More than 150 mortgage advisers belonging to independent broker Access Financial Services claim their clients have suffered from conditional selling by estate agents in the last six months, shocking survey results reveal.
Conditional selling is unlawful and happens when an estate agent tells a prospective buyer that they must use the agent’s in-house broker for their offer to be put forward on a property.
GETTING WORSE
And it appears the practice is getting worse with nearly two thirds (63%) of Access Financial Services’ 240 mortgage advisers surveyed saying that their clients have experienced conditional selling in the last six months.
100% of advisers said it caused their client harm such as stress, hassle or confusion.”
Of that group, 100% of advisers said it caused their client harm such as stress, hassle or confusion while a third (33%) of advisers believed that conditional selling has gotten worse.
And nearly 200 of the firm’s mortgage advisers (83%) felt that there are some estate agencies where conditional selling is almost standard practice.
BROKEN
Karl Wilkinson (main picture), Chief Executive of Access Financial Services, says: “Something is broken in the property industry when this practice continues after 20 months of our campaigning against conditional selling, and developing tools and processes to protect advisers and their clients.
“A significant minority of estate agents are being allowed to continue to negatively impact our industry. This has to stop.”
And he adds: “It is morally wrong and a clear breach of Consumer Duty as well as The Property Ombudsman’s Code of Practice and the Estate Agents Act 1979. What other industry puts up with this kind of harmful behaviour? We can do better.”
To help counter the practice, Access Financial Services has created two letter templates for financial advisers and their clients – one to estate agents making them aware of the situation and, failing a positive response, a second letter to request support from the property ombudsman.