EA wants to see bank a/c & balance details prior to offer being made (cash purchase)

cheesechives

Hi,

I have talked to an EA today regarding our search for a property. I mentioned that any possible purchase would be a cash purchase, and the agent stated that the 'procedure' in place was to schedule me in for a interview with their dep. manager who screened people by checking bank account details etc. to check there was available money for an offer.

I stated that I would make an offer and my solicitor could certify that there were funds to cover the offer & go through the exchange/completion process, but I was not happy to supply full bank account details and balance to the EA prior to an offer's acceptance as I felt it unfair and gave them an unfair advantage in our negotiations for any property we might be interested in. He moved the conversation away from this topic, but I get the (strong) feeling - from the way he repeated that this was their 'procedure' - that this will come back again.

My initial thought is if they insist we give over such account and balance details, then I walk.

We have previously made an offer through another agent without such a 'procedure', but maybe it is more common than I think - is this something others have encountered, is it common, and how do/did other buyers deal with it & what happened next?

Oh, and if it isn't obvious, I'm a FTB.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Tell him to jog on.

It's not unreasonable for an EA or vendor to ask for some confirmation of ability to pay, such as a solicitors letter stating he has seen proof of finance or a mortgage AIP, particularly if the offer progresses to the stage of taking the house off the market.

But you should not show an EA your bank balance.

That's just daft.

dkmax_2

cheesechives wrote: »

My initial thought is if they insist we give over such account and balance details, then I walk. .

You make an offer and the vendor says "yes" or "no" within a reasonable time-frame - any other conditions are just nonsense.

steve1980

The agent can ask you for the information but you are under no obligation to provide it. Tell them that if the offer is accepted then you will instruct your solicitor to confirm that funds are in place SUBJECT TO A SATISFACTORY SURVEY

cheesechives

Thanks for that - I thought I had it right, but even better is the idea of confirming funds are in place subject to a satisfactory survey as steve1980 suggests.

C_Mababejive

Tell him to FOAD. He is just trying to poke his nose in your business in order to lash you in to some possible morgage advise and to push some products. Your solicitor can certify in writing that you have sufficient funds. In my view, Many EA's are untrustworthy parasites who think themselves some kind of professionals when in fact they are Fagins in smart cars.

roger196

EA's have as much right to see your bank account as yoou have to see their firm's bank statements and financial accounts.
If they want a letter from your solicitor confirming funds, make sure that they pay for this upfront.

franklee

You're not going to have tens of thousands sitting in a current account anyway! My deposit is scattered over several accounts so it'd be quite a job to sift them all, something I plan to show my solicitor only when the time to buy comes

squeeks

roger196 wrote: »

EA's have as much right to see your bank account as yoou have to see their firm's bank statements and financial accounts.
If they want a letter from your solicitor confirming funds, make sure that they pay for this upfront.

A little different for a company than an individual - a limited company you can see their finances and some sites provide pretty graphs for you:
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/02122174

But yes they have no right to look at your bank accounts directly.

lellow_lorry

Only reason I can see if they know what your funds are is if they're the agent for the house they then know what you can afford , what's available....not in your favour if you make a cash offer of 200k for a house when they know you got 220k for example. They will twist it and try to squeeze every penny out of you.

Gromitt

The last house I bought had an estate agent like this - they refused point blank to put the house under 'Sale Agreed' until I proved my funding. Considering my funding was over several different banks, it would have proved quite tricky (but possible, given 24 hours notice). They stated a printout from internet banking was acceptable and we liked the house, so I printed out one account, blurred out the sort code and account number, and manually edited the balance before PDFing and emailing them the result (No transactions showing - just the overview page). They accepted.

I don't know whether or not the above would be classified as fraud, but for an estate agent that probably just wants to file it I didn't think much about it. Definitely wouldn't do it for a solicitor though.

I don't know if anyone else has done something similar to bypass stupid 'procedures' by EAs.