A Channel 4 show has filmed estate agents lying to buyers in order to get them to use the agency’s in-house services such as mortgage brokers and solicitors.
The programme showed last night demonstrated how anyone, regardless or skills and experience, can become an estate agent. However, it mainly concentrated on the lies agents tell to potential buyers.
A selection of emails were shown of buyers being told to use the agent's in-house services if they wanted the best chance to secure a property.
Peter Bolton King of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said that buyers were not obliged to use such services.
Undercover reporters pose as first time buyers to find out if they would be forced to use the agent's mortgage brokers.
One visited estate agent Barnard Marcus where she was told that, if she used the firm's in-house mortgage broker, she would get to hear about properties earlier.
The program labelled this trick is called "priority viewings".
The same reporter also went to Felicity J Lord to view a property in East London. There she was told that if she used the in-house broker, her offer would be "prioritised" to the vendor. Dispatches called this trick is called "prioritised offers".
Both of these “tricks” are banned.
The other reporter visited Felicity J Lord where he told staff he already had a mortgage offer in place. Despite this, they tried to persuade him to switch to the in-house mortgage broker by telling him they’d only take the property off the market when it was under offer if he did so.
Both agents later told the program that their in-house financial services were optional.
Dispatches also showed estate agent staff at Abbott’s advising a buyer to take out a buy-to-let mortgage – but live in the property herself – as her employment history would mean she’s be turned down for mainstream deals. This is mortgage fraud and would have serious consequences for the borrower if discovered by the lender.
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