Do I have to see the financial advisor at every damn estate agents?!

SparksAlive

I'm looking to buy a shared ownership home and have savings set aside for this. I made an offer on somewhere recently and got my mortgage agreement in principle set up, but the house went to someone else. I saw the mortgage consultant at my local Taylors and he was very helpful, no complaints.

I've now seen somewhere else on rightmove with Connells. When I rang them about it, they asked if I'd seen their financial adviser. I said I hadn't seen theirs, but I had already seen one elsewhere and had an agreement ready to go.

They flat out refused to book me an appointment to see the house until I've seen their adviser. Which means I won't get it, because shared ownership goes in a heartbeat round here, literally the same night it gets viewed. I'm not massively attached to the house I saw, but I don't understand why I have to see their financial adviser if I've already had an affordability assessment with one, albeit at a different company?

Am I going to have to see an adviser at every estate agency in town if I want a chance of getting a house? Is this normal, or are they spinning me a line? I work full time and naturally, none of them do evenings, so getting in to see one is a nightmare by itself.

sheff6107

It depends who owns the house and their relationship with the agent.

With shared ownership presumably this is a company.

DigForVictory

Very probably. It's a bore, but they make their money on captive audiences...

Health & strength & luck to you!

marksoton

Connells are notorious for this. Tell them where to go, they're just trying to get more of your hard earned cash.

booksurr

SparksAlive wrote: »

I don't understand why I have to see their financial adviser if I've already had an affordability assessment with one, albeit at a different company?

obviously the in house financial adviser needs customers to sell products to, they work in the estate agent and therefore anyone who comes in the door is a potential customer and by imposing such conditions the EA ensures that their in house adviser gets a chance of picking up your business.

the EA's office may (but not necessarily does) share the commission earned by the adviser with the other EA staff hence it is in all of their interests to have such a condition

less relevant with a shared ownership but there is also the widely held belief that the in house adviser then knows exactly how much you can borrow and so the EA can tell their client (the house vendor) the max you could offer and so when to hold out for more if your actual offer is well below your max

NicNicP

We didn't alrhough they did try to push us to and to use their solicitors. I'd contact the vendor direct saying you're interested in their property but the estate agents won't allow you to view the property and explain why. As a seller of be unhappy of my estate agent did this.

carefullycautious

In our area, the estate agents ask you to speak with their financial advisor as they have to complete the forms to assess whether you meet the conditions for applying for shared ownership.


This may be the case with the area you are applying in.

elsien

But if the OP has already completed the forms with another advisor, couldn't they use those instead of having to see someone new each time?

Korra

I was told for my offer to be taken seriously, I had to meet with the advisor at the EA. I said it will be a waste of the advisors time as I know for fact that I will not be proceeding via them for a mortgage. In the end I had a meeting with them. I didn't give them any information about me apart from what my salary is, deposit amount. My offer was put through by the EA as they were satisfied that I would not have any issues getting funds for my offer. In the end my offer wasn't successful anyway but the time for the advisor was wasted.

eddddy

If the seller has instructed the EA to only allow viewings by people who have been checked out by their financial adviser - that's fair enough.

If not, it's a grey area. The EA could argue that they are 'weeding out' time-wasters who are not eligible for shared ownership, or who have insufficient funds.

But if they are doing it to sell you services, the Property Ombudsman Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents says:

18a Aggressive Behaviour.
Here are some illustrative examples of aggressive behaviour or practices...

Pressurising a potential buyer to use associated services, for example to take out a mortgage through the in-house mortgage advisor or to use a particular firm of solicitors or licensed conveyancers.

Link: https://www.tpos.co.uk/members/codes-guidance

You could try pointing that out to the EA.

But TBH, it may be easier to just play the game and talk to the advisor. If you end up at war with the EA, they're not going to be very helpful towards you.

kingstreet

SparksAlive wrote: »

I saw the mortgage consultant at my local Taylors and he was very helpful, no complaints

Taylors being Countrywide, right?

Probably the biggest exponents of what you are criticising other national chains for doing.

Charge a fee, not whole market, introduce you to expensive and oft-criticised conveyancing service, tied for protection products, tied for insurance products.

Avoid all national estate agent chains for mortgage advice and conveyancing services, they are as bad as each other.