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Estate agent charging buyer for ID check

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  • GDB2222
    GDB2222 Posts: 26,234 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    user1977 said:
    Wasn't there a recent thread on here about something similar? And the answers were varied but a consensus of 'don't pay the EA, it's not their job, their making stuff up for more money, they're not trained to do anything like that, this is a solicitor's job and they're required to do it anyway'.

    But now it's - well it's only a few quid, just pay it.

    Hmmm. 
    Indeed, why not just charge buyers for everything else - £120 for a viewing, etc.

    They're providing a service to the vendor, the vendor should be paying.

    It’s purely a matter of convention who pays. In Germany, it’s the buyers. They know that, of course, and tailor their offers accordingly. 

    At auction, there’s often a buyer’s premium. 

    People are complaining as if it is somehow wicked to charge buyers, whereas it’s simply something that buyers are not used to in this country. 
    No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
  • artyboy
    artyboy Posts: 1,607 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    What next, banks charging you for their KYC checks when you open an account with them?

    Just another example of sharp practice in a poorly regulated industry...
  • eddddy said:

    It's interesting how all this stuff works behind the scenes...

    • An independent EA says that AML checks cost them £4.75 each - and they don't pass that cost onto the buyer.
    • EAs like PurpleBricks, Leaders estate agents and Romans estate agents refer buyers to a company called Lifetime Legal to do the AML checks. Lifetime Legal charge the buyer £60 for the AML check.


    Leaders & Romans are one of the same. Price now with Lifetime legal is now £75. For that you get a complimentary membership of Lifetime Legal. Membership lasts 3 months after which it will continue on a monthly sub of £7.99, although does say they will contact you before the expiry of the initial period to let you know the subscription is about to commence.
  • eddddy
    eddddy Posts: 18,002 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 6 June 2023 at 11:48AM
    showmedemoany said:

    Leaders & Romans are one of the same. Price now with Lifetime legal is now £75. For that you get a complimentary membership of Lifetime Legal. Membership lasts 3 months after which it will continue on a monthly sub of £7.99, although does say they will contact you before the expiry of the initial period to let you know the subscription is about to commence.

    So it gets tackier and tackier.

    Essentially, it seems you're saying that, if you get an offer accepted via that estate agent, you're auto-enrolled into a monthly subscription scheme - which you then have to remember to cancel. (As well as paying an extortionate £75 fee.) 


    (It sounds similar to those dodgy websites where you assume you're buying a single item, but then you find out that you have to sign up for an ongoing monthly subscription - and they hope you'll forget to cancel.)



  • Last week we had an offer accepted on a house; we are cash buyers & the EA told us as soon as we had provided proof of funds the property would be taken off the market. We provided proof of funds that afternoon & a couple of hours later both received an email from a third party company saying "Lets get your property purchase moving"; they wanted us both to create an account and asked for photo ID plus £20 each to cover ID verification.
    We have bought several properties and have never heard of this as usually ID verification is carried out by the Solicitor, inclusive in their conveyancing fee. We phoned the agent who got very defensive and said it was the law they had to carry it out, he also said that all the previous EA's we had used had been breaking the law. We said we would check this out with our Solicitor the following morning as this call was at 6:45 in the evening; within half an hour of that call we received another one from him saying the seller had changed their mind about us and wanted to go with the next offer as they wanted to move faster. We know that those people were not in the same position as us to move forward as that was why we had originally been given preference. (we found out later they had also offered slightly less)
    My friend lives close to the property, didn't know what had happened & was talking to the seller the following day; the seller told her that the EA had phoned her saying we were refusing to pay the fee, therefore he could not continue selling to us if we didn't pay it to him.
    My friend has since spoken to the neighbour & informed her that all we'd said to the EA was that we were going to check with our solicitor that it was a legit transaction; it seems the next offer had been lower than ours so not only has the EA slowed their sale down, he has also lost them money.
    I have rechecked the sales listing on Rightmove and there was no mention of the fee in their disclaimer.
  • Myci85
    Myci85 Posts: 410 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Last week we had an offer accepted on a house; we are cash buyers & the EA told us as soon as we had provided proof of funds the property would be taken off the market. We provided proof of funds that afternoon & a couple of hours later both received an email from a third party company saying "Lets get your property purchase moving"; they wanted us both to create an account and asked for photo ID plus £20 each to cover ID verification.
    We have bought several properties and have never heard of this as usually ID verification is carried out by the Solicitor, inclusive in their conveyancing fee. We phoned the agent who got very defensive and said it was the law they had to carry it out, he also said that all the previous EA's we had used had been breaking the law. We said we would check this out with our Solicitor the following morning as this call was at 6:45 in the evening; within half an hour of that call we received another one from him saying the seller had changed their mind about us and wanted to go with the next offer as they wanted to move faster. We know that those people were not in the same position as us to move forward as that was why we had originally been given preference. (we found out later they had also offered slightly less)
    My friend lives close to the property, didn't know what had happened & was talking to the seller the following day; the seller told her that the EA had phoned her saying we were refusing to pay the fee, therefore he could not continue selling to us if we didn't pay it to him.
    My friend has since spoken to the neighbour & informed her that all we'd said to the EA was that we were going to check with our solicitor that it was a legit transaction; it seems the next offer had been lower than ours so not only has the EA slowed their sale down, he has also lost them money.
    I have rechecked the sales listing on Rightmove and there was no mention of the fee in their disclaimer.
    We came across this recently, but the fee they wanted to charge was £80, and they tried to encourage us to pay it before we'd even heard if our offer was accepted, assuring is that if we didn't end up buying this property, the ID check would remain valid for any property we purchased through them. Again there was no mention of this fee at any point before us putting an offer in. 

    Luckily for us, they rejected the offer (we obviously didn't pay before then) and we didn't want to offer more, but I would now not want to buy through this EA as feel it is very underhand. Yes they do have to check your ID, but every other EA I've dealt with in our area does this themselves for free.
  • GDB2222
    GDB2222 Posts: 26,234 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I was surprised to find out a while ago that estate agents are now required to carry out AML checks on purchasers. So, they are correct that they could not continue with you as buyers unless you were prepared to undergo the checking process. It’s unfortunate that you and the estate agent came away from your telephone conversation with completely different ideas of what was said. 

    Or, maybe they simply formed the view that you were difficult people to deal with?

    I will leave aside the question of who should pay the £20 fee, and I agree with you that it should have been disclosed earlier on in the transaction process. I actually think £20 is pretty reasonable. Allowing for overheads, it only pays for around half an hour of someone’s time.


    No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
  • Kim_13
    Kim_13 Posts: 3,435 Forumite
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    It's reasonable to me that the person needing to check the ID (which is them, as it's them that has the legal obligation placed upon them) pays for it. If the agent/LL pays it, it can be claimed as a business expense and covered also in the fees/rent they charge.

    If you pay it, it's just dead money thrown at a problem that isn't yours to resolve - you know that you are who you say you are and shouldn't do any more than supply the necessary documentation (for which the customer might well already be incurring a cost, depending on what was required.) What's next, having to pay for the banks' Anti Money Laundering checks?
  • user1977
    user1977 Posts: 17,821 Forumite
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    Kim_13 said:

    What's next, having to pay for the banks' Anti Money Laundering checks?
    Or (as I think I have already suggested) buyers having to pay the EA for their time showing them around the property?
  • eddddy
    eddddy Posts: 18,002 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 22 April 2024 at 11:48AM

    We have bought several properties and have never heard of this as usually ID verification is carried out by the Solicitor, inclusive in their conveyancing fee. We phoned the agent who got very defensive and said it was the law they had to carry it out, he also said that all the previous EA's we had used had been breaking the law. 

    The law does now require Estate Agents to do AML checks.

    All estate agents will be (or should be) doing them, but most don't pass on the cost to buyers - because it often annoys buyers for the sake of a few pounds. 

    I've heard estate agents say they pay about £5 for AML checks, and here's a couple of Ads that google served up:





    (To be fair, those are "Prices From" and/or that might be for a very basic service.)


    But the reason many Estate Agents charge a fee is a bit more sinister. It means you pay a fee and then a company will phone you 'pretending' it's to do an AML check - but it's really a sales call, trying to get you to buy the company's other products.



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