Agent has accepted more then 1 offer

babychan_2

So we put in for an offer on a house and it was accepted and we got an email saying this "Thank you for your offer. I can confirm that it is an acceptable figure and the property will be secured to whoever can get a survey booked in on behalf of the bank first".

So to me that sounded like they have accepted more then 1 offer, I rang up the agent and they said yes they have accepted more then 1 offer so now its a race to see who gets the survey in first.

I then rang then property ombudsmen because as a first time buyer I am not clear on what is allowed and what isn't. They confirmed this practice is not allowed but I need to make a complaint to the EA first.

And now the EA has listed the house again on right move with a lower asking price basically 1k over what we offered.

I just want to know if anyone has experienced this before and any advice on how I should proceed as I don't want to pay for a survey etc and then find out someone beat me to it as I wont get my money back.

stator

That's quite crappy behaviour. Is this a repossession sale or similar?
Really they should let you know up front if it's going to be a "Contract Race"

babychan_2

Just a normal sale as far as I know

m_13

The property we bought last July was on with two separate agents. They both accepted offers and we were given a deadline to exchange by. When can you book the survey? There were huge delays for our survey due to a shortage of mortgage approved surveyors.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Complain, and also contact the buyer explaining that you have contacted the ombudsman and been advised that this is not on.

It took me 7 weeks to get the bank's valuation survey because of a chronic shortage of surveyors (across most high st mortgage providers apparently)- what was I supposed to do about it?

Hoploz

Surely it's not the agent who has 'accepted' the offers, it's the seller. I would not be happy to deal with a seller behaving like this. They could quite easily keep accepting offers right up to exchange, leaving you wide open to gazumping.

HouseBuyer77

Given they've told you exactly what they're doing I'm not sure what the property ombudsman is able to do? It's certainly not illegal to ask for two people to race to the survey and the first to get there wins. Sometimes you might race to exchange of contracts!

That said it doesn't mean it's a nice thing to do. Given this behaviour and the fact they've already relisted on rightmove for more money they're clearly not interested in doing things 'nicely'. So unless this house is worth a lot of stress, probably more money to beat out higher offers and a very real risk of gazumping (present in all transactions but this seller sounds like they'd be particularly prone to consider other offers, from the agents behaviour they may be actively courting them) just walk away.

audigex

Unless you can't live without this house, turn and walk away immediately. Anyone willing to behave like this will likely have further unpleasant surprises waiting for you down the road.

The fact it's still on the market with two offers "racing" to survey is nonsense, and smacks of either profiteering, or trying to rush a sensible process to cover something up.

And if you've incurred any expenses, consider putting in a complaint with the EA and requesting a refund, followed by referral to the ombudsman. If nothing else, you can cause them some hassle in exchange for the hassle they've caused you by forcing you to go back to square 1.

G_M

Agents don't accept offers. They are acting simply as .... well... the agent to the seller.

It's the seller who.... er.... sells .... the property!

eddddy

So your options include any of the following:

- Withdraw your offer

- Accept the EA's terms and proceed

- Only proceed with a verbal assurance from the EA/Vendor that no other offers are proceeding, and that the property is being taken off the market

- Ask the vendor's solicitor (via your solicitor) to confirm that no offers are proceeding, and that the property is being taken off the market

- Insist on a formal 'lock-out agreement', which will ensure the vendor cannot accept any other offers for a set period of time. (Obviously the vendor must agree to this.)


But your solicitor is likely to charge a few hundred pounds for drawing up a lock-out agreement (and a devious vendor can just delay things until the agreement expires).

If you're interested, here's info about lock out agreements: http://www.traverssmith.com/media/1427641/lock-out-agreements---a-user-s-guide.pdf

(The doc is from a random solicitor's site, I don't know them, and I'm not recommending them.)

babychan_2

m_13 wrote: »

The property we bought last July was on with two separate agents. They both accepted offers and we were given a deadline to exchange by. When can you book the survey? There were huge delays for our survey due to a shortage of mortgage approved surveyors.

Its only the one agent they are selling thru. Not had the time to go to the bank to get the ball rolling yet.