Buying a house - Commitment fee to estate agent??

jeffwjz

Hi,

My wife and I are buying a new property and we have made an offer already. However the estate agent requests us to pay a commitment fee once the offer is formally accepted, the email is as follows:

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Dear XXX,

Following our conversation this afternoon, could you kindly provide the below documentation at your earliest convenience to support your revised offer:

Buyer ID
Mortgage promise or broker details
Proof of deposit funds (a screen grab is sufficent at this stage)
Chain details (estate agents & link to the proeprty online), if you are selling a property in order to acquire this one
Any conditions of purchase (these must be specified now)
We suggest solicitors from our Group panel at this stage
Once your offer is formally accepted we will advise. The next step will be to mark it ‘sold stc’ and we will require a commitment fee of £2,000.00 to show your intent in completing the purchase.

The commitment fee will be payable back in the event your purchase does not complete through no fault of your own. However, should you withdraw from the sale once your offer is formally accepted for whatever reason this will be non – refundable and applied against our costs. We do not accept lender reports, home buyer surverys or other such reports as a means to renegotiate on the agreed price.

We will be providing you with suitably qualified solicitors from our company panel. On this occasion we have selected XXXXX due to relevant experience and location.

We will aim for your purchase to complete within 6 – 8 weeks subject to all advisors being instructed early.

Upon completion the commitment fee will be transferred to your personal bank account.

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We have purchased two houses already and made a number of offers in the past, we have never encountered such situation that the agent requires a fee for buyer's commitment. To me, it's more like a guarantee for them so that the buyers won't back out. But I'm not sure if this is even legit.

Can anyone give some advice on this? Or has anyone encountered similar situations?

Thanks.

Albala

Is this a serious suggestion? It's unbelievable. I wouldn't touch an arrangement like that with a barge-pole. Under no circumstances, for a start, would I use any solicitor that had links to the estate agent I was buying from, let alone one the seller's agent 'selected', and as for the 'commitment fee', that's taking the whatsit big time. Suppose a survey revealed the house had galloping dry rot? They have the brass neck to say "We do not accept lender reports, home buyer surverys (sic) or other such reports as a means to renegotiate on the agreed price." How dare they even suggest they will be 'selecting' your solicitor? You will be paying any solicitor, you need to be sure they are working for you, and for you alone.
I think the very suggestion of this arrangement is a piece of truly monumental cheek that would make me run a mile from any property they were selling.
I'm astonished by the whole thing.

davidmcn

It's been posted about here before (or something very similar). Just tell them that's fine, as long as you get a £2,000 payment from the vendor as a sign of their commitment...

Seriously though, it's just the estate agent trying to pocket some more cash out of the process, so treat it accordingly. Not normal.

ratechaser

They can ask what they want. You in turn can refer them to Arkell v Pressdram. I know what I'd be doing. And feel free to ask the vendor directly if they know what their EA is up to - i.e. driving potential buyers away.

The solicitor comment is priceless.

ACG

£2000 to the estate agents for their costs??? Thats the vendors responsibility to pay their costs. They also do not accept survey reports as a reason to negotiate? !!!!!!!!! What happens if there is subsidence and it is picked up in the reports?

Also they have assumed you are using their solicitors???

Please can you name and shame these cowboys so nobody else puts their house up for sale with them.

I would also speak to the vendors directly and see if they know how their agent is behaving.

Lastly, I would put a complaint in to them, once they reject it take it to the property ombudsman.

pinkteapot

Absolutely not normal, and I would never agree to this! The whole point of a survey and the conveyancing process is to check that they house is worth what you’ve offered.

Tell us which agent this is, so others on here don’t waste time viewing houses through them.

Yellow_mango

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:




no.

ACG

Not to be pedantic as my typing is not the best but presumably this is a copy and paste jobby they use for all buyers?

Proof of deposit funds (a screen grab is sufficent at this stage)
Chain details (estate agents & link to the proeprty online),

SpiderLegs

Absolutely hilarious

jeffwjz

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your kind replies. Indeed I found their terms a bit dodgy and that's why I wanted to put it up for discussion.

The estate agent is LoveYourPostcode based in Birmingham. We really liked the house but it is a shame that we feel uncomfortable with the odd terms.

casper_g

What a stupid idea. You have no contractual relationship with your seller's estate agent. They act for the seller. So why the hell would you give them £2000? Even if all goes well and you buy the property, they're asking you to tie up thousands of pounds (to be returned after completion) at exactly the time when you need all your money for the house deposit and all the other expenses of house buying. Ridiculous!

I would be tempted to tell the vendors that I would no longer communicate through the estate agent, and let them know why.