Legal to ask another buyer to withdraw accepted offer?

undetterred

Matty12 wrote: »

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

as you kept upping the offer,perhaps the vendors thought you were messing about.
maybe you should have gone in with a firm offer not far off the asking price?

poppysarah

FTBFun wrote: »

Has the economy collapsed?

Do you think we're not in as much mess as if house prices had dropped by 70%

We're about to have massive cuts to every aspect of public sector! Wages and pensions need cutting massively too.

FTBFun

poppysarah wrote: »

Do you think we're not in as much mess as if house prices had dropped by 70%

We're about to have massive cuts to every aspect of public sector! Wages and pensions need cutting massively too.

I don't think it as bad as is made out. Doom and gloom sells more papers after all.

This has gone a bit OT hasn't it?

Matty12_2

undetterred wrote: »

as you kept upping the offer,perhaps the vendors thought you were messing about.
maybe you should have gone in with a firm offer not far off the asking price?

Thanks for this, I agree we shoudl've started off a lot higher. We offered only 4.44% under the asking price, but I think it should've been only 2% upon reflection.

I'm going to ring the negotiator now and ask about putting in a higher offer (am a bit reluctant to gazump as then someone could do that to us, and I also had written in the note to the vendors that we did not wish to gazump but we would've offered more if we had known that was what was needed)

I think I will also ask about the other buyers and if they would withdraw.
Thanks everyone for your input!

jockosjungle

Looks like you are in an auction to be honest, the seller and EA must be rubbing their hands!

Can't see the point in paying the others to withdraw, not sure how you'd even get the message to them in all honesty. Its not an EA job to get you a cheaper price. Also it wouldn't guarantee the house was yours as other offers might come in

Have you got a rightmove link to the house you are buying? It sounds like putting offers in on the house might be some easy money

R

QTPie

We attempted the same thing - to pay a buyer to release the purchase to us (yes you can go to the seller with a higher offer - and gazump - but we are just not like that... ).

We were looking in an equally tough Market - large family homes in Bath. We were looking for a home for the next 25+ years, unfortunately so were the buyers.... Despite a very generous offer of compensation, they wouldn't budge...

So put youself in the other buyers shoes... How much would you accept to give up the house? You could be talking more than you think... (if it is their ideal home, they will not give it up for a couple of grand...). And be prepared for disappointment...

QT

Voyager2002

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.

Your second idea is a good one: that is how my sister found her home (also in London).

myhouse_2

Move on and find another property to bid for. It's a buyers market.