I bought a house - then it was taken away :(

hebawom

So after a bit of negotiation my offer was accepted.
Having seem Phil and Kirsty in action, I asked the estate agent to take it off the market - no more viewings etc. They agreed to all of this and told me to appoint a solicitor and apply for the mortgage etc, which I did.

Then 2 days later they called me and said someone had make a higher offer than mine. I said "OK - and I assume you told them it was already sold and you weren't taking anymore offers". But no, the seller had accepted this higher offer and either I had to increase mine or lose the property.

Obviously I was gutted, but more than this I was totally !!!!ed off at the estate agent. Does anyone think this is wrong?

I told her that she had lied to me, but she said she had arranged no more viewings - this was someone that had seen it previously and she had a legal obligation to pass on the offer to the seller.

This is the second time I've been burnt by estate agents - I feel they are absolute scum and am considering giving up buying all together!

westv

It's all part of the dog eat dog world of house buying and selling I'm afraid.

kunekune

But the trouble is you hadn't bought a house. You haven't got an enforceable contract until exchange of contracts and it's not 'yours' until completion. That's the way it is.

princessamy86

But your EA hasn't done anything! If there were no more viewings, she really does have a legal obligation to pass offers on. It's the vendor you're annoyed with, it was their choice to accept the higher offer- totally out of the EAs control.

Zazen999

It's not your estate agent.....it's theirs and it is also their job to pass on offers to the vendor.

This isn't even as bad as it gets, just wait until you start dealing with solicitors.

In this market, you should be able to find something apt to your needs pretty quickly.

chickmug

Here we go again another let's blame the EA.

Excuse me but the agent takes instructions from their clients - the sellers - so do you not think it may be the sellers to blame. They (the sellers) are not all as 'pure as driven snow'!!!

Strapped

fatpig wrote: »

You're not far wrong there buddy

But not as bad as some of the buyers and vendors

googler

"This is the second time I've been burnt by estate agents - I feel they are absolute scum and am considering giving up buying all together!"

As previous posters have pointed out, the sellers EA takes instruction from their client, the seller. If the seller instructs the agent to accept an offer which the agent has been obliged to pass on, then blame the seller.

"absolute scum", eh?

In a week that's seen press reports of men jailed for abuse of 18-month old children, and when our jails are bursting at the seams with those who've gone out of their way to rob, assault, and injure with malicious intent towards others, I'd like to point out that no-one was hurt or injured in the making of this thread.

You're still in one piece, and unmolested. All that's happened is your offer has been rejected. It's not that bad. It doesn't sound like you're committed to a sale of your current property, so the worst case scenario seems to be that you stay where you are at present until you offer on another property. Hmm?

Max_Headroom_3

hebawom wrote: »

Then 2 days later they called me and said someone had make a higher offer than mine. I said "OK - and I assume you told them it was already sold and you weren't taking anymore offers". But no, the seller had accepted this higher offer and either I had to increase mine or lose the property.

Obviously I was gutted, but more than this I was totally !!!!ed off at the estate agent. Does anyone think this is wrong?

Just out of interest, if after selling your house you later discovered that the estate agent had withheld from you an offer (lets say £10,000 more than you accepted) and let you sell for less than you could have got, what then?

My guess is they would have been "scum" again but for doing the exact opposite.

The problem estate agents have is that they act for the public. Therefore they are automatically reduced to the level of the public they deal with (in this case the vendor taking a higher offer after accepting yours).

Booradley_2

It was called Gazumping years ago and was supposed to be stopped. But whaddaya gonna do?

boo

Pssst

Just make a larger offer,get the other party to keep bidding up,run it to the wire,then drop it.

How satisfying would that be?