Seller backing off after accepting an offer

myhouse_2

catfish50 wrote: »

Sensible buyers (in my opinion) will offer what they're willing to pay for a property, rather than risk losing it by playing around with lower offers.

That thought must be their comfort, now that they've lost to a rival buyer who offered the asking price.

It's gazumping - simple as that. It happens, there are many reasons why it happens, but it's not nice. So let's not pretend that it's somehow the fault of the buyer for not offering asking price.

laurel7172

I was also pregnant when we had an offer accepted on a house, by a man who had spent the whole of the viewing telling us how honourable he was, and hoping we were the same...bad sign, really. Decent people don't usually feel the need to tell you they're decent, do they?

Anyway, he allowed in a surveyor for a full structural survey one morning, and pulled out in the afternoon.

It's beyond annoying, but there's absolutely nothing you can do. I spent an afternoon cuddling my toddler to remind myself what really mattered. You're seven months pregnant, take care of yourself. It will all be water under the bridge in a year x

flora48

I feel foryou, unfortunately this is property law in England, nothing is binding until exchange of contracts even though we all incur expense in getting to that stage. The whole system is set to fail, apparently one in three sales fall through. The law needs changing. Hope you will be able to retract your notice. All the best fro your new arrival.

evansmummy

It's so frustrating when something like this happens. You have to hope and pray your vendor is of the same mindset as you and doesn't mess you about.
I recently almost put an offer in on a house only to be told they were taking it off the market. I consider it a lucky escape before survey money was spent but it was annoying all the same. It was taught me a valuable lesson to be cautious.

mufi

LOLAF wrote: »

Well - I am quite astonished how some of you take the seller's side without even knowing the full story. Why do you think I did something wrong?

I wasn't taking sides; merely responding to your question, and now that I have a little more time, I'll enlarge. You did nothing wrong and the sellers reneged on the deal when they got a better offer, not attractive behaviour.

However, the fact that someone has offered more than you in the current market indicates that this particular property was a) an attractive proposition and b) keenly priced..

The best of luck with finding somewhere.

peaches48

When offering on a property and getting an acceptance for it, you could try making stipluations:

1) The property is removed from the market, now they have accepted your offer.
2) Get the acceptance and the agreement to have the property removed from the market, in writing .
2) If they then do accept another higher offer, they must pay all your costs to date (this could also be written into the agreement.

This would then become a pre-sale agreement. But it would work both ways. If you also pulled out, because you changed your mind or decided on another property, you would be liable for any costs the seller incurred because of your decision (should there be any).
I think paying a deposit on a written pre-sale agreement, would stop all this gazumping. People hopefully would start to be responsible in the way they act.