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Original poster

EA saying that “buyers need to be financially qualified” by their mortgage broker 🧐...

25 replies

Mcmcmcmc · 08/08/2018 18:14

I said I have an agreement in principle with a lender and don’t want to see their mortgage broker... I worry that they will tell EA that we can technically afford more (not that we really can, but lenders would lend us more if we wanted to).
She said this is “not to sell you anything... it’s required by law due to antiterrorism and money laundering laws” 🤨🧐 really? I call BS. Has anyone heard of this?

OP posts:
AnalyticalChick · 08/08/2018 18:42

It is not a requirement in law for you to see the EA's mortgage broker! It sounds like either a sales pitch to sell you a mortgage, or as you say, a way to get you borrowing and paying more for the property. Both are underhand.

Haworthia · 08/08/2018 18:43

Very underhand. Sounds like their broker wants commission from you.

RiddleyW · 08/08/2018 18:44

I had this and the guy just wanted to check I had an AIP. It definitely is to try to sell you their broker services but you can just say no,

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 08/08/2018 18:53

They've been trying this shit on for decades. I had it a few times and I told them that I wouldn't be talking to their broker. They usually said that they wouldn't 'be able' to show me any houses in that case and I just said that if they could afford to turn down potential sales then it was up to them but there were always more houses with other agencies. I sometimes asked "Do your clients know that you are turning away potential buyers?"

RiddleyW · 08/08/2018 18:57

I would love to have told them to fuck off but I really wanted the house. It’s such a racket

AnalyticalChick · 08/08/2018 19:07

I would ask them to provide evidence of this so called legal requirement on you to see their broker. That should get them a little tongue tied.

OftenHangry · 08/08/2018 20:12

Do you know how you can see that EA is lying?
Their mouth move....

The worst thing is, they are usually told by the management to say things like this

RadioDorothy · 08/08/2018 20:16

Many years ago I was a mortgage adviser in an EA. It is not a legal requirement, they are probably wise to at least make sure that you have an AIP in place but that's all. It's absolute bullshit designed to try and draw you in, and the adviser is then under pressure to "hook" you from the jaws of a competitor and sign you up herself.

My lot would bully people into seeing me and then I had a very unpleasant time trying to force details out of them which they absolutely didn't want to give.

Awful racket, I jacked it in after a few years.

RomanyRoots · 08/08/2018 20:18

It is for those reasons that a broker would ask, but you aren't seeing their broker so they don't need to ask.
My ds is an independant, does the odd bit of work for EA's if clients ask for recs from outside.

NeverTwerkNaked · 08/08/2018 20:27

We were porting our mortgage which tended to shut Estate agents up when they tried this nonsense, but I was surprised at the hard sell they tried.

batshitbetty · 08/08/2018 21:09

We refused - they were adamant so we got our mortgage broker to call them, 10 minutes later it wasn't a problem Angry

serbska · 08/08/2018 22:10

Douglass Allen in Wanstead did that to me. Then tried to pressure me to offer more.

AnalyticalChick · 08/08/2018 22:24

I think they want to know, plus arrange your absolute maximum mortgage, so they can pick your pockets of your very last penny.

scaryteacher · 09/08/2018 18:00

What if you don't need a mortgage?

SassitudeandSparkle · 09/08/2018 18:05

No, IMO this is not true. The mortgage adviser has nothing to do with the money laundering regs and this was handled by our conveyancer (we did have to provide a lot of paperwork for this tbh). We did provide some proof of ID to the EA, but not financial stuff for purchases IIRC.

Activemum81 · 09/08/2018 22:09

Our EA tried this. We declined and stood firm. We said once our offer was accepted, we got our position confirmed by our solicitor before the property was taken off the market. We sent our solicitor the AIP and proof of deposit and told her not to give out any numbers to the EA. She wrote an email to then saying she has seen the proof of deposit and AIP.

Sorted.

TheCrowFromBelow · 09/08/2018 22:23

This is untrue. All they need for AML is proof of ID and address.
They cannot ask for anything more than proof of funds in relation to your offer.
Tell them you’re just checking that out with HMRC and that you’ll be asking when their last audit was.

PsychedelicSheep · 10/08/2018 07:36

I used an independent broker, a friend of my dads. Just told the EA thanks but no thanks, they didn't push it.

WillWisbey · 31/01/2019 09:50

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Trd · 31/01/2019 10:53

About 12 years ago I was a cash buyer and an agent refused to let me view a house until I had been "qualified" by their broker. I had sold up in Scotland and was moving to England. In Scotland the system is more solicitor-based so you don't get as much of this nonsense. I would not have qualified for even the tiniest of mortgages. I refused and bought another house.

WillWisbey · 31/01/2019 18:53

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WishIwas19again · 02/02/2019 20:53

The estate agent who marketed the house we bought a few years ago tried this. Said we had to see their mortgage broker to prove a mortgage in principle or our buyers wouldn't accept our offer. We said fine but when we went to the appointment the broker was really pushy and got quite angry when we insisted we would never take a mortgage out with him as we already had our own broker but were coming to the appointment because the estate agent told us we had to.

Argument between the broker and estate agent but no idea if was just for our benefit so we felt sorry for them or something.

Went across the road to see our bank and their mortgage advisor faxed over a letter in lieu of a mortgage in principle (they don't do them at our bank) and they also were quite scathing as to why they needed it.

The estate agent selling our house also happened to be part of the same chain so when we rang them to ask about the process they went mad and rang the other branch to tell them off and stop holding up the chain!

Was disgusting they lied to try and bully us into paying their broker so stand your ground, it's nonsense.

InSightMars · 02/02/2019 21:00

They try this here (USA) too, if you are preapproved by your bank or another lender they’ll still try and talk you into going with their financier but an assertive, “no thanks I already have my financing” will make them back down ifthey want to make a sale. Our last house purchase we were cash buyers so had to prove we had funds available.

greenlynx · 02/02/2019 21:16

They do this all the time and you can’t do anything about it, depends how desperate you are for a house. We once had appointment with EA’s broker before the actual viewing as I thought it would be my dream house, turned out not. But I also was sure they wouldn’t be able to push us over the limit as we are very stubborn in money issues.
The only thing I should say that some banks ( e.g YBS) do agreement in principle without doing a credit check so it might go against you if there are several similar offers.

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