House purchase, gone wrong.

horizon

Hi

Basically we've been Gazumped !

.......and I'm fuming

The woman we were buying the house off, has suddenly decided to sell to someone else for £12500 more than we agreed on the 29th August.

She has blamed the legal process for taking too long, and is using this as an excuse for selling to someone else.
I think this is B0LL0CKS, as an identical house 4 doors down from hers recently sold for £17000 more than we paid. She has seen the pound signs flashing before her eyes, and promptly re-sold at a higher price.

We were due to exchange on the 23rd Oct, and were all due to move at the latest by the 1st Dec.

I am now out of pocket to the tune of something approaching £1000, which had gone on the survey, searches, legal fees, insurance etc, etc...
Also a lot of time and effort has been put in by others (thanks Stefano) now all for nothing.

This has had an effect on the whole chain (8 of us)
We have decided to continue with the sale our house, as we don't want to have to restart that process again.

I'm now having to take more time off work, to start searching for a new property, and will also have to find somewhere to rent for 6 months in the mean time.

I am now considering what to do, by way of venting my anger.

Should I go round there ?
Or write her a letter ?
Or something else ? (any slightly dodgy suggestions by PM please !)

I was hoping to win the lottery last night, so I could gazump her !

Horizon

potnoodle_2

i think it would be very low of you to try and get revenge. understandably you are angry, but its the owners perogative to get the best price for their house just as it is the buyers perogative to back out at any time over survey etc.


i would just keep an eye on the sale and hope it falls flat, best form of revenge if you feel the need. of course if it goes through you could resort to a dirty nappy through the letter box!

A_Nice_Englishman

Once you've sold your house and are living in rented accomodation with cash in the bank you will be in an excellent position to drive a hard bargain.

Should the new buyer be unable to proceed you may even get the house for less than previously agreed. That WOULD be sweet revenge!

crossleydd42

Sadly, this is pefectly legal in England, if immoral. But what would you do if the positions were reversed?

I think it wise to go ahead with your sale. Without the millstone of a house to sell, you'll be in a stronger and be a more attractive bet to a vendor. (No, silly, I'm not talking about your looks!).

reehsetin

you can do i think its a lock out? contract with sellers, basically meaning that they contractually agree not to look at other prospective buyers for x number of months

cwcw

Devil's advocate - Ask a friend to gazump the gazumper with a fake bid. Let the fake offer go through the motions and drag on for a bit, then your friend pulls out. The house is available again.

PS. Not sure about the legality of this! AFAIK though, offers are not legally binding - nothing is signed.

loveandlight

She must have shown someone else around her house after she'd agreed to sell it to you. That's bad. Its one thing to take a higher offer when more than one buyer viewed at the same time and was a bit slow in putting in an offer but by the sounds of it she got greedy and carried on showing people around knowing she'd agreed to sell it to you.

I hope her sale and purchase are fraught with problems so she gets a taste of the upset and financial losses you've suffered. An old cliche I know but you will look back on this and be glad it happened because there is a house out there that you will love so much more than that one.

We are not all like that. We could have got more for our house when our buyers lost their buyer but we gave them time to find another buyer as they were the only ones who offered us a decent offer in the first place and didn't try and low ball us into getting our house on the cheap.

We lost £500 earlier this year due to a house we wanted being downvalued by our surveyor. Our vendor immediately put the house back on the market and sold it to someone else and it sailed through at the same price we'd agreed without their being any probs on valuation. I was gutted at the time but looking back where we are now has proved to be such a better investment and I'm glad we didn't buy that house after all.

dkny_2

This is bad, very bad, i would absolutely hate it, but like someone said it happens, it shouldnt but thats a different story..

I dont think you should take revenge not a wise move! however i do agree with cwcw was kinda funny when i read it lol...

All you can do is either rent till u find a new property u like now and pray everythin will be k, no matter which stage u are at - its still a major worry isnt it till the day u get the keys!

Good luck, and do let us know how u get on,

Roma_3

Just the sort of thing that we all dread and I'm so sorry!! I would have "murderous thoughts" I think but not really practical! SO sorry!

lynzpower

She must have shown someone else around her house after she'd agreed to sell it to you. That's bad. Its one thing to take a higher offer when more than one buyer viewed at the same time and was a bit slow in putting in an offer but by the sounds of it she got greedy and carried on showing people around knowing she'd agreed to sell it to you.

just to discuss this a bit more. I dont think theres anything wrong with continuing to show people round. I had an offer ( under Asking Price ) on my falt which I accepted. However, I had viewers stacked up for the rest of the week.

Now I said I wouldnt stop viewers until I KNEW for a fact that the buyer was serious, that his sol had made good qualitry contact with mine and that the process was all going ahead. How often do you hear of buyers pulling out- VERY!

Another viewer put in an offer of asking price a few days later. I said I wouldnt accept this ( doing myself potentially out of a few grand- not very MSE!) but if the 1st buyer fell through Id get the EA to accept that offer.

In all fairness if someone offered me another 12k id snap thier hand off. How long would it take to earn & save that? Years in my case, probably at least 5 years.

mi-key

While I think gazumping is morally wrong, you have to consider both sides.

If an identical house to hers had come on the market with an asking price £12500 less than hers, how many people would pull out and go for that one instead ?

OK, you may have spent £1000 on stuff, but overall you'd be £11500 better off.

I think the buying process in England & Wales is long overdue a change, and that once an offer is accepted it should be legally binding, or at least there should be a system in place whereby if either person pulls out they have to compensate the other ( as would happen once contracts are exchanged ).