Last reviewed: 22 October 2026. If you are buying a home in the UK, you will almost certainly be asked to prove who you are and where your money comes from, often more than once. Some estate agents now ask buyers to pay for that check. This guide explains who is legally responsible for anti-money laundering (AML) checks, whether you have to pay, what agents typically charge and what the check involves. There is also a section for agents on how to handle the cost fairly.
Estate agents are covered by the MLRs and supervised by HMRC. Their client is usually the seller, but regulation 4(3) treats an estate agent as entering into a business relationship with the purchaser as well as the seller, “at the point when the purchaser’s offer is accepted by the seller”.
From that moment the agent must carry out customer due diligence on you: confirm your identity, screen you against sanctions and politically exposed person lists, understand the transaction and, where the risk calls for it, check your source of funds. Your conveyancer has its own, separate duty to do the same, and your mortgage lender runs its own checks too. That is why you may be asked for the same documents several times.
For more on what agents must do, see our guide to AML requirements for UK estate agents.
No law requires buyers to pay for an estate agent’s AML check. The legal obligation, and the cost of meeting it, sits with the regulated firm. Whether to pass that cost on is a commercial decision for the agent.
Because the buyer is not usually the agent’s client, an AML fee charged to a buyer is unusual and has been criticised in the industry. In 2024 property commentator Henry Pryor said buyers asked to pay should “firmly decline” to do so. On the other hand, some agents argue the checks carry a real cost in software, staff time and training, and that the buyer is one of the people being checked.
If an agent does charge you, consumer protection law expects the fee to be clear before you commit. National Trading Standards guidance asks agents to disclose the price of their services, including any compulsory extras, to buyers in or alongside the property particulars. If a fee was not disclosed, ask the agent to explain it, and raise it with the agent’s redress scheme if you are not satisfied.
There is no standard fee. Examples reported in the trade press and by buyers include:
| Example | Reported charge |
|---|---|
| Purplebricks, 2023 | £60 per buyer and seller |
| A regional agency, 2024 | About £40 per purchaser |
| Published agency policies | £35 plus VAT per person |
A 2023 Estate Agent Today reader poll found that 72% of agents did not charge for AML checks, 17% did and 11% were considering it. Conveyancers usually include the cost of their own ID checks in their quote.
A typical estate agent AML check for a buyer takes a few minutes on your phone:
If you are buying through a company or a trust, the agent will also need to identify the people who own or control it.
A failed check usually means the agent needs more information, not that you have done anything wrong. Common reasons are a name mismatch between documents, a recent change of address or a possible match against a screening list that turns out to be someone else. Send the extra documents requested and the agent can usually complete the check.
If the agent cannot complete its checks at all, regulation 31 of the MLRs says it must not carry out the transaction and must consider whether to make a suspicious activity report. Agents are not allowed to tell you whether a report has been made.
The rules are different for renting. Letting agents only have to run AML checks on lets with a monthly rent of £10,000 or more, and in England the Tenant Fees Act 2019 limits what tenants can be charged to a short list of permitted payments. An AML check fee is not on that list. See our guide to AML checks for letting agents.
Whether you absorb the cost or pass it on, three things keep you on the right side of buyers and regulators:
The simplest option is often to absorb the cost into your selling fee. With AML Buddy you pay per check, with no monthly subscription and no minimum volume, so you pay only for the checks you run. Each party verifies themselves through one secure link, and you get a timestamped report for your HMRC file. See pricing.
There is no law that says the buyer must pay. The Money Laundering Regulations put the duty to check you on the estate agent and on your conveyancer. Some agents pass on the cost as a fee; if they do, it should be made clear before you commit, and you can ask what it covers.
Charges reported in the trade press and by buyers range from around £35 plus VAT to £60 or more per person. Many agents do not charge buyers at all.
Under the Money Laundering Regulations an estate agent is treated as having a business relationship with the buyer as well as the seller once the seller accepts the buyer's offer, so the agent must carry out customer due diligence on the buyer.
Each regulated firm is responsible for its own checks. Your conveyancer and the estate agent are both covered by the Money Laundering Regulations, so each of them must be satisfied about who you are and where your money comes from.
In England, the Tenant Fees Act 2019 only allows letting agents and landlords to charge tenants a short list of permitted payments, and an AML check fee is not one of them.
If the agent cannot complete its checks, the regulations say it must not proceed with the transaction. In practice the sale cannot go ahead through that agent until the checks are done.
