Has anyone else experienced this, and WWYD?

[stanausauruswrecks]

This is Xposted in chat as well, but no-one is interested, so thought I'd try on here
We are in the process of looking for a new house. Have had an offer accepted on ours, and had made an offer on a property. Estate agent asked for copy of mortgage in principle offer which I emailed over. Rest of money to come from our savings.
EA rang today to say offer had been rejected-no big suprise. Then asked if we wanted to up our offer. I said we would consider offering another 8G on top of offer. Asked if we were good for the money and could I send a copy of bank statement to that effect. Was a bit but said I would discuss it with DH when I got home.
Then got a call from DH - he had just got off the phone from our building society - EA had rung them to ask whether they would consider lending us more, and for details of how much we had banked with them. BS told them in no uncertain terms that a) It would be a breach of data protection to give any info out, and b) none of the EA's business.
BS lady was shocked at EA's action - hadn't encountered this before.Also said EA was rude and aggressive on the phone.
When I spoke to EA she apologised for any upset,aand claimed they do this all the time (the smell of bullshit, anyone?)Anyone else ever had this? Am v angry about this, so have no sense of perspective on it - feel like walking away from this house as we are now so loath to give them the business WWYD in this situation?
Thanks for reading, it turned into quite an essay!

It's outrageous that she expected that sort of information to be given out. You need to make a serious complaint about her to the head office.

She's also very thick if she thoguht they would tell her!

Never experienced this in my life! I think they're entitled to ask if you've got the money, as we've had sales fall through in the past due to "cash" buyers who turned out to be nothing of the sort. But I agree that asking for copies of your statement is a little hmm...

As for phoning and asking words totally fail me. What kind of bank would give them the info anyway?! They could be total scammers for all the bank knows!

Strongly worded letter of complaint to the head of the EA and if you don't get a grovelling apology then I would see if they're a member of the NAEA or similar and write to their professional body.

Talk to the manager of the EA branch and make a complaint. When we have made offers recently we have provided an email with mortgage offer plus proof of savings to show we were serious and could proceed.

There are lots of people out there who are making offers and not in the position to complete them so I can partly understand EA wants proof. However, EA was clearly trying to work out how much she could make you up her offer.

I would be tempted to walk away. Talk to the branch manager and refuse to have any dealing with that particular EA. Remake your original offer and not go up £8k!

Absolutely unheard of, and they shouldn't have asked to see your bank statements - I think that is shocking. Surely a statement that you had sufficient savings should be OK. Contacting your BS is OUTRAGEOUS.

I would actually complain to their regulator. If you are minded to do so, you could also try a complaint with the Information Commissioner.

We were cash buyers (no mortgage) for a house and we did provide a bank statement showing funds in order that the house be taken off the market and to proceed with the sale. It seemed fair enough to me, in so far as with no mortgage offer to demonstrate funds available and not time wasters, would have wanted (if I were the vendor) to know that the offer was valid IYSWIM.

What we did was divert the full sum into a completely separate bank account which meant that while the vendor/EA could see we had funds for that particular purchase, they obviously were not privy to any other financial details. Of course,as far as they knew that money could already have been ringfenced or subject to other outgoings. But I suppose it gave them a modicum of confidence that we were genuine.

I haven't a clue what the form is in your situation though, and absolutely, the Estate Agent should not have contacted the BS asking for more money to be lent/for details of your financial affairs. That is completely out of order - and plain daft. Any fool knows that only you and dh can authorise such things.

Actually - have had lightbulb moment. What we actually did (memory like a sieve) is take our bank statement showing available funds to our solicitor, who wrote letter confirming our ability to pay on the basis of the information provided to him.

Sorry for confusion - not much sleep last night!

I have never come across this, but have always been surprised that buyers have not had to prove to EA what they can afford before spending time looking at properties. We have had several house sales fall through because, at last minute, buyers realised they could not afford this. In fact, we are only in this house because on the day they went to exchange contracts the original buyer said "Oh, did I say I was a cash buyer? what I meant to say was that I need to sell two houses and get divorced before I can buy this one, silly me".

We were cash buyers and provided evidence of funds. Not unusual at all. EA contacting your Building Society - shocking and unprofessional. I would also complain to the Head Office of the estate agent. Agree with Fiddle about not upping your offer. Make it clear to the vendor why.

Shockingly stupid behaviour from the EA(they leave themselves vunerable to being investigated in the event of any security breaches on your accounts). It's not unreasonable for a vendor to want assurances that you have the funds to complete - this assurance is provided by your lawyer who will have had sight of your mortgage offer and many other bits of financially sensitive info.

We were cash buyers and provided evidence of funds via a print out of a bank statement - which DH neatly edited so it showed the amount of money that we wished them to think we had (hopefully leading the estate agents to think 'oh, they really have offered at the top of their budget').

Your solicitor should be the one to confirm you have the funds to complete on the property. You should not have to show bank statements to the EA. Mortgage offer, yes. If you have used their "independent" mortgage advisor then they can, and will, routinely ask for a copy of bank statements to ensure themselves that you have sufficient monies available.

By calling your BS they have made a mistake (putting it lightly). It is a direct breach of Data Protection. They also CANNOT request an increase in your mortgage, even if it is their "in-house" mortgage advisor. Only YOU can do this.

The protocal for this is to make a formal complaint in writing to the manager of the EA first, so either letter or email. Letter is better. Hand deliver it or send it Special Delivery keeping a track of the SD number and print out a copy of the confirmed delivery from Royal Mail. Keep a copy of the letter. If they do not respond or do not respond in the nature you feel is acceptable complain about that the same way, and if they do the same fire one off to the Ombudsman with a copy of the letters you have already sent the EA.

I think these are the people for EA's:

www.tpos.co.uk/

In relation to what you want to do about the house I would be tempted to walk away, but I am like that. Are they also on the market with another agent? If they are and you really want the house is it worth talking to them, or are you in contact with the vendor's? Maybe a chat with them will resolve the purchase situation.

EA's pee me off when they are like this. I have a friend who owns an EA and I know that he would never allow any of his staff to be this stupid.

Get a letter from the BS detailing what happened and, in the meantime, speak to the head of the EA. If you get no joy then I would take this to the Ombudsman/NAEA - that's awful.

The EA woman who phoned the BS is an absolute eejit... but she hasn't broken any laws in asking. The BS would have breached the DP ACT if they'd told her anything.
It comes down to etiquette and lots of EAs have crap manners! You can tell them you're not going to reveal any extra info but you may lose the house to someone whose situation is made transparent.
Basically, the agents are (as they so often are!) a bunch of idiotic cocks - but they've done nothing illegal - it's just the all to usual shoddy level of competence.
Why not drop a note through the vendor's door.

Of course she's done nothing illegal but that's not the question - I'm sure as hell that it's not acceptable conduct.

There are lots of perfectly legal behaviours which are prohibited by sensible professional ethics.

For example it wouldn't be illegal for her to turn up at a buyer's home at 3am in the middle of the night and knock on the door requesting to discuss their offer - but it would be bloody unprofessional, borderline stalker/nutcase behaviour.

Which is what this is.