I thought gazumping was illegal??

Katykat

Son viewed a house on Sunday, the asking price was £144.950. and he put in an offer for the full asking price on Sun pm. It was accepted on Mon morning. ON Tues morning he got a call from the Estate agent. They told him that there had been an offer prior to his for £143.000 which was rejected on the grounds that the proposed buyer had not sold his house and it was below the asking price. This buyer contacted the estate agent on tues to say he had sold his house now. He was told that the vendor had now accepted an offer for the full price. He kicked up a fuss and offerred the asking price himself and the agent told my son that they were bound to pass this on to the vendor. My son was still in a better position because he does not have a house to sell. The upshot was the vendor asked for the highest offer. My son offered £147.000 final price and it was accepted.
This seems to me to be gazumping by the vendor. Even though it was my son who actually gazumped the other buyer, he was forced into it by all the vendor, the agent and by the other buyer. His solicitor told him that this is allowed, but he thought it bad business. My son really wanted the house so he paid, but he feels really gutted because he is now £2.000 poorer.

david29dpo

Your son was not forced to do anything. If he thinks the house is worth the price, which he must if he has offered £147k, everyone is happy. The vendor has done nothing legally wrong. It will be interesting what the survey valuation will be.

MoneySavingSpender

I wonder if getting such offers confirmed and accepted on paper would make any difference, legally etc?

kingkano

gazumping illegal??? geez if only!

besides which, it doesnt technically look like gazumping to me. I thought thats when your offer had been accepted and you move along the process a bit then someone else comes in.

real1314

Yep, KK is right, it's nowhere near gazumping. It's just standard price negotiations. No offer had been accepted in any form. If the OPs son thinks £147k isn't a fair price then he should withdraw his offer.

Now, if the vendor were to come back after survey and a few days before exchange of contracts and say "I've had a new offer of £149k, are you prepared to match it" that would be gazumping (sort of).

dolce_vita

Katykat wrote: »

....... Even though it was my son who actually gazumped the other buyer, he was forced into it by all the vendor, the agent and by the other buyer.

Firstly - a buyer cannot "gazump" another buyer. Only vendors can "gazump".

Secondly - your son wasn't forced into anything.

Thirdly - what has happened, although a bit underhand, is perfectly legal.

Richard_Webster

In some parts of the country such as Sheffield it is "offers over..." and they take "sealed" bids for property so you have to work out how much the place is worth to you and second guess what others will offer. (These are not binding legally - it's just that the agent doesn't send out any initial particulars etc until this process has been gone through.)

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients

arthur_dent_2

The full asking price offer was accepted. It may not strictly speaking be gazumping or illegal, but it is wrong. Once your offer has been accepted then that should be the end of the matter. If you wish for all your cards to be dealt before accepting that offer that is of course very sensible but I believe that once an offer has been accepted then that is it.

tobes001

The value of a property is what someone is willing to pay for it, if two people want it then it pushes the value up. If no one wanted it then it would have sold for under the asking price. It appears that the property was slightly under-valued by the agent, so your son has only paid what it is worth. He ultimately had the choice what to offer, if he is unhappy, withdraw the offer.

arthur_dent_2

I thought that the point was not that he did not want the house but that after you have an offer accepted then that should be it. In days gone by an agreement was an agreement and yet now it seems an agreement is only an agreement untill a better offer comes along.

boyse7en

It isn't illegal but it is morally dubious. We had a full asking price offer on a house accepted, but had to wait for probate (which took nearly 6 months), after waiting 4 months, having had a full survey + specialist subsidence survey the vendor had a higher offer from a friend of the nextdoor neighbor. After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing we ended up paying £15k more to secure the house.
It has always rankled that we didn't rush and pressure the guy and then he turned and negotiated with someone else.