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Financial Qualifying?
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Dollyrockerz
Posts: 60 Forumite
Hi there,
I'm new here, my first post, but I find myself in need of advice.
My husband and I are looking for a property at the moment, ours has almost exchanged, I contacted a local estate agent about a property they are selling that has an open day this weekend. They booked us in to see it and then told me that either my husband or I needed to come into the branch prior to the viewing so they can 'financially qualify' us at the vendor's request (hmm)
I have bought 3 houses in my life and have looked at a dozen over the last few months and this is the first time this has happened, she said we couldn't view the property until we had come in to speak to them.
I pressed her further and pointed out that we are going through an IFA and don't have any paperwork and she told me it was just a few questions but I have just had an email from her requesting that we bring 3 months bank statements, passports, payslips etc so now I'm thinking we are being forced to speak to their financial adviser which I DO NOT want to do as our mortgage is already agreed ion principle.
Has anyone else come across this? Are they allowed to refuse to show us a property? It just seems incredibly intrusive and unneccessary adn I'm at a loss as to what to do
I'm new here, my first post, but I find myself in need of advice.
My husband and I are looking for a property at the moment, ours has almost exchanged, I contacted a local estate agent about a property they are selling that has an open day this weekend. They booked us in to see it and then told me that either my husband or I needed to come into the branch prior to the viewing so they can 'financially qualify' us at the vendor's request (hmm)
I have bought 3 houses in my life and have looked at a dozen over the last few months and this is the first time this has happened, she said we couldn't view the property until we had come in to speak to them.
I pressed her further and pointed out that we are going through an IFA and don't have any paperwork and she told me it was just a few questions but I have just had an email from her requesting that we bring 3 months bank statements, passports, payslips etc so now I'm thinking we are being forced to speak to their financial adviser which I DO NOT want to do as our mortgage is already agreed ion principle.
Has anyone else come across this? Are they allowed to refuse to show us a property? It just seems incredibly intrusive and unneccessary adn I'm at a loss as to what to do
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Comments
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Hi,
Read this thread (in particular refer to posts #16 & #17) & this, both of which will help answer your question.0 -
Thank you Malmo, that's really helpful0
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So in the end husband rang the EA and told thenm he didn't want to waste his time speaking with their FA and told them we would be more than happy to go through their 'financial qualifyinmg' process if and when we decidded to make an offer.
They said that we wouldn't be able to view the property which just seems bonkers to me.
Are they allowed to do that?0 -
Either write to the owners (assuming they live in the property) or pop around and knock on the door.
The agent wants to:
1 - get commission from selling you financial products
2 - find out what you can afford so they can get your offer up as high as possible
Or, to be honest, with an open day you could try just turning up... Any open day I have run or attended was on that basis.0 -
Dollyrockerz wrote: »
Are they allowed to do that?
No. Point 9c of the Property Ombudsman's latest code of practice for residential estate agents clearly states the law on such practice. I would quote that to the agent. I would do as rpc suggests and write / speak to the vendor directly about the agent's conduct.0 -
Thank you again for your replies, I am going to make a complaint to the EA's head office and send my husband round to the property with our agreement in principle and get him to explain the situation to the vendor and see if they will let us view.
We did consider just turning up, have to see how brave we are feeling at the weekend!
I'm quite shocked that they can so blatantly bend the rules like this though I suppose when you're dealing with estate agents anything is possible.0 -
Does this estate agent begin with a C?0
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Dollyrockerz wrote: »as our mortgage is already agreed ion principle.0
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Yes, it does Bstoke. I offered them the AIP and they said no, they couldn't accept it.0
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No. Point 9c of the Property Ombudsman's latest code of practice for residential estate agents clearly states the law on such practice.
The agent is perhaps being clever to work around that.
The code requires that they not discriminate about passing on an offer, but OP is not offering. The agent is also not linking it into their services, they are "financially qualifying" buyers as instructed by their client.
Which is all a load of bill-hooks and the so-called "instruction" was quite possibly misrepresented to the seller or buried in small print.
As an aside, I wouldn't even show your AIP unless it is for the offer price. You don't want to tell an agent that you can afford £200k but are only offering £190k.0
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