Application to purchase form, at point of offer?

theawkwardone

Hi,

My husband and I are first-time buyers. We have a decision in principle, and we've just put an offer on a house. The estate agent has asked us to complete an 'application to purchase' form to go with our offer. It asks for details of how much we're borrowing (which we won't exactly know until we have an offer accepted etc), who our solicitors are and their contact details. They also either want us to talk to their financial advisor, or to show them our decision in principle. And we can expect a call from their solicitors who will try to sell us their conveyancing services.

This is all, apparently, something they do for their sellers to assure them we can actually afford what we're offering. I also strongly suspect that they want us to talk to their financial advisors so that we'll use them (which we won't).

But this aside, I'm finding this a bit odd to have to provide all of this information at offer stage, before they have even accepted it.

Has anybody come across this before, is it something I should be worried about?

Thanks for any advice!

quotememiserable

Sounds fairly harmless. Surely you do have a mortgage in principle, so show it. If you have your own solicitor you can just tell theirs no.

marksoton

The conversation goes like this...

" As soon as my offer is accepted i'll give you full details of MY solicitor and MY broker/lender will confirm i have sufficient acceptibility for the purchase. "

Whilst not a conversation ( that requires 2 in dialogue ) it's the way to go.

Be assertive and don't let this kickback chasing idiot bully you.

G_M

Do not tell the agent how much cash (deposit) you have or what amount you can borrow.

They can use this information to help the seller in price negotiations with you (since they will know exactly how much you can afford).

However it is fair for the seller to want to be reassured that you can indeed afford whatever offer you make - they don't want their time wasted by a buyer who later says: "sorry I haven't actually got that much."

Put your offer in writing. It then has to be forwarded to the seller. Tell the agent your solicitor /broker will confirm the funds are available.

The Property Ombudsman requires agents to

9. Offers
9a By law, you must tell sellers as soon as is reasonably possible
about all offers that you receive at any time until contracts
have been exchanged unless the offer is an amount
or type which the seller has specifically instructed you, in
writing, not to pass on. You must confirm each offer in writing
to the seller, and to the buyer who made it, within
2 working days.
9b You must keep a written or electronic contemporaneous
record of all offers you receive including the date and time of
such offers and the seller’s response.
9c By law you cannot make it a condition of passing on offers to
the seller that the buyer must use services offered by you or
another party. You must not discriminate, or threaten to
discriminate, against a buyer because that person declines to
accept that you will (directly or indirectly) provide related
services to them.

10. Financial Evaluation
10a At the time that an offer has been made and is being
considered by the seller, you must take reasonable steps to
find out from the buyer the source and availability of their
funds for buying the property and pass this information to the
seller. Such information will include whether the buyer needs
to sell a property, requires a mortgage, claims to be a cash
buyer (*) or any combination of these. Such relevant
information that is available should be included in the
memorandum of sale having regard to the provisions of the
Data Protection Act 1998.
10b You must put all offers to your seller client even if the buyer
has not been financially qualified at that stage.
10c These reasonable steps must continue after acceptance of the
offer until exchange of contracts and must include regular
monitoring of the buyer’s progress in achieving the funds
required, and reporting such progress to the seller.

theawkwardone

Thanks marksoton and G_M. Really helpful, and confirms what we were thinking! But had no idea about point 10a there. I think we will take your advice.

We have had confirmation in writing that they have submitted our offer - they are just making it sound like we'll have a stronger chance of getting it accepted if we provide this information - and if we don't provide it, it could make the vendors question why we're not. Don't seem to be able to win either way!