Can my agent make my buyer see their mortgage adviser?

What is conditional selling?

Conditional selling is when an estate agent makes something the buyer wants depend on the buyer taking a service the agency sells. In practice it looks like a buyer being told they can view the property only after a financial appointment with the in-house adviser, or that their offer will be put forward once they have spoken to that adviser.

There is a legitimate version of this and an illegitimate one, and the line between them is simple. Checking that a buyer can afford your home is the agent doing their job. Insisting the check happens through the agency's own adviser is not.

Is conditional selling against the rules?

Yes. National Trading Standards guidance for estate agents sets it out under the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991: an agent must not discriminate against a buyer because that buyer does not want services from the agent or a connected business. That covers refusing information, delaying it, adding extra hoops before an offer is passed on, or declining to pass the offer on at all.

The same conduct can also be an unfair commercial practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, whether as a failure of professional diligence, a misleading action, or an aggressive practice using undue influence. Trading Standards enforcement ranges from advice through to criminal proceedings, and it can trigger a warning or a prohibition order under the Estate Agents Act 1979.

On 14 January 2026 The Property Ombudsman published guidance to help buyers recognise conditional selling, confirming that it breaches the Ombudsman's Code of Practice. Membership of a redress scheme is a legal requirement for estate agents, so that Code applies to the firm marketing your home.

Why does this matter to me as the seller?

Because the practice quietly changes which offers you get to see. Trading Standards guidance is explicit that an agent has to give a seller details of all offers received, promptly and in writing, unless the seller has instructed otherwise. Where conditional selling takes hold, buyers who insist on their own broker can be slowed down or nudged aside, and the offer that never reaches you is the one you can never accept.

There is a completion risk too. A buyer pushed into a product they did not choose is a buyer who may re-broker later, restart their application, and add weeks to your sale. You want the buyer with the best funding, not the buyer who generated the most fees for the branch.

Every offer belongs to you. An agent's job is to bring you all of them and tell you which is strongest, not to decide which buyer deserves to be heard.

How can I tell if it is happening on my sale?

• A buyer mentions, at a viewing or afterwards, that they were told to see the in-house adviser before an offer could go forward.
• Viewings are only offered after a "financial qualification" appointment with the agency.
• You are told an offer was "not qualified" and never see the figure or the buyer's position.
• A lower offer is pushed harder than a higher one, with no clear reason relating to chain, funding or timing.
• Your agent cannot tell you how many offers have come in, only which ones they consider real.

What should I do about it?

1. Ask your agent, in writing, for a list of every offer received to date, with the date, the amount and the buyer's funding position.
2. Tell them plainly that you want every offer passed on, whatever adviser or solicitor the buyer is using.
3. Speak to the buyer directly at the point you are entitled to, or ask your agent to confirm in writing that no in-house service was required of them.
4. Keep the correspondence. An email trail is what makes a complaint straightforward later.
5. If it continues, use the agency's own complaints procedure first, then take it to their redress scheme.

How do I complain if my agent has done this?

Start with the agency's formal complaints procedure, which they have to give you in writing. If eight weeks pass without a resolution you are satisfied with, or you receive a final response sooner, take the complaint to their redress scheme, which will be The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme. Both can award compensation. Trading Standards is the route for the enforcement side rather than for your personal remedy.

Common questions about agents and in-house services

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, and the seller stays anonymous until they choose an agent to speak to. The point of comparing before you instruct is that you pick the agent on the quality of their valuation, fees and strategy, then hold them to it.