Dodgy 'requirements' ?

Lionel_Thinkbag

Managed to sum up the will to start looking for a house again *epic sigh*

Anyway, caught this bit of waffle at the end of a descripton:

**OUR REQUIREMENTS REGARDING THE PURCHASING PROCEDURE**
Your offer to buy this property should be put directly to [REDACTED] Estate Agents who are dealing with all aspects of this sale. As part of our ongoing service to the seller we require you to make an appointment with ourselves prior to contacting a mortgage provider (Building Society/Bank/Solicitors). Should any delay occur, it might result in the property being sold to someone else who has followed our ‘PURCHASING PROCEDURE’. This could result in disappointment and unnecessary legal and survey fees being paid by yourself.

Bolding mine.

Can they say this legally? Because as far as I can tell, even if there is no obligation to take up a mortgage through them, they're going to give you the spanish inquisition regarding your finances, and who the hell is going to let them know about that?

So basically I'd like to know what the position is so I can tell them to go forth and multiply with impunity, or else avoid them altogether.

Thanks.

nubbins

Have your mortgage in place or at least a decision in principle and if they want proof of your position point them to your broker or the DIP. You do not need to see them and any offer you make has to be put forward to the seller. Basically tell them to get stuffed.

G_M

I would refer this to Trading Standards for an opinion.

It is carefully worded: they are not saying you have to see their mortgage adviser, just that if you do not there may be a delay and.........

Lionel_Thinkbag

Thanks for the responses. We're going to make sure we have all that stuff in place before (if) we make an offer. I find it absurd that they would suggest people wait until they have seen their adviser before seeing their own bank/mortgage advisor, as if they would be the only EA a potential buyer would be dealing with.

Anyway, I'll see what they say should we decide to offer, and if they do cause an obstruction I'll get onto Trading Standards. I've very little time for Estate Agents antics these days :rotfl:

katejo

Lionel_Thinkbag wrote: »

Managed to sum up the will to start looking for a house again *epic sigh*

Anyway, caught this bit of waffle at the end of a descripton:



Bolding mine.

Can they say this legally? Because as far as I can tell, even if there is no obligation to take up a mortgage through them, they're going to give you the spanish inquisition regarding your finances, and who the hell is going to let them know about that?

So basically I'd like to know what the position is so I can tell them to go forth and multiply with impunity, or else avoid them altogether.

Thanks.

I would be tempted to walk out on that agent straight away. What do they say to genuine buyers who have already arranged a mortgage before actually seeing this text? If I were selling, I would only want buyers to show proof that they had arranged a mortgage in principle.

eddddy

If you want to make an offer, make it in writing, along with the terms of the offer.

e.g. "I'm offering £x. If my offer is accepted, my solicitor will confirm my financial position. I do not wish to meet your financial advisor at this time."

The EA might protest, but they would be skating on very thin ice legally, if they refused to pass on your offer.

Edit to add:

But the EA might put pressure on the vendor not to accept an offer on those terms.

laidbackgjr

I would check all that agents adverts, if they all say that, then I would avoid, if it's just this advert then it would look like the vendor has specified these requirements and act accordingly.

G_M

If walking away as advised by the posters above,put a note through the door explaining to the owners/vendors what you are doing and why.

they probably have no idea their chosen agents are putting off potential buyers!

rpc

Or you arrange the meeting and just tell the advisor that your mortgage etc is already sorted and proof of affordability can be obtained from your solicitor.

The requirement is to arrange a meeting, not to actually do anything with it.

It depends how much you want the house - walking away from these practices is easy to advise but will probably cost you the house. Agent will spin some tale to the vendor about how you were a chance who couldn't afford it so wanted to dodge their affordability test (which is code for "we won't receive our referral fees so don't think you should sell to this buyer").

DaftyDuck

Drop an offer in writing off, one for the agent, one for the owner, making it clear you have cc'd the owner/agent in on respective copies.

Lionel_Thinkbag

laidbackgjr wrote: »

I would check all that agents adverts, if they all say that, then I would avoid, if it's just this advert then it would look like the vendor has specified these requirements and act accordingly.

I've checked and this seems standard across all their listings.

G_M wrote: »

If walking away as advised by the posters above,put a note through the door explaining to the owners/vendors what you are doing and why.

they probably have no idea their chosen agents are putting off potential buyers!

This occured to me too.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I think its pretty sad that we have to worry about all this stuff when buying a house. I'm a born worrier, so I question everything but so many people must get brow beaten into deals they didn't really want becuase of EA's like this. They should teach 'how to deal with EA's' in school :rotfl: