Accepting offer after sealed bid closure

charliewocka

A bit miffed at the moment. My boyfriend put an offer on a house that was accepted yesterday - the estate agents had said sealed bids by close of business on Wednesday. So we were happy yesterday with the result as it's a property he has had his eye on for a long time and the opportunity for it to come on the market appeared recently.


He gets a phone call today to say that they have now taken an offer of £30k over his offer and have put it to the vendor and he needs to put in £35k+ to stay in the game. This is in England to clarify.

I know that this is gazumping, but after the EAs had accepted sealed bids we are fuming and he is having to consider his finances to see if he can stretch the extra distance.


I / We are guessing that there is nothing we can do about this because nothing has been signed etc. but is there an ethics code or something that they should be adhering to at all?

Foxy-Stoat_3

If the sealed bids closes on Wednesday 6th May, then there is a few days left for others to put their bids in, if the sealed biding closed Wednesday 29th April, then your Boyfriend was a day late.

Sounds like Estate Agents and Vendor are greedy, look elsewhere.

In England, nothing is agreed until Exchange of Contracts without a finanical penatly.

Surrey_EA

Sealed bids have no legal standing, they are merely there to enable an EA and vendor to identify the best possible buyer.

If an offer is made to an EA for a property they are legally obliged to report it to the seller, whenever it is made, regardless of whether an offer has already been accepted. It is then up to the vendor to decide what they want to do, and in my experience few vendors are going to ignore the chance to grab another £30,000.

charliewocka

Hi Foxy-Stoat, he got his bid in by the end of the day on the final accepting day. He got a call yesterday morning from the EA to say offer was accepted and then a call today to say it had been gazumped.

Foxy-Stoat_3

flosswoss21 wrote: »

Hi Foxy-Stoat, he got his bid in by the end of the day on the final accepting day. He got a call yesterday morning from the EA to say offer was accepted and then a call today to say it had been gazumped.

It happens, look elsewhere with another EA, but call them back to say that the original offer is still for the moment on the table.

They may be just trying to increase your offer. Is the property worth another £35K to you, be aware though that if you do increase your offer, it probably wont end there!

charliewocka

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

It happens, look elsewhere with another EA, but call them back to say that the original offer is still for the moment on the table.

They may be just trying to increase your offer. Is the property worth another £35K to you, be aware though that if you do increase your offer, it probably wont end there!

Thanks - we know that, and it's a bit gutting as this was a rarity to come on the market. Kick in the stomach, especially to the boyfriend, as yesterdays excitement has been a major come down today


We definitely know now which EA WON'T be getting boyfriends house on the books though to sell!

Surrey_EA

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

It happens, look elsewhere with another EA, but call them back to say that the original offer is still for the moment on the table.

They may be just trying to increase your offer. Is the property worth another £35K to you, be aware though that if you do increase your offer, it probably wont end there!

I think it is highly unlikely that an EA would jeopardise an existing sale by inventing another offer! The additional commission is negligible in the grand scheme of things - £35,000 x 1.25% = £437.50, of which the individual may see 10%. Not worth the extra hassle.

If a house is popular enough to warrant going to sealed bids it's quite believable that a disappointed buyer can come in with a better offer.

charliewocka

Surrey_EA wrote: »

I think it is highly unlikely that an EA would jeopardise an existing sale by inventing another offer! The additional commission is negligible in the grand scheme of things - £35,000 x 1.25% = £437.50, of which the individual may see 10%. Not worth the extra hassle.

If a house is popular enough to warrant going to sealed bids it's quite believable that a disappointed buyer can come in with a better offer.

We have been advised that this is an offer from a new party, none of the other four offers that were made. This is what is annoying, accepting a new person's offer. Would understand a bit more if it was from one of the people who had been let down.

benedictoveract

Sounds like a situation I was just in. It is a painful system and a disappointing way of doing things, but you just have to get on with it and be more cautious (i.e. cynical) with future bids and avoid getting your hopes up at early stages of acceptance.

Surrey_EA

flosswoss21 wrote: »

We definitely know now which EA WON'T be getting boyfriends house on the books though to sell!

I really do understand your disappointment, but to play devil's advocate, I'm not sure why the EA is really at fault here.

If someone makes an offer to them for a property, regardless of whether a previous offer has been accepted, they have no option but to report to the owner.

The morals of the seller should perhaps be questioned, but £30k is a lot of money to turn down.

charliewocka

Thanks Benedictoveract, we had been cautious about it in the first instance and it seemed to be a bit of a rush. House was on market, open day planned in 2 weeks time but then EA decided to go to a sealed bid approach within 4 days, giving people 48 hours notice.


We had been cautious not to get hopes up but the house was next door to his parents, large plot of land, nice area etc. Only two houses on the lane have been on the market in 15 years.


No worries, we carry on as normal. And live and learn.