Cheated or Gazumped by greedy seller?

catterlen

If you've had your survey done you could look to sell this to the new buyers- not what you want but at least you get to recover some costs?
Or sell the survey, then a day later offer higher than the new buyers, delay for a few weeks without spending anything then pull out unexpectedly and for no good reason, once they've had to spend on solicitor fees?!

Guest101

loveboat12 wrote: »

not sure about the fees but surely there is a law about deception - lying and showing people around when an offer was accepted? would they have told us before they had interest in further viewings we would not have made such commitments so early into the process. we are talking about '000 of pounds here.

the difference is only about £5000 in total.

God help us all!

You're clutching at straws.

'Lying' is not against the law.

Lying to obtain money is. But they havent obtained your money.

Morally, yes i agree, it's bad. Legally, they could wait until you were ready to exchange and then pull out. And there is literally nohing you can do, as you have no contract.

G_M

Surely the grant you mentioned will cover the costs?

As for the 5 children, I'm not clear why that should strengthen your case. Are you implying that because of the size of your family the seller should have acted differently towards you as opposed to, for example, a childless couple?

Surely before expanding your family you took into account the higher costs this would involve?

AdrianC

loveboat12 wrote: »

would they have told us before they had interest in further viewings we would not have made such commitments so early into the process.

But, without making those commitments - searches, surveys, legal fees - you don't GET any further on in the process. They all need to be sorted before exchange of contracts, because - depending on the result of them - you might wish to walk away or renegotiate the price. And, because you don't have a contract until exchange, you can do that.

TBagpuss

You may be able to sell your searches to the new buyers. But as others have said, this is a risk you take when you buy a house. It's very frustrating (and I have had it happen to me, after I'd paid for a survey, searches, electrical survey etc) but it is not illegal.

And losing the money is serious for anyone. The number of children you have is totally irrelevant.

euromike

offer 5k above asking price, pretend process is progressing as normal, you've outbid the other buyer so he is out of the game, the greedy seller is rubbing his hands with glee. Then shortly before exchange come up with some excuse and say you're either paying the original asking price, or will walk away.

BelleNI

Hi,
We had a similar experience recently as a result of which I discovered that all Estate Agents have to be signed up to an ombudsman. Some of these bodies have better regulations than others. Unfortunately our estate agent seemed to have found an ombudsman with a similarly shoddy approach. Have a look and see which Ombudsman your estate agent is with. If you're lucky they'll be with one with a code of conduct such as The Property Ombudsman and you may find they have breached those regulations and so be in a strong position to complain.
Worth a try...
Good luck

somethingcorporate

There are 5 agencies so which one is in the wrong? They would only be acting on the instructions of the vendor anyway.

This is just part and parcel of buying in England. You live and learn.

Innys1

euromike wrote: »

offer 5k above asking price, pretend process is progressing as normal, the other buyer is out of the game, the greedy seller is rubbing his hands with glee. Then shortly before exchange come up with some excuse and say you're either paying the original asking price, or will walk away.

This is what I'd do. See how they like being strung along.

POPPYOSCAR

stator wrote: »

Did any agents lie to you? If so complain about them.

Good luck with that!


We even paid a non refundable deposit of £1000 to secure a property and the agent put forward a higher offer.


Our solicitor wrote a letter of complaint but we never got anywhere with it.


In the end we had to match the higher offer and exchange within a couple of days, a deal which our solicitor and the vendor's solicitor agreed on. Our solicitor was 'old school' and did his best to get us the property.


Estate agents have no morals in my experience.