UK Estate Agents Force Buyers Into Mortgage Loans

The latest study carried out by the Times Money, published on Saturday, November 28th, showed that many UK estate agents use unfair practices to boost profit.
According to the study, estate agents oftentimes force potential home buyers to use in-house mortgage services even if buyers have no need in them. Such services, however, help estate agents earn additional commissions, especially as they offer mortgage deals from certain panel of lenders and, thus, do not guarantee the most attractive mortgage offers.
The Times Money received evidence that a Barnard Marcus agent forced a client to take out a mortgage in order to “secure” a purchase of a 3-bedroom house in South London. It turned out, however, that the case is not unique, as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) published a series of similar reports in the past 2 weeks.
Moreover, the survey carried out by GfK NOP Social Research on behalf of the Office of Fair Trading revealed that 1 in 20 UK home buyers are forced to take out a mortgage when they are using estate agents’ services for house purchase.
The information on unfair treatment of house buyers also found proof in the statement of Consumer Direct, a UK advice service for consumers. The firm said it received more than 3,500 claims associated with substandard services and misleading claims in the past 10 months (January through October 2009). In addition, the Property Ombudsman reported an increase in the number of consumer complaints in the past weeks.
Most independent mortgage brokers in the UK are critical about the unfair and discriminating practices of estate agents. For instance, Aaron Strutt of Trinity Financial Group and Richard Morea of London & Country Mortgages are determined that house buyers are being fooled by estate agents that force them to take out mortgage loans from a limited range of lenders.