Must an estate agent pass all offers to the seller?

Yes. Estate agents are legally required to pass on every offer they receive to the seller¹. That means an agent cannot quietly bin an offer because it is far below the asking price, because they prefer another buyer, or because they think it has no chance. However low or unusual your offer is, the seller, not the agent, is the person who decides whether to accept, reject or ignore it.

The rule matters because the agent does not work for you. The seller pays the estate agent, and the agent is therefore acting on the seller's behalf². Agents are often trying to get the highest price for the seller rather than for you³, so knowing that every offer must reach the seller is one of the few firm rights a buyer has at the offer stage. This page explains how the rule works, what agents can and cannot tell you about rival bids, why they ask about your deposit money, and how to complain if you think an offer was withheld.

Estate agents must pass on every offer to the seller

The duty to pass on offers applies to every offer an agent receives, whatever its size¹. In practice this means you could technically offer any amount, even one well below the asking price, and the agent must put it to the seller. The agent may tell the seller what they think of the offer, and the seller is free to reject it immediately, but the offer cannot simply be suppressed by the agent.

The rule sits alongside other obligations in the agent's contract with the seller. Agents must pass on all offers promptly in writing, and they must reveal any personal or financial interest they have in offers made on the property⁴. Legally, the estate agent's contract must also use clear terms⁴. So if, for example, someone connected to the agency wanted to buy the property themselves, that interest has to be declared rather than hidden.

Bear in mind that an accepted offer is not the end of the process. When a seller accepts a buyer's offer, usually by verbal agreement through an estate agent, no one is legally tied to sell or buy the property at that point⁶. Passing your offer on and having it accepted gets you to the front of the queue, but the sale only becomes binding later, at exchange of contracts. Until then either side can walk away, which is why some sellers keep marketing the property.

The agent works for the seller, not the buyer

The estate agent is working for the seller, and that is how they make their money⁷. The seller pays the agent for their services, and the agent is therefore acting on the seller's behalf². As a buyer you do not pay the agent's fee, but you are also not the client, and nothing the agent tells you is advice owed to you in the way a solicitor's or mortgage adviser's is.

First-time buyer guides make the point bluntly: estate agents work for the seller, not for you, and they are often trying to get the highest price for them rather than for you³. This is not underhand in itself, it is how the system is set up, but it shapes how you read everything an agent says. Encouragement to raise your offer, comments about "a lot of interest", and pressure to move quickly all serve the seller's objective of achieving the highest price.

If you want someone whose duty is to you alone, that person is a buying agent. Buying agents are like estate agents but they act solely in the interests of the buyer⁸. Most buyers do not use one, and instead rely on their own solicitor or conveyancer for the parts of the purchase where someone is firmly on their side.

What the agent can and cannot tell a buyer about other offers

Agents talk freely about interest in a property, but there is a hard limit on what they may disclose. The agent cannot legally tell you how much past offers were for, though they may hint at how close they were to the asking price⁵. So an agent might say offers are "close to asking" or that a rival bid is "not far off", but they should not quote you another buyer's figure.

This cuts both ways. Other buyers cannot be told your offer amount either, which is why the offer stage often feels like bidding in the dark. The practical response is to do your own research on what similar properties sell for, and to base your offer on evidence rather than on what the agent says about rival interest. If you are making an offer before selling your own property, you might find the seller will only provisionally accept your offer and continue marketing the property until you are able to progress with the purchase⁵.

The process differs in Scotland, where offers are handled differently. Your solicitor must send your offer in writing to the seller's solicitor, and only offers submitted via a solicitor will be considered⁹. Read more about buying a home in Scotland.

Money laundering checks on buyers before an offer goes ahead

Before a purchase progresses, the professionals involved carry out checks on where your money comes from. These are anti-money-laundering checks, and they apply to the solicitors, lenders and agents handling the transaction. They are not a judgement about you personally: every buyer goes through them.

The checks explain some of the questions you will be asked. If you have been given the deposit as a gift, you will need a letter from whoever gave you the money¹⁰. Savings, inheritance, proceeds from a previous property sale and gifts each need to be evidenced in their own way. Read more about gifted deposits and what evidence you need.

These checks are one reason the offer stage can feel slow, and why agents and solicitors ask questions that may feel intrusive. Answering them promptly keeps the purchase moving; the money cannot properly change hands until the source of it is established.

Complaining about an agent: The Property Ombudsman or The Property Redress Scheme

If you believe an agent failed to pass on your offer, or otherwise acted improperly, you have a route to complain. All estate agents dealing with residential property must belong to a government approved complaints redress scheme². The approved schemes are The Property Ombudsman and The Property Redress Scheme². Estate agents that refuse to join a scheme can be fined².

The process runs in order:

1. Complain to the estate agency first, in writing, setting out what happened and what you want done about it.
2. Give the agency a chance to respond. If you are not satisfied with their resolution, or eight weeks have passed since you first made the complaint, you can refer the matter to the redress scheme⁴.
3. Take the complaint to the scheme the agent belongs to. The Property Ombudsman handles complaints about estate agents¹¹, and an agent's membership of a scheme is a condition of its contract terms⁴.

The legal backing for this comes from the requirement that property agents are required by law to belong to one of the government approved redress schemes, The Property Redress Scheme or The Property Ombudsman¹². The law requires traders such as estate agents to belong to an alternative dispute resolution scheme, though it gives them some choice about which scheme to join¹³.

Redress schemes can look at whether an offer was passed on, whether it was passed on promptly and in writing, and whether any personal interest was declared. They cannot force a seller to accept your offer or reopen a sale that has gone to another buyer, but they can consider compensation where an agent's handling caused you loss. For more on the wider process, see complaining when buying a home goes wrong and making an offer on a house.