who to contact for an Estate agent doing something possibly illegal

Movieman2012

Who would i need to contact if i think an Estate Agent is doing somwthing possibly illegal? long story short my fiancee and i are looking for a house, we want it through co ownership, we saw a morgage advisor, everything fine, saw a house we liked then rung up to make an offer the estate agent wouldnt even hear our offer said " you have to see our mortgage advisor first its policy" " our mortgage advisor says you mightnt get co ownership the house needs work done" now the vendor is related to Reeds Rains somehow, is any of that right/legal, it doesnt sound right, sorry for bad grammar and i guess it wasnt a long story short!! Thank you!!!

cattie

Some agents are like that, try to push you into seeing their mortgage advisor even if you have an AIP in place already.

What they are doing is not what you'd call illegal. As they have mentioned to you, it is their policy so no rules broken here. Also they have let you know they are related to vendor, so thats all above board.

However nobody can push you into seeing 'their' mortgage advisor if you don't want to, but sometimes it's easiest just to go along to see them, especially as house is owned by employee or relative, but stand firm unless they really did manage to come up with a better deal than you already have.

What you have to bear in mind is as employee/relative is involved, they have the right to refuse your offer if they decide they don't want to sell to you, for one reason or another so if you want to try for the house, do what will be in your best interests to try to secure it. If it's jumping through this particular hoop, then consider doing it.

Oh and they are right that you might nto get a Co-ownership offer on a house that needs a lot of work. They are usually very stringent in their requirements.

DVardysShadow

Previous thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3954211

Movieman, why are you starting a new thread? The relevant information and background is on the other thread.

tbs624

cattie wrote: »

Some agents are like that, try to push you into seeing their mortgage advisor even if you have an AIP in place already.

What they are doing is not what you'd call illegal. As they have mentioned to you, it is their policy so no rules broken here.

Hmmm. You may want to read up on the Estate Agents Act 1979 and see this link at the OFT . See in particular the section on avoiding bias.

No EA should be making the passing on of offers from potential buyers subject to being seen by the EA's own mortgage adviser. A potential buyer is fully entitled to seek out their own mortgage advice, although the EA will want confirmation that potential finance will be in place.

If the vendor has instructed the EA not to pass on offers under £xxx or from those who have yet to sell etc then that is fine but it is not on for the EA to be attempting to milk extra commissions via the pushing of mortgages before an offer from any potential buyer will be put to the vendor

My preference is to confirm an offer (subject to survey & contract) in writing to both the EA and direct to the vendor.

Movieman2012

i emailed trading standards like someone mentioned and they didnt have a clue said i emailed the wrong people thats why i started a new thread

BobQ

Movieman2012 wrote: »

i emailed trading standards like someone mentioned and they didnt have a clue said i emailed the wrong people thats why i started a new thread

Advice on here is not guaranteed! Just because you think its wrong is no reason to start a new thread and waste people's time.

Also consider that the hurried way you express yourself gives the impression that you think people should take the trouble to work out what you mean because you cannot be bothered to explain yourself. If this is the way you engaged with trading standards consider they may not have undrstood you either.

If the Estate Agent is in breach of the law or any code of practice OFT has approved they will listen to your complaint and may take action against the firm if they get lots of them. Would this be sufficient for you?

If you want to complain about the specific situation the CAB and Trading Standards are a route if you envisage getting some kind of redress.

But in this case (as suggested on the other thread) you may be better off using the RR complaints process. It was suggested that you write to the firm and complain about the behaviour of the firm including the employee concerned (Did you do this?)

**Juice**

This happened to us last year when we were looking to buy - it was a house we really wanted to see as well - they wouldn't even let us view the property without speaking to their adviser first, even when I said our mortgage adviser was a family friend and that I'd be going with him whatever happened. Luckily, it was also advertised through another local agency (reason for sale was divorce and I think both parties were advertising) so we arranged a viewing through them and subsequently ended up buying the house - once our offer was accepted I made sure that it was removed from the first EA's website and they had their keys took off them.

I felt like ringing up the first lot and saying "remember that house you wouldn't let me see..." not that it would have mattered!

propertyman

The correct response is

" I am telling you we are offering £x ( subject to contract and survey)

I am faxing/emailing our written confirmation of funding

You are required to
1: report this offer and
2: to treat me/us in the same way as any purchaser who has seen your advisor whether we do so or not

under, respectively, the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991 , 2(c) and schedule 3 para 2, and 2(b) and schedule 2 para 1.

Please confirm that you will do so and simultaneously provide me with a copy of that written confirmation of the offer.

If you refuse to do so I demand to speak to a partner or director now. "

And I might add a description perhaps rhyming with a type of cake.

nick100*2007

I know this is an old thread but oh well, I think it's best to jump through the hoops, at the end of the day, you have to make your offer look as attractive as possible to the seller. If the agent can say to them, our adviser has checked through the documents and can confirm that everything is on order compared to - the buyers adviser has emailed through an AIP through but we can't formally qualify. As a seller, which would you rather have?

The agent has a duty to the seller to qualify all offers, the agent would be in the firing line if they let their seller accept an offer and then the sale fell through because 'the buyers couldn't get the mortgage they thought they could'.

The other reason is, some of the bigger agents in particluar Reeds Rains and Your Move can get exclusive products that no one else can offer. It is worth letting their adviser have a look over it and show you if there is a better deal. Always make sure that they do not give you an AIP as this leaves a footpint on your credit file. However, if it is a genuinly better deal, what have you lost?

I understand that it makes independent mortgage brokers very angry when the agents want you to see their adviser. Have you considered that this may be because they know the agents adviser is likely to have a better deal?

To summarise, what have you got to loose by seeing the agents adviser? Nothing.

chris_m

nick100*2007 wrote: »

To summarise, what have you got to loose by seeing the agents adviser? Nothing.

Apart from the fact that you've then shown them your entire hand and they know how much higher than your offer you could go if they push hard enough?

Mozzanov

nick100*2007 wrote: »

To summarise, what have you got to loose by seeing the agents adviser? Nothing.

As chris_m mentioned, but also wasting my time. If someone says no, they should accept that and fulfil their obligation of forwarding on the offer (unless specifically instructed by a vendor to reject offers below x amount).

As for qualifying offers, anyone could pull out, regardless of who they get an AIP/affordability assessment with. When a valuation is done (by the lender), what they are willing to lend might change (and you can't say this is uncommon), the buyer might lose their job, the vendor might change their mind, a survey might reveal something the buyer can't agree to at all, the property might turn out not to be mortgageable, etc. How do you qualify offers with an EA without revealing all your cards? There has to be an element of trust. Yes, you could get a letter from your broker/lender saying "this person can probably get a mortgage" (there are no guarantees until a sale has completed) based upon "affordability assessment/AIP" (not everyone wants to get an AIP due to the time it lasts and footprint - I did last year and was very naive to do so, I imagine it's going to be another 6-12 months until I find the right place around here). Are EAs going to shut up and accept them though? Probably not. There will still be some trying to push their own services with an excuse of trying to qualify the offer or similar.