Dispute over house sale. Bid after deadline.

[Nine_Lives]

Just a story i was given & it made me curious enough to enquire about the legal side of it...

Basically a workmate of the gf's was interested in a house through farrel & heyworth. There was a deadline on this house bidding according to this website. Deadline comes & goes & gf's workmate is the highest bidder.

Then farrel & heyworth say that someone has come in with a higher bid ... outside of the bidding frame (i.e. the house is no longer my gf's workmates).

This workmate is getting her solicitors onto the job. I just wondered whether they (F&H) could do this, or not? Seems a bit naughty to me. A tactic to get them to up the price perhaps?

Not a house owner myself so haven't even dabbled in the game to know what goes on.

[chewmylegoff]

Asking for sealed bids by a certain deadline by the sounds of it. If so then there's no contractual obligation for them to sell to the highest bidder, and if someone comes along and offers more before contracts are exchanged then the seller is perfectly entitled to sell to that person as well. No point instructing a solicitor in these circumstances, will just cost a load of money and achieve nothing.

[Nine_Lives]

Interesting.

I just compared it to something on the lines of eBay (slightly different i know). Your auction ends, your bidder pays, yet you say hang on a minute, mike down the road just offered me 1p more than you, so there's your money back. It doesn't work like that.

But as i said, i've not dipped into the house buying game before so don't know how it works.

[steve1980]

You really can't compare Ebay to house buying.

[chewmylegoff]

Originally Posted by K_P83

Interesting.

I just compared it to something on the lines of eBay (slightly different i know). Your auction ends, your bidder pays, yet you say hang on a minute, mike down the road just offered me 1p more than you, so there's your money back. It doesn't work like that.

But as i said, i've not dipped into the house buying game before so don't know how it works.

Well that's what it would be like if the bidder was buying the house on eBay or at a property auction. When buying "normally" it is not like that.

Your gf's colleague had not paid anything and had no contractual agreement to acquire the house. She could have walked away at any time up until contracts were exchanged, as could (and did) the seller.

[kingstreet]

Was the property a repossession or an executor sale?

It certainly sounds like it and in this case, the mortgagee in possession or executor is tasked with obtaining the highest possible price.

In the case of a repossession, at the agreement of a sale, the agent places a public notice in the local paper detailing the agreed purchase price and inviting higher offers at any time upto exchange of contracts.

As has been mentioned, before exchange of contracts, no purchase is secure and it is easy for either the vendor, or the purchaser, to pull out.

[ognum]

Sadly they did not have a contract

With the last home we bought which is in an area where homes are sort after and at that time were subject to gazumping the sellers agent insisted on a legal exclusivity contract which was in place 24 hours after the offer was accepted.

This prevented the seller from showing the house to anyone and us locked into a contract (subject to survey). By the end of the month we exchanged contracts.

If either party had really wanted I am sure there would have been a way out, it cost about £400 in legal fees but it did bring some stability to the purchase. Of course you do have to be sure you have the funds for the purchase.