Gazumped

EmJam05

Hey guys,

We have just been gazumped and I just don't know what to do?

Offer accepted a week ago at just £123500 asking price was £125, my house is near completion so we are in a good position and now some guy who seen the house back in jan has offered £126500 and the vendor has accepted.

The vendor had been all for us buying the house as he wanted a family to have it etc

The prob is we don't want to get into a bidding war and then for him to pull out and leave us paying more, so should we just wait and hope this guy pulls out?

This feeling is just awful, the joys of buying a house ah!

Guest101

Well if the offer is genuine, chances are he wont pull out

I would either raise it to 127k, as a FINAL offer, or withdraw, see if they come back to you in afew days.

Infact i'd probably do the second option!

dotdash79

don't forget over 125K you'll have to pay stamp duty so if you was to offer 127 is would cost you £3500 plus £1270 so £4770 thats alot of money to find

Dan-Dan

Pull out and get searching , dont trust this vendor an inch!!

martinsurrey

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Pull out and get searching , dont trust this vendor an inch!!

Agreed, gone back on his word once, nothing to stop him slapping another £2k onto the price on exchange day. He's shown he's not the kind of person to adhere to a deal.

DaftyDuck

Other purchaser will almost certainly drop his offer below the stamp duty threshold, and royally p1ss off the vendor. If I were you, I'd contact the vendor directly, offering £124999, point out the stamp duty threshold, and that you expect the other person to drop their price at some point, and hope your honesty and politeness pays off. If priced at the SD threshold, it's unlikely that it's worth paying over the odds for, as the sums dotdash79 has worked out for you - it gets expensive very quickly!

hazyjo

Agree with DaftyDuck above - the other party are bound to drop their offer to £125k.

I would not want to deal with the vendor. I wouldn't do it to someone for £30k let alone £3k.

Jx

DaftyDuck

I might not want to deal with the vendor... but I would if I wanted their house. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face... but do tread carefully...

The vendor may well be genuinely happier to sell to a family, and the money just pushed him the other way. When the money vanishes (and it probably will), he'll be peeved with the second purchaser, and more likely to do a deal with you. Just don't be pushed. Make your own decisions and STICK to them.

lessonlearned

Emjam - sorry to hear that, it's horrible isn't it.

On the plus side you won't have incurred too many costs.

Have your paid your valuation fee to the lender, if you have get in touch with them immediately. That may not be refundable but it's worth a try.

Have you paid an upfront payment to your Solicitor for searches. Again contact your Solicitor immediately and put a "hold" on everything. With any luck they won't have applied for searches yet so you won't lose any money there.

Whether or not you want to get into a bidding war is entirely up to you, however I suggest that at this stage you just try and minimise any financial damage.

If you do decide to up your offer, as others have pointed out, don't forget the Stamp Duty Thresh-hold.

At any rate I would continue your search. It always pays to have a "Plan B". You might find something just as nice and hopefully a more ethical Vendor.

Good luck.

ValHaller

lessonlearned wrote: »

On the plus side you won't have incurred too many costs.

Have your paid your valuation fee to the lender, if you have get in touch with them immediately. That may not be refundable but it's worth a try.

Have you paid an upfront payment to your Solicitor for searches. Again contact your Solicitor immediately and put a "hold" on everything. With any luck they won't have applied for searches yet so you won't lose any money there.

I agree with the above. Look for another property. This one may come back, but I would play hardball and drop the offer by £1000 on principle.

hazyjo

DaftyDuck wrote: »

I might not want to deal with the vendor... but I would if I wanted their house. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face... but do tread carefully...

I have found it actually puts you off wanting the house anyway. Had it done to me - without them even having another offer! House had been on the market for months with a few agents, but the market was rising. They accepted our offer, then soon after decided they were going to put it back on for £10k more unless we were willing to up our offer! Even if they'd have come back to us accepting the originally agreed price, we'd have told them to stuff it. Would not have dealt with them and the house just felt wrong after that.

Another time, some vendors pulled out for no reason - we'd paid for survey, etc, and we wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole after that if they changed their minds.

Another vendor (arghhhh!) lost the house they were going for, then didn't bother telling us they were no longer going to sell (several weeks later after we'd hung on). Again, it just put us off. Our bottom chain collapsed anyway and there was a lot of bad feeling towards the house.

It's not always because of principles, it can genuinely turn you off the property when you've been mucked around a few times.

Jx