It is not exactly a new accusation – but once again, estate agents have been accused of pressuring buyers into using their own in-house mortgage advisers.
This time the accusation has come from mortgage industry stalwart Ray Boulger, of John Charcol.
In the Telegraph, he is quoted as saying: “The most common tactic seems to be that, when making an offer, buyers are told they must see the in-house mortgage adviser to make sure they can afford the mortgage.
“Otherwise the agent will say they can’t recommend acceptance of the buyer’s offer, even if the finance has already been arranged in principle.
“In the event that the buyer refuses and decides to use an alternative source, they are invariably informed that the property will remain on the market until, at the very least, the mortgage valuation has been carried out, causing stress to the buyer that they may lose the property and suffer abortive costs.”
According to Boulger, some agents are even telling applicants that they can’t view any properties unless they use the agent’s mortgage adviser.
It is, of course, illegal for agents to discriminate against buyers by making them use particular additional services – even if it does seem like a good idea for agents to check that a purchaser could actually get a mortgage before recommending to the seller that they accept the offer.
Still, we’re sure you’ll have your own take on this.
Comments
Hang on a minute, i thought the agent represented the vendor, not the buyer? It is 100% best practice to ensure that a prospective purchaser can (a) afford the loan and (b) get the loan. As long as the estate agency firm has a whole of market mortgage proposal then the prospective purchaser is actually better served using THAT proposition!!
Ridiculous article by Mr Boulger, thought he would know better
Cannot for the life of me see the issue here? - Just looks like best practise and working for the vendor in the majority of this "news" feed, agreed the not letting applicants view until seen an advisor is a little wide, especially considering we are not in a booming market and vendors probably need as many viewings as possible.
It is mainly the corporates who are guilty of this I used to work for one! everything above they were guilty of and it used to be totally agressive and go against my grain. It was abullying tactic towards the buyer and the staff who were targeted to get bums on seats as itwas called.