EA asking buyer to pay for ID/AML checks

RedRaccoon

GDB2222 said:

There's no doubt the EA can do the job themselves, but there's a cost even then - unless you think people work for nothing! Plus, they have the costs of registering (£600 a year per branch) plus staff training and compliance costs. 

So, I'm not surprised they are out-sourcing the work. 

Of course people don't work for nothing. If the EA was offering to do it and required a fair/modest charge for the service, I'd might be fine with that. 

As others have pointed out £75 is extortionate, simply for someone to call you and ask you to download an app, and the rest is automated.

RedRaccoon

Grizebeck said:

Go and speak to the vendor and explain the situation 
Tell them to take it off the market.
The EA is quite frankly irrelevant and just deal through solicitors as per normal

I wish that was possible, the property was tenanted and is currently vacant, not sure how I'd get in touch with the seller.

MattMattMattUK

Estate agents never seem to help themselves with their reputations, things like this, them trying to force buyers to use their in house mortgage advisors, silly little fees for various things, that is before one gets to the issues with their general honesty. Estate agents have an awful reputation and it is almost always thoroughly deserved. 

eddddy

RedRaccoon said:

Grizebeck said:

Go and speak to the vendor and explain the situation 
Tell them to take it off the market.
The EA is quite frankly irrelevant and just deal through solicitors as per normal

I wish that was possible, the property was tenanted and is currently vacant, not sure how I'd get in touch with the seller.

It depends how hard you want to push this.

I imagine that the Estate Agent has a 'plan B' for buyers who refuse to pay the £75 - but you might have to push very, very hard to make it happen.

As a starting point, you could try writing an email to the estate agent saying something like this:

"Can you confirm that you have explained to the seller that you charge buyers £75 for ID/AML checks, and that the seller has confirmed that they are now rejecting my offer because I am not prepared to pay a £75 fee for this."

Robbo66

RedRaccoon said:

got an email from the EA with this message below:

we have had 2 contact emails from Lifetime Legal declining the ID checks.
 
We do require these to be completed to allow the transaction to go through.
 
Unfortunately, we will continue to market the property unless these are completed.

Agent are required to check your I.D and to also do AML checks, this is a legal requirement. The same check is also done by your solicitor who will also be making a charge for it. You may consider £75 money for old rope but in the scheme of things its a tiny drop against the house price and as you see from their email don't pay don't get to purchase the house.  

RedRaccoon

eddddy said:

RedRaccoon said:

Grizebeck said:

Go and speak to the vendor and explain the situation 
Tell them to take it off the market.
The EA is quite frankly irrelevant and just deal through solicitors as per normal

I wish that was possible, the property was tenanted and is currently vacant, not sure how I'd get in touch with the seller.

It depends how hard you want to push this.

I imagine that the Estate Agent has a 'plan B' for buyers who refuse to pay the £75 - but you might have to push very, very hard to make it happen.

As a starting point, you could try writing an email to the estate agent saying something like this:

"Can you confirm that you have explained to the seller that you charge buyers £75 for ID/AML checks, and that the seller has confirmed that they are now rejecting my offer because I am not prepared to pay a £75 fee for this."

Yeah I imagine this isn't the first time the EA has dealt with someone refusing to pay the fee.

Thanks for your suggestion, my worry about pushing back is that I call their bluff and it backfires, they might go with one of the other offers. Apparently the property had 2 others similar offers, but the seller accepted mine as I'm a cash buyer.

I'm in two minds about this, on one side I want to object to it and refuse, on the other hand don't want to lose this opportunity.
I'm just unhappy about paying the fee as a matter of principle. 

As @Robbo66 said the fee is fractional in the grand scheme of things. I have to consider if its worth possibly losing out on the purchase.
Maybe I should just bite the bullet and pay it, think of it as the cost of doing business with greedy unscrupulous individuals. 

Angepet

We've just bought and simply provided EA with ID and bank statements at no charge. Solicitor did checks via credas for which we were charged. Be better if this was uniform across yhe industry.

chanz4

make sure to cancel their legal cover they push on you!

user1977

GDB2222 said:

There's no doubt the EA can do the job themselves, but there's a cost even then - unless you think people work for nothing! Plus, they have the costs of registering (£600 a year per branch) plus staff training and compliance costs. 

But I’d expect them to be covering all those costs from what they’re charging their clients. Unless the deal was “we charge x% commission, but we don’t talk to your buyers unless they also pay us for our time…”

SadieO

Angepet said:

We've just bought and simply provided EA with ID and bank statements at no charge. Solicitor did checks via credas for which we were charged. Be better if this was uniform across yhe industry.

We bought less than a year ago and it was the same for us. This is the first I've heard of a buyer being charged for anything by the EE. As we were FTBs I read a lot of forums, blogs guides etc about the buying process and I don't recall this coming up as something to include in your to-do list/ budget.