Gazumped.

Steve_Hast

Hi, just seeing if anyone has had any similar experiences really or any advice (unlucky, move on is acceptable advice!), might be a bit long winded but better to give the full story..

I have a bit of spare money and have been looking for a while to get a flat, something fairly small, to rent out to get a better return on my money. I saw a 2 bedroom flat near where I live (which is a better area of Hastings which is not a great town but good rental market and this flat is in the old town which is a good area), it was priced up at £65,000 (with priced to sell stated) which seemed underpriced considering the area and I arranged to viewing the next day, the estate agent said there had been a fair amount of interest but he was showing groups round.

Got a call the next day half hour before I was due to view saying the buyer had accepted an offer and although disappointed I accepted it (this was the Wed after the property had gone up the previous Fri so this shows how popular it was)..on the Fri I got another call from the estate agent saying the person who had a bid accepted could not provide proof of funds and as such the flat was back on the market, arranged a viewing for the next day Saturday.

Turn up on the Sat with a friends Dad who is a builder and there are about 15 other people viewing the property at the same time so you can imagine the chaos! Based on the strength of the property and the interest in it I decided to go to the estate agents that day and made a bid of £70,000 (and proof of funds) which was accepted by the seller that afternoon despite there being a couple of other offers made. I was obviously delighted and got on with sending relevant cheques, identity etc. to the solicitors recommended by the estate agents (well established locally), and thought everything was progressing fine, I responded promptly to all their requests for cheques (they received about £500 from myself).

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I get a call from the estate agent (last Fri 5.30pm) informing me that although he was sorry the sellers solicitors had informed him that they had exchanged contracts that day with another buyer (the property was only on with one estate agent and they took it off the market after my bid was accepted), no further information was given really I assumed they had just offered more money, couldn't get hold of my solicitor until the next week when she said she received a similar phone call from the sellers solicitor informing her of the same thing. If the other person offered more money isn't it common practice to contact me first and give me the opportunity to bid more still? I realise there were no contracts signed so I don't have any standpoint legally but this all stinks to me. Is this common practice?

I realise there is little I can do now other than learn from it (sigh..) and I am just venting really but it just seems a very underhand way of dealing with the sale.

Keeping_Positive

What a pain. Its one thing to lose out but the not being told about it until it was too late would annoy me the most. Fingers crossed you find another bargain soon.