Pressure from estate agents

penners324

Report these to the Ombudsman 

MaryNB

martindow said:

rdchick said:

Hi guys

This morning we got an offer accepted on a house and everything is really exciting!

However they're putting pressure on us to use their mortgage advisor... Which costs £600 and apparently we 'have to use this advisor to have our offer accepted'. 

Is this right?! 

I am a first time buyer but my partner isn't. We are in touch with a free and recommended advisor and they're progressing quickly with our application so don't even need them... 

How can I tell them we aren't interested?! 

They are asking you to pay £600 in order to see their advisor?!  Even for estate agents this is astonishing.

Connells wanted to charge me £600 but it wasn't just for morgage advice, it was some kind of long term membership fee and I'd get money off the sales fee I'd I used them to sell my house. One of the EAs I dealt with in my local office was very unpleasant to deal with so there's zero chance I'd use them to sell my house. 

canaldumidi

penners324 said:

Report these to the Ombudsman 

Have you got any of this in writing? In an email?

Which ombudsman sceme do they belong to? eg

https://www.tpos.co.uk/codes-of-practice

9d 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. Discrimination.....

rdchick

Just a quick update... So I told them we wouldn't be using the mortgage broker and they said they would 'have to speak to the vendor to see if the offer approval would stand due to 'their stipulation'... Anyway, ID checks are done, we have solicitors, got a decision in principal so we'll hopefully all being well have the house soonish. 

Soon as it's all over I'll be seeing what I can do about the bullyboy tactics! So underhand! Thanks all once again! 

Ath_Wat

rdchick said:

Just a quick update... So I told them we wouldn't be using the mortgage broker and they said they would 'have to speak to the vendor to see if the offer approval would stand due to 'their stipulation'... Anyway, ID checks are done, we have solicitors, got a decision in principal so we'll hopefully all being well have the house soonish. 

Soon as it's all over I'll be seeing what I can do about the bullyboy tactics! So underhand! Thanks all once again! 

Have you told the vendor, seeing as they are a friend of a friend?  If I were the vendor I'd contact the estate agent and ask them exactly what they planned to do about the fact they were lying to potential buyers and endangering my sale.  They have a lot of scope here to report them, or not report them if they waive some or all of their fees and disappear from the transaction completely - the solicitors can handle it all now.

CKhalvashi

martindow said:

rdchick said:

Hi guys

This morning we got an offer accepted on a house and everything is really exciting!

However they're putting pressure on us to use their mortgage advisor... Which costs £600 and apparently we 'have to use this advisor to have our offer accepted'. 

Is this right?! 

I am a first time buyer but my partner isn't. We are in touch with a free and recommended advisor and they're progressing quickly with our application so don't even need them... 

How can I tell them we aren't interested?! 

They are asking you to pay £600 in order to see their advisor?!  Even for estate agents this is astonishing.

Agree.

We used the advisor of the agent we sold through (which was different to the one we bought through) as the agent is owned by a personal friend and they've found us good deals in the past. The cost was £0 as they got a commission from the other side.

£600 to use a broker affiliated with someone making more money from the transaction is just ridiculous.

rdchick

Ath_Wat said:

rdchick said:

Just a quick update... So I told them we wouldn't be using the mortgage broker and they said they would 'have to speak to the vendor to see if the offer approval would stand due to 'their stipulation'... Anyway, ID checks are done, we have solicitors, got a decision in principal so we'll hopefully all being well have the house soonish. 

Soon as it's all over I'll be seeing what I can do about the bullyboy tactics! So underhand! Thanks all once again! 

Have you told the vendor, seeing as they are a friend of a friend?  If I were the vendor I'd contact the estate agent and ask them exactly what they planned to do about the fact they were lying to potential buyers and endangering my sale.  They have a lot of scope here to report them, or not report them if they waive some or all of their fees and disappear from the transaction completely - the solicitors can handle it all now.

We did tell our friend and they told the vendor... I don't know what they've done with the information but I'd be livid!

I'm very glad it's all over with the EA now for us!