Dodgy and outrageous Estate Agents

[heartchakra]

Interested in hearing from anyone else's similar experiences.
We accepted an offer on our house two months ago and despite best efforts finding somewhere has been challenging at best. To date we have viewed 22 properties and offered on four. The first we lost to cash buyers the second we pulled out after offering 40k above guide price and they wanted to keep marketing to see if they might get more yet wanted to hold onto our offer; the third the agents tried aggressive marketing to get us to go with their finance broker. We declined and they said they 'might not be able to put the offer through if we didn't go with them'. We challenged the legality of this and they backed down but despite another very generous offer yet again we lost out to another buyer. We still don't feel confident they actually passed this offer into the vendors. We have now offered on another property. A completely different agent to any of the first properties. We got the hard sell and once again - after politely explaining that we didn't want to speak to their brokers were told they may not put our offer through. We then explained our mortgage is on a fixed term and we will be porting it as any break in it results in a hefty penalty. Question: having been buying houses since the mid 90s we have never encountered such a situation. Surely this is not legal? If we are tied in (as we clearly are) to our current bank does this mean we won't be able to move? How are estate agents allowed to blackmail ppl this way? It seems like an impossible situation. Someone told me to drive to the sellers house and put an offer through their door. Interested in all perspectives on this

Someone else can advise if it’s legal (it probably isn’t), but just talking to their broker doesn’t prevent you from porting your mortgage. The harsh reality is that if agents are taking “talked to our broker” as evidence of proceedable then it’s cutting of your nose to spite your face to not do it. The downside is the agent knows a lot about your finances but tbh they will want to sniff that out anyway to advise the vendor.

We had this (after we put a note throught the sellers door and the seller insisted the agent proceed with us). We spoke to the broker, explained we already had everything in place and they confirmed to the agent that we were in a position to proceed. All very simple. I think it's just a gatekeeping exercise to ensure there are no glaring holes in your financial plan.

Yes you need to speak to their broker to confirm that you have the requisite finances in place. It’s standard checks. I’m surprised they didn’t explain this to you. Obviously they will try sell their services you just need to politely decline.

We've viewed and offered on many properties in the past few years and I've never spoken to EA's broker, so it's not standard everywhere. We discussed our position, but only ever provided details about our finances after offer accepted. I think I'd be pretty annoyed as a vendor if I knew an EA was not putting all offers through.

It’s dodgy and a lot of estate agents are doing it. Claiming it gives you preferential treatment, I think they get a cut if you sign with the financial person.
If you can show a mortgage in principle it shouldn’t matter about speaking to their finance person, they will still try and push it.
Withholding an offer is unethical.
We had this happen as well.

It's illegal for them to not put an offer through, and make you use their services.
propertyindustryeye.com/agents-accused-of-repeatedly-breaking-the-law-with-conditional-selling-tactics/

Omg 😳