Leading broker calls for ban on ‘in-house’ agent mortgage selling
Gerard Boon of Boon Brokers says that recent Panorama revelations of conditional selling mean it is imperative the Government takes action.
A leading mortgage brokerage is calling on the Government to ban any association between agents and financial advisers.
The move follows the revelations of conditional selling by agents at a Connells branch in a Panorama documentary aired earlier this month.
Undercover
An undercover Panorama reporter working as a negotiator at Connells in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, revealed evidence, including recorded phone calls, that the company’s employees were involved in conditional selling.
A senior branch manager was shown favouring prospective buyers, if they were planning to take out Connells in-house services, like conveyancing or mortgages.
The programme also spoke to a whistleblower at Purplebricks, who alleged the firm incentivised its staff via a commission scheme to “get sellers to drop their house prices” after initially over-valuing them, and had been putting staff under pressure to sell ‘add-on’ services.
Petition
Now, Boon Brokers is to petition the Government for a law preventing agents and brokers from any association.
Gerard Boon, MD at Boon Brokers (main picture), says: “To fix the clear conflict of interest created by estate agents and mortgage brokers being financially associated, we plan to petition the Government to prohibit any association between those two parties.
Many mortgage brokers receive their enquiries from estate agents.”
“Even though many mortgage brokers receive their enquiries from estate agents, this association will need to end to prevent the current market failure of conditional selling.”
Boon Brokers also released findings from a survey of 1,000 property buyers and sellers showing that 78% believe estate agents should not have direct associations with mortgage brokers.
And 80% experienced direct crossover between property access and in-house mortgage promotion.
Plus, 18% said their offer would only be considered if they used the estate agent’s in-house mortgage broker.
Leading broker slams agents following ‘conditional selling’ BBC investigation
As much as conditional selling is a complete no no – here’s a thought – if I have 2 clients that want to buy a property – one is using their own broker and own solicitors neither of which return calls and emails – the other using solicitors and mortgage advisors that we can work with and update us so that we can keep our clients informed and updated all the way through – which buyer would we advise our clients to proceed with ? Nothing to do with a referral fee but purely a common courtesy to provide a service – and unfortunately too many of the brokers and solicitors complaining on social media channels are the ones that are guilty of ignoring the agents
So, a mortgage adviser does an amazing job for one of your clients, he’s whole of market and an IFA but you’re not allowed to recommend him to anyone else going forwards?