"Public Notice" House Sales - My Experience

Slinky

This happened to a property a friend of mine bought. They'd been looking for ages but never seen this property advertised. They happened to find out about it at a party. Turned out the lady owner had gone into a home miles away and a solicitor miles away was dealing with the sale via the local EA. The EA had received an offer on the property and a sale was proceeding. My friend tried to book an appointment to view but the agent refused to let them view. Fortunately the owner's friend had a spare key, and this was a lady who was the mother of my friend's friend who had told her about the house, at the party. The keyholder let my friend in and gave her the details of the solicitor. My friend communicated with the solicitor and gazumped the offer by £10K. The agent told my friend what she had done 'wasn't very nice' to the existing purchaser. No interest in getting the best price for the vendor (their customer) then..........

domcastro

Gazumping is not nice and someone probably lost a lot of their money. I hope the house has hidden problems and costs your friend a fortune.

Slinky

domcastro wrote: »

Gazumping is not nice and someone probably lost a lot of their money. I hope the house has hidden problems and costs your friend a fortune.

What, gazumping somebody who an estate agent lined up to do a nice little 'deal' with isn't acceptable? My friends had been looking in that part of town for weeks and had been into the agents and weren't given details of it. They only didn't drive down that street looking as property rarely comes up there.

The lady owner and her solicitor were miles away so had no idea what was going on. The agent wasn't marketing it properly so that he could pretend there was no demand for it so he could do a favour for a friend/developer.

There were no problems, my friend got a nice property she was happy to pay an extra £10K for, the owner got a decent price for it and the gazumped person got what they deserved...... nothing.

domcastro

How do you know they were friends or had "done a deal"? That's just an assumption to justify the bad behaviour

Slinky

And how do you know they hadn't done a deal?

The vendor could have chosen to go with the original purchaser should they have wished.

DVardysShadow

domcastro wrote: »

How do you know they were friends or had "done a deal"? That's just an assumption to justify the bad behaviour

It seems that the only people who were upset were the Agent and the intending buyer. Obviously, the agent had not done his duty to his client to get the best price, resulting in the loss to the intending buyer.

As the property does not seem to have been properly advertised, the Agent does not appear to have had clean hands.

Bluemeanie_2

I sort of suffered this, but from another perspective. Although in the long run I think it was fate and worked out for the best. And luckily I did not lose any money. I still do not know the real ending though.

In mid 2007 I put an offer in on a maisonette, leasehold. It was a repossession, however Spencers EA specifically chose to say to me "we do not accept anymore offers". The offer was advertised as normal and on the 7th day I was phoned and told the vendor, which was either the mortgage company or an agent acting on behalf (you know the score) had accepted a higher offer. The wanted me to put in a counter offer. I chose not too on principle and walked away. Luckily I phoned my conveyancer and she said the council had not done the searches yet so was able to refund me in full.

When I moaned they couldn't grasp that I was angry that they had CHOSEN to specifically state, "We do not accept anymore offers". I didn't ask anything along these lines, he just came out with it. So my argument was "why say something that isn't true" when they just kept saying "we HAVE to accept more offers because it is a reposession". They just couldn't get that is not what I was complaining about, I was complaining that the EA lied, that should not be tolerated or allowed in any profession. I do not think it is right for something like this to become accepted practice.

I don't find the above behaviour particularly odd, but what I find off is, I checked on ourpropery for ages afterwards and the last sale date is still 2004. It never was updated to show the 2007 sale, which I find extremely odd. Also the new offer was never advertised etc.

I still find the whole thing strange whenever it occurs to me, that it never shows up on the land registery.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detail.html?incode=8AP&streetName=Queensway&locality=Barwell&columnToSort=DEED_DATE&sortOrder=ascending&summaryIndex=0&outcode=LE9&country=england&locationIdentifier=POSTCODE^471952&buildType=1&propertyType=0&yearSelection=20&originalIncode=8AP


last transaction 2004?? Odd. It was number 10

Anyway it did me good in the long run. I changed jobs not long after and was able to afford a freehold house. The EA wa useless in that respect too, I asked about ground rent and maintence charge. Was told it was £10 ground rent that was it. Phone the council who owned the freehold and they said you had to have their buildings insurance and there was another charge, adding up to another £1k a year. It would have come to light eventually so why the EA did just not tell me or make more of an effort to find out I'll never know.

katejo

Slinky wrote: »

What, gazumping somebody who an estate agent lined up to do a nice little 'deal' with isn't acceptable? My friends had been looking in that part of town for weeks and had been into the agents and weren't given details of it. They only didn't drive down that street looking as property rarely comes up there.

The lady owner and her solicitor were miles away so had no idea what was going on. The agent wasn't marketing it properly so that he could pretend there was no demand for it so he could do a favour for a friend/developer.

There were no problems, my friend got a nice property she was happy to pay an extra £10K for, the owner got a decent price for it and the gazumped person got what they deserved...... nothing.

I absolutely agree with the above. Did the seller know about illegal antics of the EA and the dealer who wanted a cheap deal?

Bluemeanie_2

Hmmmm I have mixed opinion on this. I was "gazumped" on my first attempt at purchasing a property and I was furious! But as it all worked out for the best, deep down I am glad.

When I went to buy my house, I was a FTB and it was vacant, the vendor having already moved to a LA bungalow so he was eager for a quick sale. I put in a lower offer (for prices at the time - boy am I glad as now house worth less than I paid, so glad I did not pay going rate).

The house I bought was still being marketed and had viewings etc. Taylors told me they do not encourage gazumping and would immediately remove the house from the market. They did mention that the house had an offer in on it, but the vendor would not remove the property as the people had to sell their house first and as the vendor wanted a quick sale, he had told them that if a FTB buyer comes along he would accept their offer for a quick sale. So I suppose I sort of gazumped them.

I think all depends, as with everything what angle you are looking at it from. When your a vendor, your house is worth £90k, when your the prospective purchaser, the house is worth £85k. When your stuck with a huge legal bill, Solicitors are rip off merchants, when you are a solicitor, you could give a huge monolouge on why your fees are justified etc etc, won't go on listing more examples, I'm sure you get the drift!

ik1

Unfortunately there are dishonest people in all walks of life but perhaps more in the property business than anywhere else. My brief dealings with EAs is that they are one of the most dishonest people I have come across where morals and itegrity do not come into it when they act for someone and I would hate to employ someone like that to sell my house or anything for that matter.

I have had a recent case of a repo which I tried to buy...viewed it early...EAs were very happy to show me around couple of times. I put in an initial offer...EA told me someone else has also put in the same offer and I should increase. They didnt publish the price...every time I asked they said next week, when I did put in a higher offer they took about 3-4 days to come back to me...asked me for further proof of deposit which I had already provided. Then in the end told me someone has been ready to exchange for 5 days. Just complete timewasters and even though my understanding is that the EAs should work to get the best possible price until exchange they didn't care as the EA told me the company have their money back so who cares about the previous owner.

So in short buying a house is a bit of a lottery, there is no transparancy and yeah if you can offer some bribes to the EA you will get the house as there are agents who do take bribes and make money from the buyers and sellers!!! rant over!:mad: