A friend of mine just got gazumped. I thought agents were obliged not to accept other offers once a place had gone off the market or are there no rules till exchange of contracts?
Not sure whether there are any “codes of conduct”, or similar, for estate agents but legally neither seller nor buyer are committed until the contract is signed. That’s my understanding anyway. I’ll be interested to hear if I’m out of date.
EDIT: Scottish law is very different, I understand.
Last edited by David_D; 9th January 2020 at 12:54.
Yes, we got gazumped 3 years ago. Absolutely furious at the time as we had accepted and started the process with ours selling, given we had agreed and began proceedings with the new one. The seller changed their mind and "wanted" to sell to somebody else down the road from them?? Even though she was moving 200miles away??
Left us in a pickle that we had no home in 8 weeks time and no house to buy.. we ended up buying a house we had ruled out on our initial search. However this has become the best thing that could have happend and turned out for the best!
I do believe things happen for a reason..
No rules until exchange. By law any offer made must be reported to the vendor, just up to the agent if they allow a viewing to go ahead.
Sometimes you only find out when the solicitor has a duty to notify a second contract has gone out and you are now in a contract race.
In most cases of gazumping:
-The property is one with multiple agents and it's the vendor entertaining the new offer, not the agent you are dealing with.
-The price agreed is very low and was begrudgingly accepted so the agent got the vendor to accept on the understanding viewings would continue.
-The buyer is dicking around so the agent allows viewings to proceed.
-A known cash buying/investor/big boy has turned up and can exchange within 2 weeks so was allowed in and made an offer.
Generally agents hate gazumping as they only get paid once so no need to sell it twice.
Almost exactly the same happened to us and we bought better place for 20% less and we love it. It hurt at the time but we are now friends with the people who eventually bought the original property and it's been a nightmare for them.Originally Posted by Neal666
It’s done now so probably for the best
Only in as much as ‘missives’ are signed much earlier in the process. Once those are signed - either party pulling out, can find themselves liable for the costs to the other party. Those costs may not be known by the offending party - so is not taken lightly.
Happens all the time, happened to us the last 3 times we’ve tried to move most recently last summer
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote