{"id":2627,"date":"2015-06-23T15:45:53","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T15:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/mps-look-at-worrying-double-charging-trend\/"},"modified":"2018-02-21T10:29:02","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T10:29:02","slug":"mps-look-at-worrying-double-charging-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/mps-look-at-worrying-double-charging-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs Look at Worrying &#8216;Double-Charging&#8217; Trend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- SEO Ultimate Plus (https:\/\/seoultimateplus.com) - Code Inserter module -->\n<script async>(function(s,u,m,o,j,v){j=u.createElement(m);v=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0];j.async=1;j.src=o;j.dataset.sumoSiteId='b68b392479b5981b8acf46565e9fe32a0734fc21a1f7c1e60121eaa6ca1a1c64';v.parentNode.insertBefore(j,v)})(window,document,'script','\/\/load.sumo.com\/');<\/script>\n<!-- \/SEO Ultimate Plus -->\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.channel4.com\/media\/images\/Channel4\/4homes\/buying-and-selling\/estate-agents\/the-psychology-of-estate-agents\/house-hand-lg_A2.jpg\" alt=\"estate agents\" align=\"none\" \/><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Image From: Channel4.com<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Today MPs will decide whether to back a ban on &#8216;double-charging&#8217; by <a class=\"wl-entity-page-link\" title=\"Estate (law)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/estate-law\/\" data-id=\"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/entity\/estate_law;http:\/\/rdf.freebase.com\/ns\/m.038t85;http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/Estate_(law)\" >estate<\/a> agents. MPs are becoming increasingly worried about the trend, referred to as &#8216;double-charging&#8217; which sees agents charging fees to both the seller and buyer, often totalling thousands of pounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Typically sellers are asked to pay an &#8216;admin fee&#8217; when selling their <a class=\"wl-entity-page-link\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/property\/\" data-id=\"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/entity\/property;http:\/\/rdf.freebase.com\/ns\/m.05wrt;http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/Property\" >property<\/a> through an agent, for a property worth \u00a3200,000 this fee would usually be around 180. However the Property Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer, has explained how buyers are also being charged a 2% &#8220;introduction fee&#8221; in order to purchase the property through the sealed bids process. Again, if we take the example of a property worth \u00a3200,000, this introduction fee would cost the buyer an extra \u00a34,800.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Coming out in defence of the practice, a spokesperson from LSL Property Services plc, said that buyer fees were only charged in a sale by tender and that it was the buyers choice to <a class=\"wl-entity-page-link\" title=\"Use (law)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/use-law\/\" data-id=\"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/entity\/use_law;http:\/\/rdf.freebase.com\/ns\/m.05r4j5;http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/Use_(law)\" >use<\/a> this method. The practice is perfectly legal and agents claim that in a <a class=\"wl-entity-page-link\" title=\"Market (economics)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/market-economics\/\" data-id=\"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/entity\/market_economics;http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/Market_(economics)\" >market<\/a> of high demand for properties, they see it as a way to encourage more owners to put their property on the market as the seller only pays a reasonable &#8220;admin fee&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Consumers are increasingly concerned over high agent fees and more and more price-conscious sellers are exploring alternative options like private sales, which circumnavigate a traditional estate agent and eliminate costly fees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><a class=\"wl-entity-page-link\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/estate-agent\/\" data-id=\"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/entity\/estate_agent;http:\/\/rdf.freebase.com\/ns\/m.02dzpr;http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/Estate_agent\" >Estate agent<\/a>&#8216;s fees have always been a concern and in today&#8217;s fast paced property market they are likely to once again become a hot-button issue. However it is unlikely that we will see a resolution in the near future, as since the Office of Fair Trading (which used to regulate and enforce <a class=\"wl-entity-page-link\" title=\"Estate (land)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/estate-land\/\" data-id=\"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/entity\/estate_land;http:\/\/yago-knowledge.org\/resource\/Estate_(land);http:\/\/rdf.freebase.com\/ns\/m.038t8_;http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/Estate_(land)\" >estate<\/a> agency rules) has been disbanded, there is in fact no single industry regulator responsible for the sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/advertise-property-free\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Thinking of buying or selling your home? Learn more here about how to save money and avoid estate agent&#8217;s fees<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image From: Channel4.com Today MPs will decide whether to back a ban on &#8216;double-charging&#8217; by estate agents. MPs are becoming increasingly worried about the trend, referred to as &#8216;double-charging&#8217; which sees agents charging fees to both the seller and buyer,<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/mps-look-at-worrying-double-charging-trend\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wl_entities_gutenberg":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"wl_entity_type":[602],"modified_by":null,"_wl_alt_label":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wl:entity_url":"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/post\/mps_look_at_worrying_double-charging_trend","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15404,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions\/15404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"wl_entity_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wl_entity_type?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}