Information requested by EA

Danny_UK

Hello,

We're first time buyers and we've had an offer accepted on a house. The vendors estate agents have just rung me and said that they need copies of our passports, 3 months bank statements and a utility bill.

Is this normal?

Thanks,

Danny

catfish50

Danny_UK wrote: »

Hello,

We're first time buyers and we've had an offer accepted on a house. The vendors estate agents have just rung me and said that they need copies of our passports, 3 months bank statements and a utility bill.

Is this normal?

An estate agent has just commented on this in another thread. See Post #17 in the thread at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/42529956#Comment_42529956

dorset_nurse

Hi I'm new here too

I bought a house a year ago and I didn't have to show anything to the estate agency- only my own solicitor.

I think they are trying to work out how reliable you will be as a buyer, but it sounds rude to me!

I am not sure you have to do this- I'm sure some people on here will be able to help.

Good luck

nickyc_2

In order to comply with Money Laundering regulations of 2007, the estate agent does need to be certain of who they are doing business with but I think it is up to them to determine how they do this. As a seller mine needed photo id and one recent utility bill.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/Money-laundering-summary.pdf

Bigjenny

My sellers estate agent asked for some ID when my offer was accepted and were happy with my Driving Licence.

Also the name of my estate agent as I was buying in a different area.

HTH

DVardysShadow

nickyc wrote: »

In order to comply with Money Laundering regulations of 2007, the estate agent does need to be certain of who they are doing business with but I think it is up to them to determine how they do this. As a seller mine needed photo id and one recent utility bill.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/Money-laundering-summary.pdf

NO!!!! The Estate Agent does NOT have the right to insist.

You are not conducting a significant financial relationship with the agent. You are NOT a customer of the agent - only the seller is a customer of the agent.

As buyer, you only need to provide these details to your solicitor.

Remember the agent only does business with teh seller, not the buyer, so your advice is not really applicable.

martindow

Danny_UK wrote: »

3 months bank statements

This sounds like an attempt to get info on your income so they can attempt to push up any offers you might make.

celyn90

Danny_UK wrote: »

We're first time buyers and we've had an offer accepted on a house. The vendors estate agents have just rung me and said that they need copies of our passports, 3 months bank statements and a utility bill.

We have just been asked for this (FTB, offer accepted last week) - plus proof of our deposit too.

Doozergirl

martindow wrote: »

This sounds like an attempt to get info on your income so they can attempt to push up any offers you might make.

It sounds like an attempt to verify income in order to sell them a mortgage.

Even if I'd won the Euromillions, no one can make me pay more for a house than I want to. People do make estate agents out to be far more manipulative that they really are. Are people really that gullible that they can't make a decision on an offer for themselves?

As for the money laundering, it is accepted Best Practice by the OFT that EAs should verify buyers ID as well as their own vendors. So whilst it isn't necessary, it's probably right.

celyn90

Doozergirl wrote: »

It sounds like an attempt to verify income in order to sell them a mortgage.

Even if I'd won the Euromillions, no one can make me pay more for a house than I want to. People do make estate agents out to be far more manipulative that they really are. Are people really that gullible that they can't make a decision on an offer for themselves?

As for the money laundering, it is accepted Best Practice by the OFT that EAs should verify buyers ID as well as their own vendors. So whilst it isn't necessary, it's probably right.

I agree, I think it's more to do with the mortgage advice service they offer in the branch in our case. We had already provided an AIP, but we did speak to the advisor after the offer was accepted as the EA suggested it, but they had no problem with us turning down the deals that he offered (not a whole of market service and nothing available that gave us the unlimited overpayments which is the main thing we want) but I was happy for him to have a shot at beating our chosen lender - he might have found something better.

I don't mind showing I am procedable and serious about this purchase or looking at the services that they offer. But it's my responsibility to make informed choices at the end of the day; noone will force me to raise my offer or buy something I don't want or need. This a completely cold business transaction as far as I am concerned - I am not in love with the house and if we don't get it, then I will look for something else.

Londonsu

when me and hubby sold our flat and bought a house last year we did not give either EA photo ID because we do NOT have any photo ID as British citizens who has never left the country and who do not drive we have neither a driving license or a passport and in fact there is no legal requirement for us to have ANY form of photo ID whatsoever.

We gave the EA who sold our flat other ID such as address, birth certificate , marriage certificate and we had the paper deeds of the flat we were selling, but as I understood it it was to check that we were the actual owners of the property and had the legal right to sell it.

I mean how does money laundering come into play when you are SELLING a property?

When we made an offer on the house we wanted we were not asked for any ID at all even though we made it clear we were buying with cash (with the proceeds from our flat sale) surely thats when money laundering regs come into force as we were paying a large sum of money.

Our conveyancing Solicitor also needed ID for ML regs but accepted the paper ID we had and presumably diid further checks into our identity as part of his obligations under ML regs.

I would suggest you tell the vendors solicitor to speak to your own solicitor who can verify the source of your funds presumably a mortgage and deposit if your own solicitor thinks the vendors solicitor needs the info then he is the one who should give it to them (thats what you are paying him for to deal with all the paperwork apertaining to the house sale)