EA refusing to show us properties based on AIP

Lokolo

AdrianC said:

steampowered said:

Whatever you do - don't use the EA's mortgage adviser to get a mortgage.

Why not?

The worst that can happen is you waste half an hour.
The best is you get a better mortgage offer.

Seeing the advisor does not mean you HAVE to use their suggested product.

It's nothing like using the developer's recommended solicitor, where they should be the only person acting on your behalf through the sale but have a fundamental conflict of interest...

To be honest, it is stupid. In my area there are 5 major estate agents. If I had to go and see their mortgage advisor to view a property with each of them, it would add up. Last time I had to go in was when I wanted to put an offer forward. That I can understand, but to view is just ridiculous.
I was also there for an hour, not just half an hour. They wanted scanned copies of everything. So that's over half my day if I went to every estate agent in my area. 

AdrianC

Lokolo said:

To be honest, it is stupid. In my area there are 5 major estate agents. If I had to go and see their mortgage advisor to view a property with each of them, it would add up.

But you wouldn't have to - because you would have a credible, credit-checked AIP. Which is what's lacking in this case.

And, anyway, I'm happy to spend a couple of hours and drink somebody else's tea and eat their biscuits to perhaps get a better mortgage deal. I dunno about you.

boldaslove

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your responses. I don't really mind humouring the EA's Mortgage Advisors with a conversation as we previously had to do similar with another in the area before we could view properties with them (this just turned out to be a quick 2 min verbal confirmation that we had everything in place rather than a full on consultation), but I did worry that it'd disclose exactly how much budget we have available to them. I realise that they can't force you to spend more than you want to but I gather that it's good to try not to disclose too much about your budget to EA's when you're negotiating? 

My concern was that the AIP was rejected on credit check reasons which has never happened before. I too was under the impression that AIPs were a 'soft search' and that a full check wouldn't be done until the mortgage application - am I wrong in thinking this? They initially verbally OK'd the AIP over the phone when I was booking a viewing, then retracted it later via email. It seems inconsistent in comparison to other agents in the area.

We went to L&C as it was endorsed by MSE and we felt very overwhelmed by the mortgage products on offer but that's a good point about checking my bank. We'll do some further research on what else is out there 

boldaslove

AdrianC said:

Lokolo said:

To be honest, it is stupid. In my area there are 5 major estate agents. If I had to go and see their mortgage advisor to view a property with each of them, it would add up.

But you wouldn't have to - because you would have a credible, credit-checked AIP. Which is what's lacking in this case.

And, anyway, I'm happy to spend a couple of hours and drink somebody else's tea and eat their biscuits to perhaps get a better mortgage deal. I dunno about you.

 You can't physically go in to any EA's at the moment around us, so I'd be eating even more of my own biscuits 

Thrugelmir

bob_the_dinosaur said:

AdrianC said:

steampowered said:

Whatever you do - don't use the EA's mortgage adviser to get a mortgage.

Why not?

The worst that can happen is you waste half an hour.
The best is you get a better mortgage offer.

Seeing the advisor does not mean you HAVE to use their suggested product.

It's nothing like using the developer's recommended solicitor, where they should be the only person acting on your behalf through the sale but have a fundamental conflict of interest...

  If their in house advisor knows you would be accepted up to £250k then the agent knows you are not at the top of your budget and can push you to pay more.  They want the referral to the broker and the extra money for the seller.  

Estate Agents make money by a selling property. By bringing two parties together to compromise.  Not by trying to earn themselves an extra £15 of commision on the sale or whatever. Time is very expensive. Once all operating overheads are costed in. 

MovingForwards

@boldaslove not all AIPs are soft checks. Did the broker say which lender they were applying to?
If so, who?
Have you checked your credit reports?
Any late / missed payments, defaults, CCJs etc?
How much deposit do you have?

boldaslove

MovingForwards said:

@boldaslove not all AIPs are soft checks. Did the broker say which lender they were applying to?
If so, who?
Have you checked your credit reports?
Any late / missed payments, defaults, CCJs etc?
How much deposit do you have?

We've enquired with L&C but they couldn't tell us immediately over the phone unfortunately and there's a long queue of callbacks. We've considered going to our banks but I'd like to get a range of options from a broker as we're very new to this and would like some help deciphering the products. All the providers I've looked at only do a soft search until you're ready for a full application.

The issue now is that we've offered on the house in question, the owners have accepted and the EA is refusing to remove the listing and cancel viewings because of the AIP. Is this even legal if the sellers have accepted?

ChloeManoey

boldaslove said:

MovingForwards said:

@boldaslove not all AIPs are soft checks. Did the broker say which lender they were applying to?
If so, who?
Have you checked your credit reports?
Any late / missed payments, defaults, CCJs etc?
How much deposit do you have?

We've enquired with L&C but they couldn't tell us immediately over the phone unfortunately and there's a long queue of callbacks. We've considered going to our banks but I'd like to get a range of options from a broker as we're very new to this and would like some help deciphering the products. All the providers I've looked at only do a soft search until you're ready for a full application.

The issue now is that we've offered on the house in question, the owners have accepted and the EA is refusing to remove the listing and cancel viewings because of the AIP. Is this even legal if the sellers have accepted?

Pretty sure they don't apply to any bank, so that's kind of a pointless question to wait for the answer to. They just multiply your income and whack it on a piece of paper. 

Just do an AIP with a bank of your choice, any bank, and get this sorted. 

boldaslove

ChloeManoey said:

Pretty sure they don't apply to any bank, so that's kind of a pointless question to wait for the answer to. They just multiply your income and whack it on a piece of paper. 

Just do an AIP with a bank of your choice, any bank, and get this sorted. 

From the struggle we're having it seems that way! We have sorted one with a major bank so hopefully they'll be happy with this.

Many thanks again for all of your advice!