Estate agent's Financial Advisor is demanding more than I expect

Annie1960

james.hope87 wrote: »

Hi all,
We got bullied into using the estate agents in house financial advisor or solicitor or they would not take the house off the market.

The EA Code of Conduct specifically prohibits this. They are not allowed to do this. You can make a complaint to the ombudsman if you wish.

http://www.tpos.co.uk/downloads/TPOE27-1%20Code%20of%20Practice%20for%20Residential%20Estate%20Agents%20(Effective%20from%201%20August%202011).PDF

See para 7.

Now the Financial advisor is asking us to email him with scans of all our recent bank statements, proof we have the deposit money in our account (which we don't yet as it is currently being released from other investments) and to top it off a £2000 deposit before contracts are exchanged to secure the offer.

EAs are not allowed to take deposits (except if it's a new-build). Normally, all money should go through the solicitor. I'm not sure why the FA wants you to give them a deposit. Sounds dodgy, but I don't understand it enough to be sure.



The first few things I can understand for affordability (though I am not really comfortable with someone trawling through my bank statements) do they really need them though?

I can understand that the FA will want all your financial information -it's their job to do this so I wouldn't worry about giving them your bank statements etc. However, I would use an FA I had found myself, not via the EA.

The deposit though seems plain wrong. In my experience when buying you pay the deposit on the house all in one go to the solicitor AFTER the mortgage offer, valuation, survey etc...

What should I do?

Do you have your own independent solicitor, or have you agreed to use one recommended by the EA? I would get my own solicitor and ask them. My understanding is that all deposits etc usually go through the solicitor.

daydreamweaver

james.hope87 wrote: »

I don't think I can name estate agents on this board.
But they are a national one and their Bristol office is on north street in southville.

Ha! That plus some other posts I've read on this forum gives me a good guess at who to avoid. Cheers!

james.hope87

Annie1960 wrote: »

Do you have your own independent solicitor, or have you agreed to use one recommended by the EA? I would get my own solicitor and ask them. My understanding is that all deposits etc usually go through the solicitor.

I did verbally agree to use their solicitor, but I have spoken to the solicitor my family always uses and he informed me that it is not legally binding. I will now be dealing exclusively with my own solicitor.