Revised offer after EA gets proof of deposit

fportela · 4 July 2018 at 4:26PM

I've seen a few people asking about an EA's right to ask for personal documents but didn't really find an answer to the situation below.

We put in an offer for a property and the EA came back to us saying before giving as an official (whatever that means) acceptance from the seller they needed to have an AIP and proof of deposit as well as proof of ID. We found this strange and insisted we already had a mortgage advisor so had no interest in talking to another one. They said this was a legal requirement and since they basically suggested our offer was accepted decided to go along (they said all had to be done in person - strange?).

After wasting my time going to the agency and talking to yet another money-leeching mortgage advisor for over an hour he asks me to take a copy of the documents they had requested (statements+ID+AIP+deposit) and that the EA would be in touch soon. We left a bit worried because those documents showed we could afford closer to the asking price than our original offer.

A couple of hours later I get a call from the EA saying the seller cannot accept our offer and suggest a higher value for us to offer. Turns that the value they're now asking is almost exactly (to the penny) what we could afford based on the documents they got from us.

Albeit frustrated with this, we suggested to meet in the middle and we're now waiting to hear back from the EA.

The whole situation seems very suspicious, so we'd like to know if we're just being paranoid or if they're actually breaking any rules by playing us around.

Would appreciate any advice on how to deal with this!

eddddy · 4 July 2018 at 4:57PM

fportela wrote: »

The whole situation seems very suspicious, so we'd like to know if we're just being paranoid or if they're actually breaking any rules by playing us around.

Maybe next time say something like:

"We'll bring the info in, if the seller conditionally accepts our offer subject to satisfactory AIP, proof of deposit, and ID.

Then you can check our documents, and if you're happy, the seller can firmly accept.

But if the seller isn't interested in accepting our offer, there's no real point in bringing the documents in."

If the EA pushes back, I'd submit the offer in writing (email) restating the above.

.... I guess you could also 'pretend' that you would be interested in a full meeting with their mortgage adviser, if/when your offer is accepted. Then they might push your offer a little harder.

steampowered · 4 July 2018 at 5:14PM

The estate agent is undoubtedly being a giant pain but I don't think they are being suspicious.

Remember that the estate agent is purely there to represent the seller - they don't work for you.

To be honest I would be tempted to refuse to change the offer; and express disappointment that the EA was wasted your time if the offer was not going to be accepted.

The alternative is to just put forward a counter-offer and leave it at that.

What you can theoretically afford is neither here nor there, plenty of people do not want to stretch themselves to the maximum.

SeduLOUs · 4 July 2018 at 5:36PM

I had a similar scenario with my purchase last year. A house I was buying had fallen through, so when I put in an offer on the next property I already had a broker and AIP in place that sufficiently covered the offer price. The EA refused to put my offer forward at all until I agreed to have a meeting with their in house broker, because apparently my existing AIP (still in date) wasn't sufficient evidence for them of me being a serious buyer.

I really liked the house, so pandered to it, and spent well over 2 hours in the house being given the sales pitch by their broker, who actually genuinely tried to convince me that her 'deal' was better for me despite her fee being double that of my broker (and hers was payable upfront regardless of whether the purchase succeeded, unlike mine), and the mortgage rate itself being almost 0.5% higher than the agreement in principle I already had. She really intimidated me and even brought in a manager to tell me it was the buyer who insisted that I use the in house services as it would 'speed up the process', and that if I didn't go with them they may not put my offer forward as I would be seen as a time waster.

Thankfully at this point I just held my ground as it was bordering on ridiculous. Fortunately they did back down and put my offer forward. and the house purchase went through easily.

I still cannot believe how disgusting the behaviour of the EA was though, especially as a first time buyer with no experience of how these things are supposed to work.

gozaimasu · 4 July 2018 at 5:47PM

It concerns me that this kind of thing is breaching Data Protection. There is no way that an estate agent really needs to take a copy of these documents, they simply need to have sight of them to see that you can genuinely proceed.

Once you get the house, give them a bad review on allagents.co.uk and of course you won't be using them to sell. They've lost a future customer, what a bunch of idiots.

gozaimasu · 4 July 2018 at 5:49PM

SeduLOUs wrote: »

I really liked the house, so pandered to it, and spent well over 2 hours in the house being given the sales pitch by their broker, who actually genuinely tried to convince me that her 'deal' was better for me despite her fee being double that of my broker (and hers was payable upfront regardless of whether the purchase succeeded, unlike mine), and the mortgage rate itself being almost 0.5% higher than the agreement in principle I already had. She really intimidated me and even brought in a manager to tell me it was the buyer who insisted that I use the in house services as it would 'speed up the process', and that if I didn't go with them they may not put my offer forward as I would be seen as a time waster.

Thankfully at this point I just held my ground as it was bordering on ridiculous. Fortunately they did back down and put my offer forward. and the house purchase went through easily.

That's awful. I hope you gave them a bad review and complained somewhere along the way! In this case, I would have wrote a letter to the seller directly to let them know what was going on and submitted my offer to them directly. Underhand, sneaky people. It's amazing how continuing streams of people continue to instruct these people to sell their houses.

ThePants999 · 4 July 2018 at 5:55PM

I'd never provide statements, or an AIP showing what I could borrow. I'd provide a broker AIP stating that I could get a mortgage adequate for my offer, and I'd tell the estate agent that my solicitor will confirm my deposit. If they refused to pass on my offer after that, I'd threaten to report them to whatever redress scheme they participated in, and I'd also attempt to contact the seller directly to tell them their EA was taking the p*ss.

Yellow78 · 4 July 2018 at 5:56PM

gozaimasu wrote: »

It concerns me that this kind of thing is breaching Data Protection. There is no way that an estate agent really needs to take a copy of these documents, they simply need to have sight of them to see that you can genuinely proceed.

It's funny you say this as with our current house (still going through the process), our EA did the exact same thing - passed us to their broker even though we already had an AIP in place and were finalising it up. GDPR had just come out at the time - a few weeks back now - and I replied asking them to not give my data to anyone without my permission. They backed down fast, and I wasn't contacted again.

sheepy21 · 4 July 2018 at 5:59PM

Don't suppose it was William H Brown (sequence):rotfl:

MysteryMe · 4 July 2018 at 6:03PM

If an EA claim XYZ is a "legal requirement" always ask them what the precise piece of legislation they are referring to is.

Some sales people confuse their own company policy with the law.

Thrugelmir · 4 July 2018 at 6:27PM

fportela wrote: »

The whole situation seems very suspicious, so we'd like to know if we're just being paranoid or if they're actually breaking any rules by playing us around.

EA's role is bring parties together and agree a price. That's all. The amount of additional commision they earn from obtaining a slightly higher price doesn't make messing around worth their time. Remember they don't get paid until the transaction completes either. They'd much prefer to close the deal and spend their time more productively.

You need to weigh up what the property is worth to you. As values are subjective. Not a precise science.

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Revised offer after EA gets proof of deposit

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