Estate Agent Restrictive Practices

ca55ie

Apologies if this was posted earlier. MoneyBox (Radio 4 Wednesday then repeated yesterday) says estate agent behaviour around "you must use our advisor" may be illegal and can be reported to the property ombudsman.
An interesting listen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037dxyw

gazter

Listening now. Curious as to which law would be broken, their claims of illegality seem a bit dubious though.

I am glad reading these forums to be aware of estate agent brokers. Especially the brokers attached to the estate agent of the vendor you are buying from. Essentially playing poker with the rest of the players knowing all your cards and conspiring to get the worst deal for you.

RobertLamb61

I can't undestand why estate agents haven't gone the way of the high street travel agent. what do they actually do these days?

googler

The ombudsman will only take an interest, though, if

The agent is a member of the ombudsman's redress scheme, and
The complainant has exhausted the EA's own complaints procedure.

This behaviour is contrary to both TPOS and NAEA codes of practice, but if anyone finds a specific reference to legislation that covers it ...

gazter

googler wrote: »

The ombudsman will only take an interest, though, if

The agent is a member of the ombudsman's redress scheme, and
The complainant has exhausted the EA's own complaints procedure.

This behaviour is contrary to both TPOS and NAEA codes of practice, but if anyone finds a specific reference to legislation that covers it ...

In sales it's always about the upsell. Hook you in with a competitive price, and then try to sell you a range of products that arent competitive with juicy fat margins.

Same as with places like PCWorld, make close to no money on the main hardware sales, but make huge margins on the little things and the extras like warranty sales.

kingstreet

Estate agents "requesting" buyers see their adviser has been going on as long as I've worked in the industry, 30 years next year and it hasn't stopped despite a number of changes over the years.

I don't see it stopping any time soon.

ValHaller

kingstreet wrote: »

Estate agents "requesting" buyers see their adviser has been going on as long as I've worked in the industry, 30 years next year and it hasn't stopped despite a number of changes over the years.

I don't see it stopping any time soon.

All the more justification for an outright ban on agents selling anything to anyone other than a vendor. Similarly, for letting agents, fees should only be chargeable to the Landlord

ACG

I dont think people mind estate agents upselling.

The issue is that theyre effectively blackmailing buyers. See our broker otherwise we cant pass your offer on/our client is insisting you see our broker etc etc.

gazter

ValHaller wrote: »

All the more justification for an outright ban on agents selling anything to anyone other than a vendor. Similarly, for letting agents, fees should only be chargeable to the Landlord

You need to give a pretty good reason to ban free people from entering freely into contracts. Not even remotely close.

ACG

gazter wrote: »

You need to give a pretty good reason to ban free people from entering freely into contracts. Not even remotely close.

Conflict of interest?
Its the estate agents job to get the best price possible for the property.
So theyre in a position of possibly not acting in the best interest of the buyer as they then know what the buyer can afford to go to and could bump up the price accordingly.

ValHaller

gazter wrote: »

You need to give a pretty good reason to ban free people from entering freely into contracts. Not even remotely close.

You're not even remotely close to spotting the obvious:

ACG wrote: »

Conflict of interest?
Its the estate agents job to get the best price possible for the property.
So theyre in a position of possibly not acting in the best interest of the buyer as they then know what the buyer can afford to go to and could bump up the price accordingly.

Even when it comes from you:

gazter wrote: »

You need to give a pretty good reason to ban free people from entering freely into contracts. Not even remotely close.

Coercion is mentioned here time and time again - "if you use our solicitor, the transaction will run more smoothly and the vendor will look more favourably on your offer" - "our vendor has been disappointed by a buyer whose mortgage fell through and would be reluctant to consider your offer unless you used our broker"