Agent has accepted more then 1 offer

Annie1960

You are not sure whether the race is coming from the vendor, or the agent. There are a couple of agents in this area who use this approach. It is not the vendors doing this, and vendors may not even be aware.

Your first task should be to clarify whether this is coming from the vendor or the agent.

rosie383

m_13 wrote: »

They had already accepted an offer before ours but she had failed to meet an exchange deadline. The vendor instructed them to market it again. Getting the contract and paperwork back from her solicitor was one of the problems as the vendor's solicitor was hopeless and they wouldn't reissue it.

I would ask for more specifics. My friend had a similar thing and was told that she had a month to exchange and complete or the buyer would be withdrawing their offer. She was lucky that just the right property came along at precisely that time. Most people couldn't meet a deadline like that. It may be that they have very unrealistic expectations and will do the same to you.

princeofpounds

Even though the ombudsmen said they are only to accept one offer?

I wouldn't place too much weight on it. As much as they call themselves an ombudsman they have fairly limited powers. They might write you a letter slapping the wrist of the estate agent, but that's about it.

DRP

babychan wrote: »

Even though the ombudsmen said they are only to accept one offer?

Not sure what the Ombudsmen can/will do about it. Not a lot I'd imagine.

Babychan

Thanks everyone for the input. So if we decided to go ahead at what point do we have to pay for the survey? I just want to know at what point I can pull out of it in case the other offers get in there first

stator

Babychan wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the input. So if we decided to go ahead at what point do we have to pay for the survey? I just want to know at what point I can pull out of it in case the other offers get in there first

Usually you pay for the survey at the point of mortgage application. If you send a cheque it will obviously slow things down a bit.
Check with the bank on timescales for the survey in your area. Some have a backlog

Surrey_EA

At the risk of being pedantic, the bank will only carry out a valuation not a survey as such. You should be able to cancel the valuation up until the day it is due to be carried out, without being charged.

Whilst it is a bit of a crappy thing to do, I'm not aware of any reason why a seller cannot accept two offers. It's rare, but contract races still occur sometimes, I would always advise a client against pursuing this strategy, but he who pays the piper.....

Mallotum_X

This is going to be a headache. To be honest offering more when you knew there was another offer isn't a great thing to do and also shows how the vendor thinks.

Walk away. And tell the agent and vendor why you are not proceeding

m_13

rosie383 wrote: »

I would ask for more specifics. My friend had a similar thing and was told that she had a month to exchange and complete or the buyer would be withdrawing their offer. She was lucky that just the right property came along at precisely that time. Most people couldn't meet a deadline like that. It may be that they have very unrealistic expectations and will do the same to you.

We met the deadline with two days to spare but it took a lot of hard work and daily chasing of everybody concerned. The estate agent made it very clear that their client had already been let down by the previous buyer and we had to prove we were serious. However, on the day of exchange it didn't happen because they weren't ready. Nor the next day and we were worried that they'd found somebody else. Thankfully we did exchange after a few days and completed on time. It was stressful because we couldn't arrange anything until exchange took place as we didn't have confidence that we were going to get the house.