Under offer?!

lovadokrova2010

Hi!
Can someone shed some light on the following please.
We've had our offer accepted by the vendor, and we asked them to take it off the market as our condition. Now they are saying that the prperty will show as under offer provided survey is commisioned within 10 days, but it will not change its status now even though they have accepted the offer.
We're not very happy with this as that obviously depends on the bank and in theory EA can in the meantime show the property to other interested people. We've discussed it with the EA but they are still insisting this is the usual practice.

Please advise

Thanks

whysitallsocomplicated

Hi

to be fair this is fairly standard and something we have done. In our case we wanted the buyer to have made some form of financial commitment by booking the survey and instructing legals before we would show the house as SSTC. we would have shown other people around but made sure they understood we had accepted an offer and wouldnt entertain another while that was proceeding.

Have you got an AIP from your lender? it shouldnt take long to get the survey booked. Both the one on the house we were buying and teh one on the house we were selling were all done in a few days from completing the applications and paying the fees so it hopefully wont be a problem getting it done in 10 days.

Gazumped_2

It is usually to keep it on the market until you have exchanged contracts.
As until then it could fall though. Also the estate agents do it to show that are selling properties.
They should not let anyone view the property while it is under offer though, but they have to pass offers on to the vendor if a potential buyer has already viewed the property.

Edit: Sorry I did not read your post as if you were saying you expecting it to go to SSTC, i thought you were just refering to it being advertised on the market.

BornAtTheRightTime

It's not ideal, but remember the EA's best interest is in not rocking the boat so allowing your purchase to conclude. I can't see an EA in these difficult times showing someone else round now. If they did it might get back to you, then they would have lost you as a buyer for no benefit.
You could insist it's removed before you order the survey if it really worries you, but as a recent vendor I personally would have wanted to see a mortgage survey before taking the house off the market. There are just too many people not able to get mortgages at the moment.

firstaspect

This is fairly standard. You could choose to say you won't continue until they change the status but they will probably say no. When we were selling our house it was kept on the market until the survey had been carried out. I was very happy with that situation as I had no idea how serious the buyer was at that point.

FTBFun

This happened to me and I had a panic on a bit at first (see my first ever post!) but the vendor just wants to know you are a serious buyer. Get that survey booked and you should be fine.

The_Blue_Hatter

Bornattherighttime is right. There are alot of people struggling to get mortgages at the moment and having seen what my sis-in-law just went thru I would recomend the vendor do exactly what they are doing. My sis-in-law agreed the sale price with a purchaser whos mortgage broker advised a survey had been paid for and all was waiting to be arranged. 6 weeks later it turns out they couldnt get a mortgage and nothing had been paid for and the house is now back on the market.

Dont take it personally, prove you have booked the survey and then insist it is removed from the market.

jebervic

Depends how much you want it and if you're prepared to lose it, but I always make it a condition of any offer that the house is taken off the market and no further viewings take place, if they don't agree then I withdraw my offer, I am not going to start the ball rolling if I know its still being shown.

geoffky

you have no money...why should they take it off the market?,,so many deals fall apart when they find out about the £200 phone bill they missed three years ago.

lovadokrova2010

whysitallsocomplicated wrote: »

Hi

to be fair this is fairly standard and something we have done. In our case we wanted the buyer to have made some form of financial commitment by booking the survey and instructing legals before we would show the house as SSTC. we would have shown other people around but made sure they understood we had accepted an offer and wouldnt entertain another while that was proceeding.

Have you got an AIP from your lender? it shouldnt take long to get the survey booked. Both the one on the house we were buying and teh one on the house we were selling were all done in a few days from completing the applications and paying the fees so it hopefully wont be a problem getting it done in 10 days.

We completely understand that the seller wants some security, but the property's been on the market for absolute ages and we really feel that in today's market, where the buyers are few it would be nice of the seller to be fair too. Stating the property as Under Offer does not prevent others who have seen it already from putting in an offer but it does prevent from further viewing which would be a fair game. We have been very forthcoming with the agent - provided them with all the evidence of AIP, deposit amounts etc. From the very beginning we've asked for the property to be taken off the market once the offer is accepted and they didn't disagree, but now they are playing a different song. We did not expect them to put it as SSTC, but seeing how they accepted our offer why not change properties status to Under Offer as it is than obvious that it is under offer. If the survey is not done withing their time frame, they can easily revert it to available again, no? I don't think that is unreasonable

lovadokrova2010

Gazumped wrote: »

It is usually to keep it on the market until you have exchanged contracts.
As until then it could fall though. Also the estate agents do it to show that are selling properties.
They should not let anyone view the property while it is under offer though, but they have to pass offers on to the vendor if a potential buyer has already viewed the property.

Edit: Sorry I did not read your post as if you were saying you expecting it to go to SSTC, i thought you were just referring to it being advertised on the market.

That is exactly what we were wanting to happen - I understand they need it there on their websites to show they are selling properties and all, but to refuse to change its status to Under Offer, when that is obviously what the case is makes me furious. I believe it is the EA rather than seller that's being difficult (don't have very good experience with the EA as you can imagine). It is precisely because I know that they are obliged to follow the rules, which stipulate that they are not to show other people around when the property has had offer accepted So by avoiding to state it as such, Under Offer, they are basically allowing themselves to passby the rules and do as they please. UUghhhh, EA make me furious :mad: