Estate Agent ID Check Charge

Tiglet2

That seems a hefty charge, considering you will probably also get charged for ID checks by your solicitor.

user1977

p00hsticks said:

user1977 said:

Leaving aside how much the charge ought to be - why isn't it being paid by the EA's client, like all their other fees?

They probably have had to pay a similar or even higher fee  - either overtly or as part of the overall fee - to have their own id's and ownership of the property checked out. 

Why should they then also have to pay for every individual who wants to make an offer on their property - especially as the more realistically they price their property, the more offers they may potentialyl get.  

Following that logic, why don't buyers also have to pay the EA for their time being shown round the property?

(maybe shouldn't give them ideas...)

Jonboy_1984

Make the offer (in writing) conditional on the seller reimbursing the EA unreasonable extra costs upon completion, money laundering checks for accountants are normally a few quid so no idea why an EA would pay so much…

 

propertyrental

Get your solicitor to check your ID (which they'll be doing anyay as part of the conveyancing process, and write to the EA confirming their client's ID.

And confirm affordability at the same time (part of solicitor's money laundering checks.

eddddy

A number of estate agents seem to use a company called Lifetime Legal to do the ID checking - and the buyer has to pay them £60 or so.

But it sounds very much like this might be a 'sneaky' sales strategy. i.e. the legal company phone you - supposedly about the ID checking - but it's really a sales call. They try to sell you conveyancing services, movers insurance, subscriptions to a legal advice service, a will writing service etc.

The estate  agent is happy with that, as they get referral fees if you buy some of those things.


So I guess you could say that you're paying a company £60 in order to help them sell stuff to you.

bobster2

LLM000 said:

Is it common practice/ legal for estate agents to charge you for ID checks when putting an offer in on a property? They said they were not able to check ID's themselves anymore and it had to be done through a separate company who validate IDs at a cost of £60 I think for the 2 people purchasing the property. Has anyone else been made to pay this fee/ is it legal/ is there a way around it?

Ridiculous - the EA is providing a service to, and being paid by, the seller.

This sort of thing should all be part of the service they provide (and charge 1.5%-2% of the sale price for).

If as a seller I was going to be paying thousands to an agent - I wouldn't want them alienating buyers with practices like this.

LLM000

eddddy said:

A number of estate agents seem to use a company called Lifetime Legal to do the ID checking - and the buyer has to pay them £60 or so.

But it sounds very much like this might be a 'sneaky' sales strategy. i.e. the legal company phone you - supposedly about the ID checking - but it's really a sales call. They try to sell you conveyancing services, movers insurance, subscriptions to a legal advice service, a will writing service etc.

The estate  agent is happy with that, as they get referral fees if you buy some of those things.


So I guess you could say that you're paying a company £60 in order to help them sell stuff to you.

Yes it was Lifetime Legal. They instantly tried to sign me up for their services which I declined and said I did not want the free trial either.. 3 months later I got an email saying my trial was about to expire and I should pay to keep subscription which I was shocked at! I emailed back to say I never signed up in the first place and it seems they have taken me off now and can't see any bank charges thank god. Very very sneaky!!

artyboy

Imagine if banks wanted to charge for ID checks before they let you open a current or savings account.

And then charged you every subsequent year to comply with their ongoing ID review requirements. 

And also charged you when they froze your account so that you could pay for their investigation into whatever they were suspicious of...

(or to put it another way, no, of course this isn't reasonable in the slightest!)

fiish

Yup it was Lifetime Legal for me as well. They did push their other services, and I humoured them by asking for a conveyancing quote, it was over £3k for a freehold purchase so I went with someone else.

The homebuyer's insurance that comes with the membership sounds handy though, it's something I probably would have bought anyway.

user1977

fiish said:

The homebuyer's insurance that comes with the membership sounds handy though

It isn't - see previous threads here about how restrictive similar policies are.