BEWARE THE ESTATE AGENT ASKING FOR YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS

The only up front payment you should be asked to make is for the Home Information Pack (HIP)

We have recently come across an increasing number of situations where people wanting to place their property on the market have been asked by their estate agent for their credit card details.

This has been unconnected to the payment of the Home Information Pack and when asked for an explanation the forthcoming detail seems to be somewhat woolly.

The initial up front payment is being requested, it turns out, for marketing costs.  One lady was told “that it is for everything we have to do to get the property on the market”.  Surely that should all be involved in the “No sale – No fee” aspect of estate agency.

If an estate agent has got your credit card details, is asking you for monies up front before they’ll even place the property on the market, then surely that leaves the door open for them to be deducting further charges throughout the course of the marketing or, indeed, afterwards.  Furthermore, the contracts involved to be signed with this up front payment are horrifyingly long (I know, I’ve seen one and got a copy).

Whichever estate agent you decide to put your property with, I thoroughly urge you to read any contractual obligations with a very fine tooth comb and seek advice on anything you’re not 100% sure of or 100% happy with.

My advice to anyone faced with this request is very simple – do not agree to pay anyone any up front charge apart from for the Home Information Pack.

At Jonathan Waters Estate Agents we act on a strictly “No sale – no fee” basis.  With the exception of payment for the HIP which is required by law to be in position before we can market your property, there are NO other charges at any time until we successfully exchange contracts on the sale of your property with a buyer introduced by ourselves.

Everything else we do is fully included in that fee and if, for any reason, we don’t successfully sell the property for you there are no charges whatsoever.

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