Purple Bricks charging for anti-money laundering checks

[Babychewtoy]

We are buying a house through PB and they are trying to charge £80 through a third party (lifetime legal) for anti-money laundering checks.

Has anyone successfully avoided being charged? Or negotiated a reduced price? Our estate agents for selling our house and our conveyancer have both done the check already.

And does anyone know if it is £80 total or £80 each for me and DH?

I know it’s not much money in comparison to all the expenses of buying / selling houses, it just annoys me that we’re being charged as buyers by the seller’s choice of estate agent.

I have worked in the compliance team at PB,
can confirm this is the new fee. Can confirm that the fee needs to be paid in order to proceed with the purchase. We used to do the checks in house but then we entered a contract with LTL in 2022, which saw them take over this role. The current policy advises we do not accept third party checks. This covers us as a company as if you carry out your own checks the buck stops with you, if you accept other third parties checks ie a solicitors or brokers you are guilty by association if they are ever found out to be money laundering.

anyway - happy to answer any questions regarding this matter

>anyway - happy to answer any questions regarding this matter

I have questions!

I was quoted £28.30 from my conveyancer in July for x2 people for this: onboarding/ID check/AML/Verification of Funds combined package

Why do you charge £160 for the same service?

And the internet tells me that in June 2024, you were charging £60 per person; why have you decided to give yourself a 33% pay rise from one month to the next for exactly the same service?

>We used to do the checks in house but then we entered a contract with LTL in 2022, which saw them take over this role. The current policy advises we do not accept third party checks.

Who are they, if it's not a third party? Surely if it's not in-house, it IS a third party?

From this post:

• As well as doing the AML/ID checks, the legal firm will try to sell you other services - Conveyancing, Buyer Protection insurance (and perhaps others)

Is it true that you're passing on buyer information to upsell other services?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6537504/purple-bricks

Hi
So your quote from your solicitor is what they charge- they can charge whatever they want for these checks. There is no law stating a set cost.
The AML checks with LTL are £80 for everyone on the file - this includes giftors that need to be added. So it’s a one time fee that needs to be paid.

The increase was made by overheads at the two companies - this was a business decision above my pay grade.

Correct - but they are business partner - we have a contractual agreement with them and they agree to carry out the AML checks on our behalf. We do not have an agreement with every solicitor to do the same.

Normally the passing on of information is in regard to solicitors and surveyors we have contracts with, these again are seen as business partners.

Hope that helps!

its not just PB that do this. Miles and Barr charge the buyer £60 plus VAT if a seller accepts an offer, which is non refundable under no circumstances. I know this as I was informed of this when I offered on a house with them but thankfully the offer wasn’t accepted. It has put me off buying through them as if a seller pulls out you lose the £60! I thought it was a cheek too as they aren’t online estate agents and make huge commissions from their sellers. 🙄

It's Ryan Air pricing - appear more competitive on base fee % of sales price by passing on some of the costs to the buyer, or by charging the seller for "add ons" like a video tour or decent photographs.

It costs 5.00where i work. And we pay it. Cheeky buggers

Also when you give in and pay (just to progress the purchase) they say that you have a subscription which is free for 3-months then costs for legal services etc…. You have to cancel it after 3 months. They were clearly told this is NOT required and must not be set up. I do not like their business practices at all (again from a buyer’s perspective, I did not choose them!).

Thank you, we did pay in the end.
We told them at the time that we did not want to auto-renew as I’d read about that bit of the scam on here! We’ve had email confirmation that we aren’t auto-renewing so hopefully it’s sorted.

PB really are awful and it if we had more choice of houses to buy I would avoid them but the house we’re buying matched all our very niche requirements.

Hi.
what happened? We have received an email today asking the same. I’ve refused and said I’ll not purchase the property. Which I really don’t want to do.
my estate agent don’t charge for these checks. It’s a disgrace.
jan

Omg we are in the same position. I have agreed a sale on my property and chosen a solicitor. I put offer forward on a property with PB. Today, I’ve provided a sale or memorandum, mortgage in principle, outstanding mortgage statement. They are now asking for £80 for ID checks. I’ve refused. My agent isn’t charging me or my buyers.
They were so pushy on upselling, solicitors and conveyances services. Listen I’ve not chosen you!! And never would.
It’s really put me off buying the house now.

I feel (felt) your pain. In the end we gave up and paid the £80, very annoyed, but just had to get on with the transaction. Then they said I'd been signed up for some "legal cover" for 3-months and then if we didn't cancel (in 3-months) that it'd roll into a monthly charge. We strongly refused that and they eventually send an email confirming that they we were not committed to anything else. Good luck :-). My solicitor said the AML checks normally cost way under £80 anyway so hell of a mark up (I assume other estate agents just swallow that buyer cost based on their seller fees).

Had to deal with this company today they are awful - I can’t believe I got duped in by my Estate Agents. The AML checks worry me they have all my detail personal and sensitive what a shit way to start the weekend!

I want to add that the other membership benefits are a con the buyer “protection” is not an insurance contract it’s got a discretionary clause which means it falls out of the perimeter of regulation but even the way it’s marketed is like an insurance product. I honestly feel so stupid for rushing and not t

After reading this thread I just gave up and paid also. How long did it take after paying and checks for your property to be stc? Did the rest of your purplebricks journey go smoothly?

We paid but then pulled out anyway. Gutted to lose £80 but I would never purchase if on with PB again.
The upselling was a nuisance too.

Some high street estate agents charge also, Miles and Barr charge £60 plus VAT non refundable fee and I’m sure there are others. All agents try to sell you their solicitor, mortgage, etc… So you would be limiting your choice of house if you refuse to work with the ones who do charge.

If the house of your dreams came on the market with one of these agents would you walk away?! 🤔 I doubt it very much.

You didn't engage Purple bricks. I would tell the seller they need to pay this if PB are insistent.

It’s common to charge for anti money laundering checks & most people just pay up.

However £80 is on the high side, not surprised as PB are shit (are they still even operating? Thought they went bankrupt).

And this sort of thing is exactly why I would never view a property marketed by Purple Bricks or other on line only agents.

Welcome to the 21st Century and the world of online selling!

I find what you say very hard to believe. So you are telling me if an amazing house came on the market and it ticked all your boxes that you would snub it because it wasn’t online with a high street agent?! If so, more fool you and great for other buyers in your area as that cuts you out of the pool of competing buyers!

High street estate agents charge these fees also and try to upsell their products. I speak from personal experience here as I have sold and purchased via online estate agents with no issue at all. Once the offer has been accepted the solicitor takes over anyway and I find sellers are more willing to take lower offers as they don’t have to pay the extortionate fees high street estate agents charge for not doing much more than an online estate agent.

The only ones who don’t rate online estate agents are high street estate agents as they could put them out of business so I kind of get it from their perspective. But I don’t believe for a second that buyers would scroll past a house just because they aren’t hight street agents.

As long as you have a good solicitor they do all the searches etc for you anyway.
Tbh I wouldn’t care if a chimpanzee was listing the house of my dreams I would still buy it if it’s the right one!

I will add, I also don’t agree with ANY estate agent charging the buyer for this fee. Not all estate agents charge for this so I would challenge them if they asked me to pay, but some high street estate agents do charge this not only online ones. As far as I know the only online one who does charge for this is Purple bricks.

I personally would not use any estate agent to sell my property who does expect buyers to pay for this as it can be off putting for buyers.

Absolutely this. This extra cost is because the seller has chosen a low cost service. Not my issue as a buyer.

Miles and barr are not a low cost service and they charge for this also as do lots of other high street agents. Nothing to do with the seller it’s more their choice of agent albeit high street or online.

It is to do with the seller if it’s their choice of agent!!! It is not on for the sellers agent to start passing charges on to the buyers who have not engage them and therefore not agreed to their charges. The only way to stop this is by buyers refusing to pay!

And I completely agree with your point, but I am responding to:

‘’quote: minisomum · Today 17:50
Absolutely this. This extra cost is because the seller has chosen a low cost service. Not my issue as a buyer.’

Some, and not all!, online AND high street agents charge this fee so it has nothing to do with a seller being cheap!

I completely agree that no buyer should have to pay for anything like this. What all sellers should do is check the agent they list with and ensure they choose one that DOESN’T charge this fee as it can put buyers off. There are tons of agents both online and high street that don’t charge it so sellers should avoid the ones who do and this may make unscrupulous agents rethink their charges.

The law is that the lawyer and the estate agent have to do the check. Maybe the lawyer to protect you and the agent to protect the buyer? My beef is our purchase is funded directly from the sale of our house! But I suppose I could have stolen it. I’ve heard of that being done.