Legal to ask another buyer to withdraw accepted offer?

Matty12_2

Hi,
Can anyone advise me on the legality of this?
We've been searching for a home to buy (first time buyers) for 11 months now and not had much luck. Last week, we made an offer on a property that was rejected and we kept upping it until it was £50 over the asking price. However, our offer was rejected and a higher one accepted.
Would it be legal to ask the estate agent to ask the other buyer to withdraw their offer and we would pay them some compensation for their costs/stress? Their offer was accepted (and ours rejected) on Thursday (two and half business days ago) so I imagine they wouldn't have spent much yet. I thought that if it was an investor they might consider it.....
The EAs seem to work on different negotiators to the buyers and several of them working on the same property. So I am not sure where the EA fee from the sellers would go. Obviously if it is to the negotiator than it may be to another negotiator than the one I am dealing with which would theoretically mean I would have to compensate them as well.
And I realise we'd have to match the offer so the seller would not lose out.

So, is it legal for us to offer this? Or is it just considered bribery and illegal.

I'm just so disappointed to have lost this property, it's the best we've seen in the whole 11 months and quite individual too, so it's not like another will come along just like it.

Please, any advice would be helpful

Thankyou

twirlypinky

Maybe they've been looking for 12 months? How would you feel if you'd get your offer accepted and they contacted you in that way? I think i would think "what a bloody cheek!" and say no, personally.

maninthestreet

Why not just up your offer so that it's better than the offer that's been accepted?
The EA will probably laugh at your suggestion that the other buyer withdraws their offer in return for some compensation - the EA works for the vendor and is under an obligation to get the best price for their property.

poppysarah

The sane thing to do is calm down, take a deep breath and find another property to buy.

Matty12_2

I'm guessing that it is legal then.

I realise that it is cheeky and I would expect that unless they want to make a quick couple of thousand over the weekend then they would reject such an offer. I would as well, but maybe I would consider it if I was an investor and was not looking for somewhere to live.

And I don't wish to gazump them. When I made my offer initially I asked the negotiator whether the property would be taken off the market if my offer was accepted and was assured it would be. If I were to go in with a higher offer then there is nothing to stop the other buyers doing the same next week.

I have already put a letter through the door to the vendors (I did it on the day our offer was rejected) stating that if anything should go wrong with the current offer then we would be interested and very flexible with timing (either quick or slow depending on what they would want), and that we would've offered more than we did, but were ill advised by the negotiator, so I can't think of anything else to do.

justjohn

its a battle (a dangerous one) of who is willing to pay more....Assuming its england thats is lol

Matty12_2

poppysarah wrote: »

The sane thing to do is calm down, take a deep breath and find another property to buy.

Thanks :-)

I know, but this is quite an individual property and as far as I know only another 9 like it in the area we are looking in.
I'm just gutted as I thought this was "the one"
Am also thinking of letter boxing the other 9 and asking if they are interested in selling.

Matty12_2

justjohn wrote: »

its a battle (a dangerous one) of who is willing to pay more....Assuming its england thats is lol

yep - London, probably the craziest market in the UK

andrewmp

Matty12 wrote: »

I realise that it is cheeky and I would expect that unless they want to make a quick couple of thousand over the weekend then they would reject such an offer. I would as well, but maybe I would consider it if I was an investor and was not looking for somewhere to live.

And I don't wish to gazump them. When I made my offer initially I asked the negotiator whether the property would be taken off the market if my offer was accepted and was assured it would be. If I were to go in with a higher offer then there is nothing to stop the other buyers doing the same next week.

I have already put a letter through the door to the vendors (I did it on the day our offer was rejected) stating that if anything should go wrong with the current offer then we would be interested and very flexible with timing (either quick or slow depending on what they would want), and that we would've offered more than we did, but were ill advised by the negotiator, so I can't think of anything else to do.

What if you paid them a couple of thousand and then someone else put in a higher offer than you afterwards?

Thermidor

Matty12 wrote: »

Thanks :-)

I know, but this is quite an individual property and as far as I know only another 9 like it in the area we are looking in.
I'm just gutted as I thought this was "the one"
Am also thinking of letter boxing the other 9 and asking if they are interested in selling.

You obviously really want the place, co up your offer. You'll only regret years down the line. If it's unique chances are you'll never get the chance to buy one like it again, so go for it. A few thousand extra isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things, especially when it will be worth 3 times what it is now in about 15 years time.

Go and buy it and enjoy!

ILW

Are you going to offer them cash for withdrawing their offer?