Buyer is required to pay agent £350

[KievLoverTwo]

Every property this agent is selling:

Upon acceptance of the offer the buyer is then required to pay a non-refundable Reservation Fee of £350 inc VAT which isn't part of the purchase price to secure the property as part of our Terms & Conditions.

I don't actually want to buy a house through them, I've never seen this before. Is it legal?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?includeSSTC=true&locationIdentifier=BRANCH%5E182591

I think this sort of thing needs to happen where the person making the offer makes a non refundable payment to the seller which then comes off the final sale price.

Having to pay the estate agent is not right.

They claim to sell houses for free. So it seems the buyer pays instead of the vendor.

How can any agency sell a house for £350 and cover their costs?

https://housesalesdirect.com/how-it-works/

If I was the seller the last thing I'd want would be buyers paying my selling agent for anything. They're my agent, they work for me, and I'll pay them.

As a buyer paying the selling agent I'd want to know what I was getting for my money. What duty would they have to me if I paid them this fee?

And where is their incentive to look after the chain not breaking down if they get paid by a buyer every time that happens?

They seem to be capitalising on the most desperate.

It’s a ridiculous concept.

I'd give them two fingers - free of charge.

Expect more stuff like this as agents get more and more desperate.

Now, here's the interesting and quite distasteful thing. Last night I googled if it is legal. Came across an agency that started doing in in 2021. These people don't just charge a flat £350. They charge the buyer 1% of the eventual sale price + VAT.

They currently have 90 adverts on RM, 25 of which are on for above £500,000.

There's a 1.2 million pound house listed. So, whomever buys it pays the agreed price plus more than 10k in buyers' fees, and the owner of the 1.2m house pays nothing.

I.

Just.

Can't.

Even.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find/FreeAgent247com-HQ/Worcestershire.html?locationIdentifier=BRANCH%5E195044&propertyTypes=&includeSSTC=true&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

Buyers fee
A buyer's fee is payable on completion of sale and through the solicitors only of 1.0% + vat of the eventual selling price, in addition to the agreed purchase price. Payment of the buyer's fee being instructed by the seller and forming part of the property seller's sale contract.

That's awful. Don't touch them with a bargepole if you are a buyer. No doubt plenty of sellers will line up to use them though 😡

Also

deep breath

A buyer's fee is payable on completion of sale and through the solicitors only of £2000.00 + vat (if the purchase price is lower than £200,000) or 1.0% + vat of the eventual selling price (if purchase price is higher than £200,000),

So the £90k property had to pay 2k plus vat instead of 900 plus vat.

And 51 out of those 90 properties have been sold.

What the fuck is going on?!