Is it fair for an Estate Agent to refuse to stop marketing a property?

icklejulez

As the title suggests for the 3rd time now we have had an offer accepted on the property but it does need alot of work doing to the property. It was on at 148500 and the maimum we could afford with putting cash aside was 138000 so cheekily we put the offer in on advice from EA. Anyway eventually the vendor said if we'd go to 138500 they'd accepy the offer. Anyway I ring to double check today that the house will go as under offer immediatly and there will be no more viewings and the EA told me they are not allowed to do this. Now I am not completely thick and said to her we've had offers accepted before amd they have been removed from the market immediatly. She said she could try talking to the vendor but as our offer was so low it is unlikely. So we have already had 2 houses fall through thanks to survey's and have had a lot of bad luck. We are homeless with two toddlers in 3 weeks and will prob end up squashed in my parents house(not ideal!). So we dont want to lose the house by threatning to pull out if they continue arranging viewings on the property but neither do we want to find out in 4 weeks time that someone has offered more than us and we will of payed for a surveyor.

Any advice?

bap98189

Of course it is fair, although this should be in consultation with the vendor. Remember, the estate agent acts for the vendor not for the purchaser.

Just because an offer has been accepted doesn't mean the sale will go through. You can pull out at any time until the point of exchange.

Put yourself in the vendor's shoes. Would you trust someone you don't know to come up with the cash or would you continue to seek alternative buyers until the contracts are exchanged. If they take it off the market, they are potentially going to miss out on a buyer who may be interested in the property.

Rick62

Personally I would (and previously have done) make my offer conditional on the property being taken off the market. Why should you incur survey fees etc on a property that is still being marketed? I would say, fine, I'll carry on looking, if you want my offer the property comes off the market.

Of course they might refuse and you might lose the property, but at least you will not have wasted time and money only to have someone else come and offer more.

david29dpo

the vendor can do what they want, but they are unlikely to ever sell if they do this!

[Deleted User]

Will they take it off the market after you have your survey done at least? Otherwise I'd walk away.

se999

It could be worth getting people to go around for free quotes for the major jobs before getting the survey. Maybe they're worried that you're going to want to renegotiate once you find out the total cost of the necessary work, or discover that the total cost is more than you can afford.

At that point, I'd stick them out and say I'm not ready to pay for a survey whilst it's still on the market. But do say exactly how long it will be before the survey will be done, and say you'll chase it to get it done quickly.

thesaint

You haven't even had a survey done, why would they take it off the market?

If I were in their shoes, I would carrry on marketing it. Have the survey done, they would be more inclined to accept your request.

If you are homeless in 3 weeks, this house won't be the one you will be moving to in 3 weeks regardless if they stopped marketing it anyway.

danm

Make your offer conditional on being given a 7-10 day exclusivity period in order to arrange for a survey to be carried out, and to be taken off the market once the survey is completed.

During that time, get a friend to try to arrange a viewing for peace of mind

ashli_2

Hang on, so they've accepted your offer, but they're still taking viewings? That doesn't sound right to me. Surely if they have accepted the offer they have agreed, provisionally, to sell the property to you at the agreed price?

There is no way I would fork out for a survey or searches if the property wasn't even off the market.

icklejulez

Some of you may think Im daft to expect them to stop marketing the property as I havent had a survey done but I have asked them if they will stop marketing it after the survey is carried out and they refused and also I agreed with my offer being low that I will not renegotiate on price after the survey. I have a viewing on saturday to take my Father(window fitter), my uncle(builder and done up loads of properties) and my grandad who was in building trade for 45 years. Valuation wont be arranged till monday when my financial advisor is back in work. Problem is I feel like I should be arranging viewings on other properties.

My mother is good friends with the manager of a different branch 5 miles down the road who advised her to call her if we needed any help. My mum is going to speak to her this morning on my behalf telling her that we want the property to immediatly stop all viewings.

thesaint: I know I wouldn't be moving in in 3 weeks but my mortgage company, vendor, solicitor and EA all arraged to push for a 4 week timescale. So I only had to spend one week at my mothers.

Doozergirl

I don't think you're daft at all.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask for the property to be taken off the mret. If an offer is accepted, it is accepted, they shouldn't be touting for higher offers. If that is their plan they should simply reject your offer.

I give buyers 10 days to arrange the survey, which I will be flexible with as long as they are feeding information that shows they are moving forward with the deal.

After all you've been through as well, you deserve a little peace of mind.