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

princeofpounds

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.

No it's not. You gained no pecuniary advantage through deception. Don't worry.

cheesechives

Having since noticing the Countryside/HSBC thread, and for the benefit of those FTBs from Cambridge who come doing a search on these threads at a later date, the Cambridge estate agent asking to screen our finances for any possible cash purchase offer we might make was Abbotts Countrywide. I'm sure this will be of no surprise to many of you. They don't appear to be doing well for the sort of property we are after anyway, so we'll be steering clear of them now.

steevo_h

The other thing you could do is knock on the sellers door, tell them you are trying to make an offer but the EA is refusing to pass it on without access to your banking details which you quite rightly, consider private. If I was selling and my EA was refusing offers I would waste no time in giving them the boot, especially as you were prepared to have a solicitor verify you have adequate funds. No surprise at all that the EA in question was part of Countrywide.

davilown

When I offered, the EA asked me when I was going to instruct my solicitor. I said the next afternoon, once I had seen the bank and had the funds approved. They were happy with that - I duly took a Mortgage approval cert into the EA the following week, the same day they received a letter from my solicitor. I, for the first time, actually liked the EA. More than can be said for other firms in the Havant area who were actively telling me to offer stamp duty plus cash on the side after trying to make me see their mortgage advisors!

Funnily enough, the house we wanted was on zoopla a few months later for stamp duty price - we know that cash was paid on the side, but what can you do when the seller was in the police!

Taiko

davilown wrote: »

When I offered, the EA asked me when I was going to instruct my solicitor. I said the next afternoon, once I had seen the bank and had the funds approved. They were happy with that - I duly took a Mortgage approval cert into the EA the following week, the same day they received a letter from my solicitor. I, for the first time, actually liked the EA. More than can be said for other firms in the Havant area who were actively telling me to offer stamp duty plus cash on the side after trying to make me see their mortgage advisors!

Funnily enough, the house we wanted was on zoopla a few months later for stamp duty price - we know that cash was paid on the side, but what can you do when the seller was in the police!

Out of interest, which EA was this in Havant? Purchased there myself a few months back, and again had a good experience with the EA doing the selling.

davilown

Taiko wrote: »

Out of interest, which EA was this in Havant? Purchased there myself a few months back, and again had a good experience with the EA doing the selling.

Pearsons - Very good and would use them to sell if I needed to.

Taiko

At, see I had a different experience with them. Was originally purchasing back in May, offer accepted, then a mystery cash buyer appeared. Did up a bit slightly, but kept being pushed, so walked away. 5 months down the line, property was still on the market.