What details can a broker share with the housebuilder?

jongrea

Hi there,

Myself and my wife are in the process of putting an offer in on a new build (persimmon). Part of the criteria was to speak to a mortgage broker to check for the criteria for the help to buy scheme and what our lending limits are.

My question is: is the broker allowed to share how much I can borrow with the homebuilder? I think the broker has shared my lending limit with the builder which in my opinion has compromised my bidding process as they are now aware that I can pay more than I offer.

Any help would be great.

ACG

Did you give them permission to discuss it?

Personally I would never give an amount, I would confirm that it was enough for your offer. Its poor on your brokers side if he has gone beyond that but if you gave them permission to then they have not done anything wrong legally.

amnblog

They should only reveal what you gave them permission to reveal.

I would not be not surprised if the builder now knows your lending limit.

This is the risk when you use a broker associated with the selling party.

jongrea

Thanks for the prompt replies.

We did not give permission for them to share any data. Might have a frank discussion with the brokerage firm on Tuesday! Very frustrating.

ethank

Our broker simply told them that we had passed the affordability check and confirmed we were in a proceedable position.

kingstreet

TBH none of our builders ever asks us what our clients could borrow. We are simply confirming they are able to proceed with the figures we have been given.

TBH builders aren't like EAs, needing to know how much you can pay. They have set limits on pricing and incentives and if you tell them all you can pay is £x, if £x is less than what they are allowed to sell for, you're unlucky.

At the moment, there are more buyers than there are homes, so your room for negotiation is limited.