings in occupied properties ever via any agent.

i am alright if my offer is refused but what i am not alright is an EA not allowing any viewings how ever hard u try to accomodate any date for viewing and not even allowing u to make offer without viewing house