Seller wants to qualify buyer before looking into offer: which documents am I obliged to provide?

Gingka

Hi everyone,

Thank you for stopping by. I’ve put an offer on a property a few days ago and in the meantime the EA tried to book me in for an appointment with their in-house mortgage adviser “in order to proceed with the next offer stage”.

The EA requested a massive list of documents including payslips, AIP, proof of deposit, tax returns etc without even letting me know if the offer was accepted. I’ve politely requested to put the offer through the vendor anyway as I was not interested in their in-house mortgage adviser consultation.

Now the EA came back to me saying that they spoke to the vendor “who would like me to be qualified before looking into the offer”. I’ve already mentioned having a solicitor in place who can confirm the funds/etc. I’m very reluctant to have this appointment with the in-house mortgage adviser and see that my AIP could stretch a few thousands more.

Where do I legally stand? I appreciate the seller’s point of view however I don’t see how months and months of bank statements and payslips are needed by the EA anyway.

The EA is desperate to reschedule my appointment and look into this. Any suggestions or recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thank you all ever so much for your help, it means a lot!

Bossypants

To be honest, this is one of those situations where your legal position doesn't really matter all that much. The EA is obliged to pass your offer onto the vendor, yes, but they can also inform the vendor of their impression of you when they do, and there is nothing to stop them saying 'this is the offer, however the buyer is showing themselves to be awkward already now, you might want to take that into account when deciding whether the accept'.

It's frustrating, but the real question is do you want the place badly enough to play ball, or are you prepared to call their bluff and tell them you are uncomfortable with their behaviour, knowing it might lead to your offer being turned down?

[Deleted User]

As above. You're legally required to supply nothing if that's what you want.

And they're legally entitled to ask the colour of your underpants if they want.

Aim to meet somewhere in the middle. (I don't mean in the middle of your pants.)

Cheeky_Monkey

You asked the same question yesterday!

What's up - didn't you like the replies you got?

StumpyPumpy

Gingka wrote: »

I’m very reluctant to have this appointment with the in-house mortgage adviser and see that my AIP could stretch a few thousands more.

It's not really a question of legality, it is a question of doing what needs to be done if you want to buy this property.

If it were me I'd agree to see their mortgage advisor then once in a meeting with them I'd state categorically that I have no intention of taking up a mortgage with them and make it totally clear that I was only there because the EA would not process my offer unless I did. If they continued to try and sell a mortgage I would simply sit there, not engaging apart from saying "Not interested" at regular intervals.

If they wanted to see the AIP then I would show them a redacted photocopy (copy original, Tippex out bits you don't want to show on copy, then make copy of the copy) The same would apply for bank statements.

If they wanted more financial guarantees I would hand them my solicitor's business card and tell them to contact them. Finally, once I'd got bored of the hard sell, I'd simply tell them that I have another meeting with I]nearby competitor EA[/I and leave. If the EA remained obstructive I'd type out a really nice letter detailing my offer and push it through the vendor's letter box.

SP

ACG

Do you have your own broker? If so a conversation with them should be enough. You are not legally obliged to provide anything.

It sounds like they are being targeted for mortgage sales or on commission or something. Maybe just put a letter through the vendors door and let them know you have an AIP and would like to get the ball rolling but the estate agents requirements feel intrusive - there is absolutely no need for them to ask for payslips.

However, providing a copy of the AIP does not seem overly cumbersome if that would do the job. I see your side but if a price has been agreed subject to providing paperwork then it is unlikely they would risk the sale for the sake of £100 (2% of £5k) as a rough idea.

newbieFTB

When I was house hunting Halifax provided an immediate AIP that was a soft search only, so no impact on your credit rating. Could you get a Halifax AIP for the exact amount and show them that if you don't want to show them your actual AIP?


NB - double check Halifax is still a soft search as this was back in 2017 I was buying

theartfullodger

Explain fair enough but you require to see documents to effectively qualify seller.

ThePants999

theartfullodger wrote: »

Explain fair enough but you require to see documents to effectively qualify seller.

Better still, you require to see documents to effectively qualify the agent...

eddddy

Gingka wrote: »

Now the EA came back to me saying that they spoke to the vendor “who would like me to be qualified before looking into the offer”.

I think the angle I would take with this is:

"Once the vendor confirms that they accept my offer of £x, subject to verification of mortgage, deposit, etc - I can go through the verification process with your mortgage adviser.

There's no point in going through the verification process, if the vendor isn't going to accept my offer anyway."

Once you have the provisional acceptance, you can decide your next steps and what information you want to provide to the mortgage adviser.

It might be better to do this type of stuff via email - so that there is an electronic paper trail.

shortcrust

I saw my vendor’s EA mortgage guy because I loved the house - the first I’d seen in 18 months that ticked all the boxes - and didn’t want to risk the EA pushing more ‘compliant’ buyers. In the end it was me who the EA pushed as the model buyer and the others who were presented to the vendor as difficult and uncooperative. A good result from my perspective.