Sealed Bids By Email

zipbuttons

I'm after a house which is being sold by sealed bids. I've just been informed they will accept bids by email.
This is surely NOT a sealed bid.
Is email acceptable? Emails can be opened, read and marked as unread before the allotted time, and another buyer informed of the contents by the agent.
On the initial adverts it was being sold 'by informal tender'. described as the 'sealed bid' or 'Scottish' process.

If anyone could clear this up for me I'd be grateful. Thanks Zippy.

Oh! and hello everybody

agrinnall

What does your solicitor say about the process? Perhaps there is a secure email function available between solicitors that would allow email bids to be effectively sealed until the closing date.

googler

Is the property being sold in Scotland?

Yes, e-mails can be read before the allotted time, and you have to take the selling agent on trust that they don't broadcast the content.
Same as when bids arrive before closing date on Scottish properties, you take it on trust that the selling agent won't disclose the first to arrive to any subsequent bidders.

Whilst you describe 'sealed bids' as a Scottish process, there's nothing in law in Scotland which says that sellers or their agents are forbidden from viewing the content of any offer letter prior to closing date/time. The letter doesn't have to stay in the envelope, essentially.

zipbuttons

The property is in England. I've sent my bid by mail with supporting documentation to the estate agent. So that's that.
I know the agent is acting as seller for one of the potential buyers and I feel that if the agent was able to divulge the email bid to his buyer/seller it wouldn't be a sealed bid.

I've emailed my solicitor about the legality of emails but have yet to hear back from him.

amblondon

There's really not much difference between an email that arrives early, read and the contents of which are divulged...and a letter which arrives early, is opened and etc. etc.

There's no law governing sealed bids, so legality doesn't come into it!

Asif

dacouch

Why don't you send the email at the very last minute?

G_M

If it is in England, they can arrange it how they want.

Until Exchange of Contracts the vendor can sell how they want (and/ or delegate the process to their agent)

googler

googler wrote: »

Whilst you describe 'sealed bids' as a Scottish process, there's nothing in law in Scotland which says that sellers or their agents are forbidden from viewing the content of any offer letter prior to closing date/time. The letter doesn't have to stay in the envelope, essentially.

There's likely to be few cases whe a sealed letter is involved, anyway. Since closing dates on properties are usually expressed as a date and time, offers tend to be faxed from buyer's agent to selling agent in a window just before the closing time.

propertyman

zipbuttons wrote: »

On the initial adverts it was being sold 'by informal tender'. described as the 'sealed bid' or 'Scottish' process.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Proof that an EA being paid for their time is talking utter drivel. If it was the Scottish process that bid is binding, it's a contract.

The idea of sealed bids is that no-one get to read them:eek:..... Unless it goes to a third party you are reliant on the trust of the agent.

In my GP firm's case it came up a long time ago and we set up a "the property"@"nice chaps and a lady".co.uk in a password protected word file.

E mail offerers are asked to send call or fax the password up to a hour after the bids close,earlier if they want.

zipbuttons

propertyman wrote: »

The idea of sealed bids is that no-one get to read them:eek:..... Unless it goes to a third party you are reliant on the trust of the agent.

That is my concern. I don't trust EA's much anyway, and the fact that this lot are acting in a dual capacity for one of the bidders (post #4) is unsettling.

Thanks to everyone who's replied so far. Zippy.

googler

zipbuttons wrote: »

That is my concern. I don't trust EA's much anyway, and the fact that this lot are acting in a dual capacity for one of the bidders (post #4) is unsettling.

If the seller and agent really WANTED to tie up a deal with the bidder who's also selling through this agent, don't you think they would have done so without the palaver of inviting sealed bids? Why would they bother, if they could get an acceptable offer out of the other bidder?

Moreover, now that they've gone to sealed bids, why would they favour the other bidder over you, given that they couldn't get an acceptable offer before?