Estate agent £80 to check our identity?!

[winewolfhowls]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

We have just had an offer accepted on a house.

An email from their estate agents tells us we have to pay £80 'legally required ID check on yourself and and anyone else who will be purchasing the property.' This seems to be a third party legal company.

I was under the impression that the solicitor did this as part of the conveyancing process?

Can anyone please advise?

Thanks.

I sent screenshots of drivers licence and utility bill but I didn't pay anything.

That sounds excessive. It’s also a nice little earner for the EA - would you get a refund if the sale didn’t go ahead? Ask them for a breakdown of the cost.

They are required to carry out anti money laundering checks but they absolutely can’t compel you to pay £80 for this. It’s purely and simply ripping you off. The highest level of facial recognition ID check we can do using an online provider costs us £4.50. They are taking the absolute piss. There is no reason they can’t do a manual check with your documents

lol - hidden, small print - avoid like the plague

Thanks for the replies, there's no mention of this on the Rightmove listing for the house.

Five to ten pounds perhaps reasonable but 80?!

The EA for the house we bought charged us £36 per person to do ID checks and wouldn't take the property off the market until we had passed the ID checks. Thought it was pretty cheeky!

That's what ours are saying (won't take off market until we have paid for it)!

Have consulted Professor Google and have found out it only actually costs a few pounds for the ID check. May try phoning the estate agent tomorrow and asking for a breakdown of the costs.

@winewolfhowls might also be worth checking rightmove/zoopla to see if the house is being advertised with an additional EA. Some people will use more than one and if so they might charge less or even not his for the checks! When we moved we didn’t pay EA anything for this. Cheeky so and sos

Estate agent charging buyer for ID check — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Seems this ID check costs less than a fiver

I'd go in with your passport and ask if they meant £8.

I’ve never heard of this! Thought the EA get paid once the sale has gone through. Wondering if it’s even legal (I have no idea, just seems mad). If they don’t want the sale then that’s on them, I suppose they’re assuming you want to buy and it’s ultimately a game of chicken. I do wonder if the vendor knows, I’d be fuming.

They seem to have got cheekier though. We couldn’t get viewings with some agents when we moved last time because we sold with a well known online agent (and they didn’t like that). But the market was a lot more buoyant at the time. Some wouldn’t let us view because we had our own broker and were unlikely to use their own. They basically could pick and choose who they were prepared to sell to.

Sadly not, just the one estate agent. I'm definitely going to query it though.

If it was a standard to be expected cost, fair enough. As most estate agents don't seem to have this as a charge I'm definitely feeling aggrieved.

Also torn between don't want to lose the house and if they are scamming us on this, what else might be coming?!

I wonder if the sellers (or their solicitors) know about this. Seems to me that estate agents are forgetting that they are supposed to be acting on behalf of the sellers and not in their own interests. They earn enough from the fees paid by the seller, and now they are wanting to milk purchasers as well.

DD bought a flat last year and there was none of this shenanigans.

It's definitely legal and the estate agent HAS to check identity so I'm ok with the concept... not the price.

The third party company is called Lifetime Legal if anyone is wondering!

Same here.

Urggh aren't they the worst?

I'm going to phone later today, but only after I've asked our conveyancing solicitor for advice.

Many EA's lettings departments do this to get around the new law prohibiting lettings agents from charging a whopping great 'admin fee' to prospective tenants! Usually it's £120+ VAT to check ID and the same again for referencing. Massive scam

I realise you're not renting, I'm just saying that they do this with lettings too

Never had that. I bought in Scotland though so you verify your identity with solicitor and where funds came from and they put in offer on your behalf.

I've looked at Lifetime legal and it carries other services , like legal helpline. It's ridiculous that they think this is essential. We needed verification to become executors for my ILs estate. That was free.

Update: phoned solicitors and they were gratifyingly aghast. Have forwarded them the email from estate agents and they will contact. Interestingly they have said that there's been a few enquiries about this issue in the last few weeks.

I read elsewhere (perhaps on the forum linked upthread) that they also subscribe you to a 'membership' that you have to remember to cancel after a few months or you start getting charged 7.99 or so.

Hi, it's it sterling ackroid?
We had the same thing when we bought our house. It's just another way to rip you off!

nothing to do with the solicitors tis the EA's choice. if its in the small print, you pay it or get another EA