| Agent threatens to withold offer unless buyer uses their mortgage services |
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Description
Who is the Rogue?:
Estate Agent
How does it work?: Some estate agents use high pressure sales tactics to hawk finance related services to potential buyers. They often can make more money on these services than on actually selling houses. One fraudulent practice is preferential listing when buyers are told they will have priority over other buyers if they take the financial services like an insurance or a mortgage offered by the estate agent. How to avoid this scam?: Under the terms of the Estate Agents Act 1979, Estate agents cannot discriminate and must treat all buyers "fairly". You are under no obligation to accept any financial services offered to you by the estate agent. If the Agent specifically tries to link his products to the offer, call him on it and threaten to contact your Local Trading Standards officer. Scam reviews
Average Scam rating from: 1 user(s)
To write a review please register or login. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
 Sunday, 13 May 2007 Written by Beazeley Victim?:
Yes
Comments: I'm pretty sure this happens more than people think. Last year, we offered asking price on a house and were turned down despite being first time buyers. The estate agent had told us there was another bidder and that we needed to move quickly with the mortgage. He was heavily insistent that we use his mortgage services given the need for speed. We flatly refused as we wanted to use an independent adviser. Several months later, we find out that the house actually sold for £7000 less than we offered and took much longer than expected to go through. We strongly suspect the buyers took out the estate agents mortgage and were given priority over us. My Location: Milton Keynes
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