Support for brokers who feel threatened by estate agents' 'conditional selling'
Access Financial Services, a group of finance experts, has launched a campaign to support brokers who feel threatened by estate agents undercutting them.
There is concern that homebuyers are being pressured to use agencies’ in-house mortgage brokers rather than using an adviser of their own choosing.
Access FS said there was a significant minority of estate agents using ‘conditional selling’, to ensure they got the homebuyer’s mortgage business, as well as commission from the house sale.
Prospective buyers who felt under pressure to accept an agency’s in-house mortgage adviser, feared their offers wouldn’t be put forward to sellers unless they agreed., Access FS suggested.
This practice continued, it claimed, despite the fact it was against estate agents’ own Code of Practice.
To help counter this, Access FS has created a free letter template to support brokers who feel threatened by this illegal practice. The letter would be sent initially to an estate agent, highlighting the code.
If an estate agency didn’t respond or continued to pressure the client, a broker would be advised to report the business to the Property Ombudsman. This would need to supported with evidence of the breach, including the letter that had been sent to the estate agent and one from the client describing the pressure they had been put under.
Read more: Access FS offers administrative help for brokers.
“Our own brokers have experienced the effects of this conditional selling by a minority of estate agents,” said Karl Wilkinson, chief executive at Access Financial Services. “It can cause clients distress and at times it prevents clients from being able to work with brokers they have a long-standing relationship with.
“As well as helping our own advisers, we wanted to offer our support to others in the industry who continue to suffer from this dubious practice. Now more than ever, as we head into recession, it is important for both brokers and estate agents, to support each other so that buyers can benefit from the best advice.”
Wilkinson (pictured) said that estate agents sometimes claimed there was a need to financially qualify a buyer despite that buyer already holding an agreement in principle.
“While it is completely legal for estate agents to endorse the use of their in-house mortgage adviser, it is illegal for them to insist that a client uses them,” he stressed. “While the majority of estate agents operate within the code and have a positive relationship with many mortgage brokers, it is time we stamp out the bad practice of the few who damage things for the rest. Our letter templates are a step forward to help accomplish this.”
