gazumping, is it right or wrong?

btloptingout

The trouble is many people use the term Gazumping/Gazundering when the term is not appropriate.

Gazumping/Gazundering is the deliberate re-negotiation of a deal when the other party has literaly reached a point of no return.

Gazumping/Gazundering is not:
- Re-negotiation that occurs following results of a survey.....afterall typically an offer is "subject to survey"
- Taking/making a better offer at the early stage in the process before any costs have been incurred (survey, solicitors etc).

Gazumping/Gazundering is pretty dishonourable and I wouldn't condone anyone doing it......but the world is full of dishonourable people.

Romani_Ite_Domum

btloptingout wrote: »

Gazumping/Gazundering is not:
- Re-negotiation that occurs following results of a survey.....afterall typically an offer is "subject to survey"
- Taking/making a better offer at the early stage in the process before any costs have been incurred (survey, solicitors etc).

I would agree with the first part of the above but not the second.
Once an offer has been accepted, an agreement has been made. It matters not that no expense has been incurred.

In the OPs case, in course of a few days the vendor accepted a better offer. They should have not accepted the offer in the first place knowing that they had another viewing the next day.

IMHO it is wrong and should be punished by the god of Karma.

btloptingout

Romani_Ite_Domum wrote: »

I would agree with the first part of the above but not the second.
Once an offer has been accepted, an agreement has been made. It matters not that no expense has been incurred.

In the OPs case, in course of a few days the vendor accepted a better offer. They should have not accepted the offer in the first place knowing that they had another viewing the next day.

IMHO it is wrong and should be punished by the god of Karma.

Technically you might be right.....but with all misdemeanours there's different levels of severity.....

Personaly I wouldn't take exception to a vendor who accepted another offer within 2 days of mine, I wouldn't consider myself "gazumped"......I would however be pretty !!!!!! with a vendor who did it to me after incurring much expense and hassle.

If the buyer can make an offer "subject to survey" then it is not unreasonable for the vendor to accept the offer on the basis "subject to not getting a much better offer prior to that survey being done".

saunaboy

...somebody was telling me that it's a buyer's market at the moment. It quite clearly isn't then !!!

Romani_Ite_Domum

btloptingout wrote: »

Technically you might be right.....but with all misdemeanours there's different levels of severity.....

Personaly I wouldn't take exception to a vendor who accepted another offer within 2 days of mine, I wouldn't consider myself "gazumped"......I would however be pretty !!!!!! with a vendor who did it to me after incurring much expense and hassle.

If the buyer can make an offer "subject to survey" then it is not unreasonable for the vendor to accept the offer on the basis "subject to not getting a much better offer prior to that survey being done".

As long as there is openess in this then no problem.
EAs/Vendors should market the house as SSTBO.
Then the original buyer has the option the tell the vendor where to go.

Of course this goes both ways..... SSTBFSB

CB1979_2

saunaboy wrote: »

...somebody was telling me that it's a buyer's market at the moment. It quite clearly isn't then !!!

all depends where you're buying

wecanhelpu

Gazumping / Gazundering :

Great when you can do it.
:money:




Bad when it's done to you.

:mad:

prudryden

wecanhelpu wrote: »

Gazumping / Gazundering :

Great when you can do it.
:money:




Bad when it's done to you.

:mad:

The facts of life in a nutshell.:T

Gold_Shogun

arthur_dent wrote: »

I have just been gazumped by another couple and I am not too happy about it. I was wondering what other peoples opinions on this matter are, please?

It's dishonourable & unrighteous, but for most people, business is business in terms of maximising "profit" (especially in times of rampant HPI).

Take hope however, that not everybody does it ... For example, my dad is selling his 10-bedsit Georgian letting house in Margate at circa £325k and found a (mortgage) buyer almost instantly ... A few days later, a second (cash) buyer turned up & offered him £350k to gazump, but my dad turned him down flat on the basis that "he'd already shaken hands on the deal" ... The first buyer turned out to be a "tyre-kicker", so my dad has now offered it to the second potential buyer at the original £325k price, so the new buyer is well chuffed.

Mind you, my dad is very "Old School", and he's quite happy as he bought the house way back in the mid-1960's and is now retiring.

mr218

As a practice it is not good. but the house buying selling process is such that it encourages and in fact sometimes forces people to behave like that.

a buyer might complain about gazumping, but once the offer is accepted and the house is off the market, you learn that the chain free buyer is actually going to put his house on the market rather than rent it out as he had initially hinted at. or after a month and more there is no survey or the solicitor is difficult to get hold of.

similar circumstances with gazundering as well.

if they had a process like the continent where once an offer is accepted you have a 7 day cooling off period and you also pay a deposit, then people will not make flippant offers and sellers cannot change their mind willy nilly.

as long as there are so many uncertainities in the system and the process is a long drawn out one, such things are to be expected. it is sometimes panic and not always greed that causes people to gazump and gazunder.

personally i would not gazump once i had a good offer and had accepted it. i might go in favour of another buyer if i found that they were in a better position to complete quickly. not great for the first buyer, but i have to safeguard my interests first.

arthur dent, since you are not selling (i assume that) you must be in a great position to buy. show that you mean business and are a serious buyer and also dont brook any more viewings once your offer has been accepted.