Home Owners > Estate Agents

Referrals by Estate Agents

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Philofacts:
This is the practice of estate agents "recommending" the services to homebuyers of particular solicitors, surveyors, mortgage brokers  and energy report providers in return for a referral fee or "kickback" of around £300 for each referral.

The Law Society has called for referral fees to be banned due to the potential conflict of interest. As has been said on another post, buyers of new build homes often use the solicitors recommended by the house builder or their agents, and often end up signing disadvantaged contracts, perhaps biased towards the seller.

The Legal Services Board (LSB), which oversees the regulation of solicitors, has after investigation declared that "there is no evidence that referral fees have caused any consumer detriment"
The Law Society has said that "this is a mistaken decision by the LSB, which has failed to act in the public interest  - its [LSB] decision will only help those who wish to make money
out of consumers but who add no value."

Sometimes the best advice a solicitor can give is not to proceed and, in the long run, that may be advice worth paying for!

Albert:
Dont Estate Agents make enough money selling houses?  2% of £300k is £6,000!

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