Will estate agents do all the checks on seller before selling?

fitzykev

Will an estate agent do checks before selling a property on behalf of someone.  If a seller needs to produce a grant of Probate will the estate agent check they are actually entitled to sell the property before going on the market? 

MovingForwards

No. EAs are not legally qualified, nor do they know what's involved with the conveyancing process. It's down to the solicitors to check.

fitzykev

MovingForwards said:

No. EAs are not legally qualified, nor do they know what's involved with the conveyancing process. It's down to the solicitors to check.

Okay so will the solicitor check and inform Estate agent before a house goes on the market?

theartfullodger

Wouldn't trust them further than I could throw one of them.

Artful:74 Bad back

MorningcoffeeIV

fitzykev said:

MovingForwards said:

No. EAs are not legally qualified, nor do they know what's involved with the conveyancing process. It's down to the solicitors to check.

Okay so will the solicitor check and inform Estate agent before a house goes on the market?

No.  

You or your solicitor will satisfy yourself that you are happy to buy the property.

lr1277

theartfullodger said:

Wouldn't trust them further than I could throw one of them.

Artful:74 Bad back

I would imagine you are referring to the estate agent and not the solicitor.

The vendor instructs the solicitor. The vendor can tell anything to the Estate agent, who will then repeat said information  to you.

The only person working for you in this process is your solicitor. Get them to do the work Get your solicitor to get any answers you want, in writing if you require.. Your solicitor should check. And get confirmation from the seller's solicitor that they have the right to sell the property.

user1977

If I remember correctly, the OP is in Northern Ireland, which they may wish to flag up as processes may be different from the other home nations. But I think generally across the UK, estate agents are expected to make some basic checks that their new client appears to be entitled to sell the property. But (given how often properties go on the market prior to probate (or equivalent) having been granted) I don't think that means the vendor must have probate before they start marketing.

JMA74

Estate agents will usually have proof of identity that matches the owner showing on land registry.  If the ownership differs they should ascertain why. Might be that someone got married and they have a marriage certificate on file as well.

After some well publicised cases of fraud, estate agents generally do enough to make sure the person selling the house has the right to do so.

The solicitors will be more thorough obviously 

Tiglet2

JMA74 said:

Estate agents will usually have proof of identity that matches the owner showing on land registry.  If the ownership differs they should ascertain why. Might be that someone got married and they have a marriage certificate on file as well.

After some well publicised cases of fraud, estate agents generally do enough to make sure the person selling the house has the right to do so.

The solicitors will be more thorough obviously 

Although the EAs Code of Conduct states that they should obtain title documents from Land Registry, they rarely do.  So, they can't check the identity matches the owner on Land Registry.  They just assume that the people selling the property are the owners, because it will be the responsibility of the solicitor to do the due diligence.  Of course this isn't discovered until solicitors are instructed following an accepted offer.

JMA74

Tiglet2 said:

JMA74 said:

Estate agents will usually have proof of identity that matches the owner showing on land registry.  If the ownership differs they should ascertain why. Might be that someone got married and they have a marriage certificate on file as well.

After some well publicised cases of fraud, estate agents generally do enough to make sure the person selling the house has the right to do so.

The solicitors will be more thorough obviously 

Although the EAs Code of Conduct states that they should obtain title documents from Land Registry, they rarely do.  So, they can't check the identity matches the owner on Land Registry.  They just assume that the people selling the property are the owners, because it will be the responsibility of the solicitor to do the due diligence.  Of course this isn't discovered until solicitors are instructed following an accepted offer.

Perhaps for a small independent but as someone who worked under the big corporates i can guarantee that they won't have a property for sale if they haven't checked they are allowed to sell it 

Tiglet2

JMA74 said:

Tiglet2 said:

JMA74 said:

Estate agents will usually have proof of identity that matches the owner showing on land registry.  If the ownership differs they should ascertain why. Might be that someone got married and they have a marriage certificate on file as well.

After some well publicised cases of fraud, estate agents generally do enough to make sure the person selling the house has the right to do so.

The solicitors will be more thorough obviously 

Although the EAs Code of Conduct states that they should obtain title documents from Land Registry, they rarely do.  So, they can't check the identity matches the owner on Land Registry.  They just assume that the people selling the property are the owners, because it will be the responsibility of the solicitor to do the due diligence.  Of course this isn't discovered until solicitors are instructed following an accepted offer.

Perhaps for a small independent but as someone who worked under the big corporates i can guarantee that they won't have a property for sale if they haven't checked they are allowed to sell it 

My son bought a property being sold by a man and his wife.  The Estate Agent assumed they were the owners of the property.  They probably did run ID checks, but they did not check the names on the title.  If they had done that, they would have seen that the wife was on the title with her previous partner.  This was a big corporate EA, so I have to conclude that generally EAs do not check that the title matches the ID of their clients.