You may have noticed that I have not had a rant for a while, but as it appears that some underhand activity appears to be starting up again I feel obliged to highlight these to both sellers and purchasers alike.
We have had customers approach us recently advising that, when they are ready to make an offer on a property, the Estate Agent has refused to forward the offer to the vendor unless the proposed purchaser obtain their mortgage facilities via the Agents own internal mortgage consultant!
This is not good for so many reasons including the main, it’s wrong! In addition, the vendor wants to sell the property and is not really concerned about which provider arranges the mortgage for their purchaser!
No one is disputing that the proposed purchaser must prove their ability to obtain finance, where applicable. Nor do I argue with the selling Agent’s right to offer their services, as competition is a healthy thing. However, the purchaser must retain the right to decide for themselves who provides their mortgage finance.
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is the UK's leading professional body for Estate Agents. Most of the independent Agents in Horsham are registered with the body and adhere to the code of conduct - The Property Ombudsman Code of Practice for Residential Sales. Section 6 states:
By law you must not discriminate, or threaten to discriminate, against a prospective buyer of the seller’s property because that person declines to accept that you will (directly or indirectly) provide services to them. Discrimination includes – but is not limited to – the following: - making it a condition that the person wanting to buy the property must use any other service provided by you or anyone else - failing to tell the seller of an offer to buy the property.
Purchasing a home is probably the largest monetary event you will ever incur and you need to be 100% happy in all aspects of the whole transaction. For more information, go to www.naea.co.uk and see if the Agent you are looking to use is subscribing to adhere to these rules and regulations.
Finally, beware, as not all Estate Agents internal mortgage consultants can offer ‘whole of market’ mortgages. Make sure you ask the question! If you’re not being offered ‘whole of market’ and instead are being offered mortgage products from a ‘limited panel of lenders’, you may be missing out on the best product available to you.
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