EA refusing to take offer until we speak to mortgage adviser

[Wooosh]

We put in an offer on a house today and the EA is saying the offer has to be given to their mortgage adviser and won;t put it forward until I speak with her. Can they do that?
I already have a broker and mortgage offer in place which I can provide evidence of.
My understanding was any offer given had to be put to the vendor. Is that wrong?

I think that's pretty normal now. We moved about 5 years ago and it was the same - some EA wouldn't even let us view houses without an offer on ours!!!

I’d put a note through the house door. If I was the seller I’d be furious that the EA is doing this.

You don't have to see their mortgage advisor. They are obliged to put an offer forward, you may need to prove that you have a mortgage offer. They are trying it on!

Make sure you say that you already have a mortgage offer in place if you do this.

We had this. We got our mortgage broker to call them. They sent over the offer. They just wanted to try and get us to use their advisor. It isn't right what they do. My mortgage advisor was not happy

Quick google produced this from the Home Owners Alliance

"Some estate agents have been reported putting pressure on people to use their mortgage service, saying they will get preferential treatment or, worse, claiming they are unwilling to work with them unless they do. Putting undue pressure on you in this way is illegal. By all means, get a quote from the estate agent’s mortgage adviser before shopping around, but bear in mind that:

they may have a far narrower selection of mortgages than if you look further afield
there may be an upfront charge for their advice whereas some mortgage brokers and banks can give you mortgage advice for free.

Also be aware there have been accusations of mortgage brokers and estate agents working closely together, openly discussing potential buyers’ budgets in order to get as much money out of the buyer as possible. So again, find out what deal they can offer while remembering that you are under no obligation to accept their mortgage offers.

For more on this read our guide “Why you should avoid estate agent in-house services”

. . . So basically you can play along saying that you are happy to receive a quote from them but only if there are no upfront fees. But note the bit about them pressurising you being illegal. Don't know the details about that, but google could help you out again . . .

HTH

This happened to me a few years ago Wooosh. We had a mortgage offer in principle and we’d sold our house so we weren’t even in a chain! I really liked the house so agreed to speak to the broker but by the time she bothered to call me we’d had an offer accepted on a different house.

I don’t think it is quite legal, could you put a letter through the door explaining to the vendors? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to clarify.

This is standard now. It’s but about them giving your mortgage advice, it’s about you demonstrating to some who understands (hence it’s typically a financial advisor or whatever) whether you can actually afford to buy it. They will usually want to see evidence of funds for any deposit (or evidence of equity in current property), your mortgage agreement in principle and sometimes payslips or whatever to show you really will be able to get the mortgage.

It’s simply about checking you are a serious buyer who isn’t going to end up pulling out because you can’t get finance. I think all reputable agents do it now and it saves a lot of bother further down the line. I’ve heard it describe as “financially qualifying” you.

However, if this person tries to offer you advice then of course you can tell them to jog on.

We did what imausernamenotanumber is talking about when we bought a year ago and I thought that was absolutely fine. It just involved getting our financial adviser to make a call to confirm our offer was proceedable. Completely makes sense.

That was very different to the agent who said we had to talk to their recommended mortgage broker even though we already had a mortgage in place before they’d put our offer forward (although that was 6 years ago on a different house.)

I was told by the EA that they needed to see proof of funds as we were cash buyers. I'm not showing my bank records to a random as it shows how much we could reallly afford, so I told them my solicitor has information on the fnances and proof of money ready to buy, call them. Never heard another word.
I'm sure it would have been to talk to their broker if we were buying.
Stick a note in the house letter box letting them know and call the EA to say you have your own broker and don't need theirs. Tell them to put the offer forward.

*if we were buying with a mortgage.

Proving evidence of a mortgage offer is quite common and very understandable.

Forcing you to speak to a particular mortgage broker is illegal. Many try it on but when it comes down to it they can’t refuse to put your offer to the seller.

drop a note through the door. They did the same to me even though I told them I had a mortgage in principle, with my bank!! They still insisted I speak with their advisor. Their advisor called me and I made it clear I already had a mortgage in place and wasn't going to use their services. A completely pointless call.

My offer wasn't accepted until I proved I had the funds - mortgage offer in principle and copies of my savings statements!

Their mortgage advisor usually checks your mortgage offer to ensure it’s legitimate. It’s not a selling technique but a genuine way to filter out timewasters / fraudsters.

Do you mean their mortgage advisor needs to verify that you have a mortgage offer in place?

Or do you mean the EA is saying you have to meet their advisor with a view to taking a mortgage via them?

The first is fine, because the vendors need to know how sound they offer is and what the circumstances step, cash, mortgage, FTB or chain etc.

If the second resist and tell them that you will demonstrate your mortgage offer, but that you would like the EA to fufill their legal duty to put the offer to the vendor.

It sounds like the same as we had when we were last buying.

We're in scotland so our solicitor put in an offer but the estate agent for the vendor was on the hard sell, any time we called them, for us to use their in house mortgage advisor. They offered £1000 off the price of the house (I guess they would top up our offer) to use their own one so it shows how much they probably stand to make from you using them instead of someone else.

We have our own guy that we use every time we remortgage so declined but they basically want to try and make more money from you. I would try to decline and get your mortgage advisor to confirm you have the funds available.

No the EA can't force you to use their mortgage person. You have your offer so show them to prove it and tell them to put the offer forward immediately.

I accompanied a young FTB ("Jo") to look at some new houses a few months ago. Jo already had a mortgage broker and guidance on what was possible.

The sales person was incredibly pushy and forceful with regard to Jo seeing their "recommended" mortgage adviser, really over egging how great they were and how it was completely free of charge and there was no fees for anything whatsoever.

Eventually I stepped in and politely enquired about the impartiality and/or relationship between housebuilder and mortgage adviser and where the adviser's fees or commission came from.

The saleswoman's extremely aggressive blustery response told me everything I needed to know. Needless to say, Jo is not proceeding with that developer.

Well you could 'clarify' with the EA if this is their own condition (the EA) or the vendors, because they (EA) are obliged to forward all offers on to the vendors.

Sometimes vendors only want proceedable buyers, but in that case proof from your broker should be fine - no need to see the EA's broker IMO! Good luck with the offer, OP.

Kirsty Allsopp was tweeting about this recently. It’s illegal for them to try to force you to use their advisor and they will be breaking the terms of the contract with the vendors by not passing on offers.

It's a complete selling technique. They just want to try and get the mortgage business or sell add ons

Tell them by all mean you will see their advisor as long as it's immediately and make it clear you will not be buying anything sell them. The advisor will not want to waste their time

I think that's pretty normal now.

As PPs have said it's not normal, it's unlawful.

I would repeat the offer in writing and make a complaint about the conversation you had. If you get no response, pop a note through their door.

An EA cannot make it a condition of putting forward an offer that you use their in house broker.

To all those posters referring to showing you have a mortgage offer in place, you can't have an offer in place until after you've identified a property to purchase. You can have an agreement in principle, but it won't be a formal offer.

We had this also and they really laid it on thick saying that the sellers only went with the estate agents because they have an agreement that all buyers go through the same affordability tests ie using their advisors.

My main concern with this was that if you put an offer in, and go ahead with their mortgage advisors, then the estate agents will know for sure what your 'top budget' would be and that would easily give them the upper hand with any price negotiations etc. So if the seller was asking price £350k but would happily accept £335k if push came to shove, if their mortgage advisors see you can 100% afford to buy at £350k then they'll be more likely to tell the sellers to hold out and not accept a lower offer. Same as if you don't end up with that particular house, the estate agents know your finance details and you pretty much scupper any chances of buying at less than the asking price . Remember the agent works for the seller .