Gazumped after paying out for survey.....do we have any rights?

viva999

Wonder if anyone can help? We were recently gazumped on a holiday home after paying over £200 for a survey and a verbal 'sale agreed' with the vendor.
We told the EA that we would only pay out for a survey if they took the house off the market which they promptly did but at the last minute the vendor told us that he'd had an offer for his original asking price and was backing out of the sale!

I'm well aware that this happens to people all the time but don't the estate agents have ANY responsibility towards us as their customers (ie. a code of conduct), after all we've paid out for nothing!!

Also when my partner confronted them about showing people round after the house was supposed to be off the market, he was told the people hasd been 'just passing'
which is highly unlikely as the place was well of the beaten track, at the edgeof a cliff with no 'for sale' sign outside.....highly suspicious!!!
:mad::mad::mad:

Viper_7

Verbal is the key here I think.

Also Estate agents will be happy - the house sold for more, and as it's usually a percentage they will get more for the sale - that's their loyalty and code of conduct!

Just my thoughts, not sure about actual rights.

ILW

There is no contract until exchange has taken place.
Have you uppped your offer?

m1ntie

Unfortunately you are not their client - the vendor is and he/she is paying them well to look after his/her interests. I do however sympathise, I would be very angry if it happened to me.

miss-slide-away

This has just happened to us. If the house is a repossession- the EA is obliged by law to pass on all bids and the bank will want to take the highest. Only at the point of exchange are you safe.

If it is not a repo - then its definatley unethical for the other person to make a move after you have had your offer accepted but there no rights and not much you can do about it except up your offer.

Before you up your bid- check the valuation amount- otherwise you could get into probs with your lender.

I have total empathy for you though- I was devestated when it happened to me, I was furious and actually cried.

This is why the scottish system is better than ours - Lib Dems apparently have this on their agenda- for England to match the scottish system re gazumping

new_home_owner_3

It happened to us luckily we never paid out anything, mind you i know the person who done it, we offered 174999 and it was accepted the house was up for 200,000 pound, ive just heard the other people have offered 195,000:eek: pounds and we were promptly gazumped.

The thing is as i know the people who gazumped me if they do buy it i will have great pleasure in telling them i had a offer 20,000 pound less than theres and it was accepted

To be honest i dont blame the lady for accepting the higher offer, but now she is in a chain, im just waiting for it to fall through and for them to call me, im going to tell them i need time to think about it and then maybe drop another 5000 pound and then say no ive changed my mind.

I would never say yes to the house because of the way the vendor treated us and to go around gazumping people you have to be a bit of a arxehole.

But like i said i still think ill have the last laugh on this one.

new_home_owner_3

viva999 wrote: »

Wonder if anyone can help? We were recently gazumped on a holiday home after paying over £200 for a survey and a verbal 'sale agreed' with the vendor.
We told the EA that we would only pay out for a survey if they took the house off the market which they promptly did but at the last minute the vendor told us that he'd had an offer for his original asking price and was backing out of the sale!

I'm well aware that this happens to people all the time but don't the estate agents have ANY responsibility towards us as their customers (ie. a code of conduct), after all we've paid out for nothing!!

Also when my partner confronted them about showing people round after the house was supposed to be off the market, he was told the people hasd been 'just passing'
which is highly unlikely as the place was well of the beaten track, at the edgeof a cliff with no 'for sale' sign outside.....highly suspicious!!!
:mad::mad::mad:

if i was you i would just offer more then drop it at the last minute you have got nothing to lose after paying for the survey.

PasturesNew

No, no come back as you didn't get to exchange contracts.

It is possible for somebody to have knocked on their door - they might have seen it for sale, then saw it had been removed from the market, but they knocked to find out if it could be bought. I had my house with an agent and changed agents - then I had a knock at the door as somebody had wanted to buy it and had asked the agent about it, but had been told it was removed from the market, so they knocked my door just to find out.

hamblettamaud

for all those reasons i think it would be great practice for both sellers and buyers to put down a deposit in escrow which is forfeit if either party pulls out after so-called verbal contract made.

Cannon_Fodder

miss-slide-away wrote: »

This is why the scottish system is better than ours - Lib Dems apparently have this on their agenda- for England to match the scottish system re gazumping

Not so sure I agree about the Scottish system - ok, it might stop a few gazzumpings, but AIUI every single prospective purchaser BEFORE making an offer has to have a survey/mortgage offer to be able to make their offer...

So, you end up with sealed bids by a set date, 12 people might bid, that's 12 surveys/mortgage offers been done, for 1 person to end up with the house.

Great for job creation in the surveying companies...

People appearing on Locationx3 had, I believe, 7 or 8 surveys worth of costs, as they kept getting out-bid every time.

That just puts pressure on people to "over-bid" in an attempt to secure a property - which is good for the vendor, EA and HMRC, but bad for buyers...

...could explain some parts of Scotland having illusory price retention.

I think a simpler solution, that did not shift the balance of power in the transaction too far, would be to have "compulsory deposits" from both parties - no complex "reasons why forfeited", if it does not complete you forfeit. £1000, to back your word, simple.

viva999

Thanks everyone for your replies!
Yes this damn thing is so frustrating and I didn't think I had a leg to stand on really (but lived in hope). I just think the laws need changing where estate agents are concerned, because if you were buying anything through or from somebody in normal life you have rights...except if its a house!!!! How ridiculous is that??
Thanks Again :-)