Estate agent - is this shady?

[amijustbeingsuspicious]

An estate agent wanting to sell our property quoted us 160£ + VAT for the EPC. Spoke to another estate agent who says it’s 90.

is there an actual reason for the discrepancy, or are the estate agents looking to make some money off the top? If so, is this standard practice? Feels a bit cheeky

Go for the cheapest. Epc is one of those pointless box ticking exercises you have to go through when selling. I swear half the time they don't even visit the house and just make it up.

EA is trying to rip you off.

You don't have to go through the EA I don't think.

Would you explain to the EA that this is the reason you don’t want them to sell your property, or not bother?

I wouldn't tell them anything. Or just say you're getting it done elsewhere as it too expensive.

A quick Google says it should be between £35 and £120 including vat. Depending on the size of your house.

But I don’t want to use them now because it feels a little underhanded that they are charging so much more! But then I don’t know if many agents do this to make extra money

I wouldn't say it's "shady", especially as the cost was disclosed at the outset. They're not obligated to offer a service for the same price as another agent.

I see that but I think it’s a bit crazy the price discrepancy between two agents for a standard issue thing

Mine was £80 with vat

Are they outsourcing to the same company and both charging a different amount?

Or using different companies in which case both could be over charging but just by different amounts 🤷‍♀️

but yes very common that it costs more to use anyone recommended by the ea for any part of the process

It’s a good question. I don’t know if it’s the same company - when I told the second agent who quoted me 90 (and bizarrely this I was a “fancier agent” with a lower quote), he was quite horrified and said the other agent would be taking the remainder for themselves.

but I don’t know if that’s just a competitor comment.

Why not ask them why the discrepancy, there might be a reason or a mistake then decide

I don’t think it’s shady, of course they will take a cut if they go through the trouble of arranging it. Unless they told you that they offer this service for free and you just pay their supplier, it’s their right to charge for the service they offer. As much as it’s your right to compare quotes and go with the cheapest one.

Organise it yourself.

https://www.gov.uk/get-new-energy-certificate

But why would one agent charge a fee for this and not another? It doesn’t seem competitive. They also wanted us to pay upfront for photos which isn’t the market norm

It's not "shady" as such. You will need an energy report and they have given you their price to get one carried out. It's up to you who you use to get it done. Some people will shop round to get a better price, others will decide to go for it as it's less hassle.

Our car went in for a service to the main dealer. One of the things that needed doing was not urgent. They quoted a cost, but we said no thanks as we knew our local garage could sort that cheaper. Doesn't mean the main dealer was shady.

@amijustbeingsuspicious because one agent thinks they're worth it and not the other.

Just go with the cheaper EA. Or if you’d like to use the most expensive agent, you could always try to negotiate price down and say you’ll go with them if they price match.

….this doesn’t rankle with me as much as the surveyor who came twice to our house ( first sale fell through) and as he’d already surveyed the property, sat in his car out side the house and then presumably intended to charge the same surveyor cost again to the second buyers.

The Energy certificate is valid for 10 years since it was last done, so if you moved into the property you are now selling, less that 10 years ago, you won’t need a new one in order to sell. My estate agent who I last sold through, wasn’t forthcoming with this information and only when he was trying to justify the price of the Energy certificate told me ‘but it will be valid for 10 years’. He then looked disappointed that he had used that as a selling point when I told him I had only moved in 9 years prior.

Omg this is amazing thank you! We only moved 4 years ago (with this same agent and man so he would have known that information!)

I know what everyone is saying re shopping around I’m just surprised that the more “downmarket” agent is Charging almost double and wanted us to pay for photos upfront

https://www.gov.uk/selling-a-home/energy-performance-certificates#:~:text=An%20EPC%20gives%20a%20property,is%20valid%20for%2010%20years.

He would have known even if he hadn’t sold your property. You can look it up online. I was really annoyed when I found out that the estate agent was telling me I needed one, rather than advising that I may not. It felt deceitful

Every EA is different. They try it for every penny they can get. Regarding payment of photos, again that is individual to each EA. If you want a higher quality picture to sell for more/hit more customers then it may be worth it, compared to the EA who sends a 19 year old round to do it on an iPhone. Nothing shady, just how the business works.

Do you want to do business with someone who tries to rip you off? I wouldn't.

Think i paid 60

But again, the estate agent charging less for EPC and fronting the photo cost is one of the upmarket ones - so I’m confident their photographer will be good!

No, that’s how I feel that’s why I was curious but lots of people on here think it’s just business. I feel it’s a bit misleading and short sighted as they want to sell our house but now I just don’t trust them.