Forced to see estate agents financial advisor??

mexico32

Can agents estate force you to visit a financial advisor at their branch? If not, how can I refuse their strong urges to without getting them offside?

I dont want them to know how much i can afford so they can encourage the vendor to refuse my offers, get me to pay more and in turn they make more of a profit.

bryanb

No they can not force you to do anything. They should pass any offer you make to the seller. You can refuse their strong urges by saying "No thank you"

vetfred

You can seek independent financial advise from wherever you want so they can't force you, no.

I would tell them I have an IFA already and know what I can afford and, should they continue to pressure me into using their FA, I'll lose interest in the property altogether.

northern_rose_2

mexico32 wrote: »

Can agents estate force you to visit a financial advisor at their branch? If not, how can I refuse their strong urges to without getting them offside?

I dont want them to know how much i can afford so they can encourage the vendor to refuse my offers, get me to pay more and in turn they make more of a profit.

Most def you can refuse!!

I believe the EA will be on commission for referrals:rolleyes:

The usual line I use is "I am quite happy with the IFA I have used for the past x years" and keep saying NO!

slipp_digby

mexico32 wrote: »

Can agents estate force you to visit a financial advisor at their branch? If not, how can I refuse their strong urges to without getting them offside?

I dont want them to know how much i can afford so they can encourage the vendor to refuse my offers, get me to pay more and in turn they make more of a profit.

I had just this issue when I registered with one agent. I even genuinely did have an IFA who was arranging the mortage but they persisted.

Although its hard, remember that they are probably getting small amounts of commission for refering you to the in house 'whole market' advisor, BUT if they can get you to buy a house they are lookings at a good deal more money. So they wont want to get YOU offside. You are a valuable commodity in a slowing market.

They may be pushy but they are obliged to treat all buyers the same, regardless of whether you are procuring 'other' services like conveyancing or a mortgage from them.

You may wish to point out their obligations under the Ombudsman Scheme if they are a member or the EA Act but otherwise stand firm and eventually they will give up!

tbs624

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]To safeguard the vendor's interests the Estate Agent needs to check a buyer's ability to proceed with a purchase - you do not have to see one of their mortgage advisors though.

If you already have a mortgage offer in principle from somewhere else, you can give them a copy of that, plus they may want to see evidence of what you have available for the deposit.

You sound almost as if you don't trust them.....;)
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A_Nice_Englishman

See the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Code of Practice

Discrimination

6c By law you must not discriminate, or threaten to discriminate, against a prospective buyer of the seller’s property because
that person declines to accept that you will (directly or indirectly) provide services to them. Discrimination includes – but is not limited to – the following:

l Failing to tell the seller of an offer to buy the property.

l Telling the seller of an offer less quickly than other offers you have received.

l Misrepresenting the nature of the offer or that of rival offers.

l Giving details of properties for sale first to those who have indicated they are prepared to let you provide services o them.

l Making it a condition that the person wanting to buy the property must use any other service provided by you or anyone else.