EA passing on our offer

ultrafox

Hi all,

We've recently made an offer on a house which was at asking price. It has not been rejected or accepted.

We have now received an email which basically tells all interested parties what our offer is. (see below) So the EA has passed on our offer to all over buyers in order to try and get more money for the property. Obviously its the venders choice whether he accepts an offer or not, but are they allowed to pass on our offer to other parties?

I've complained to the EA and they have said that they can pass on offer information if the vender specifically requests it.

Any thoughts?

[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]We now have a number of offers on the property and the vendor requested that we go back to each party to give everyone the chance to increase their offer. If you could please contact the office by 12pm tomorrow (Wednesday 12[SIZE=-1]th August) with your best and final offer it would be much appreciated. You are under no obligation to increase your offer but this will be your last opportunity to do so. The vendor has asked me to advise all parties he has an asking price offer.[/SIZE][/FONT]

maninthestreet

The EA works for the vendor, not the buyer.
I bet the other interested parties think this is the EA making up an offer to try to get them to make a better offer.

ultrafox

maninthestreet wrote: »

The EA works for the vendor, not the buyer.

Yes, i understand this. But I wondered whether the Estate Agents Act 1979 would forbid passing on offers to other parties.

Whenever i've asked about other offers i've always been told they can't pass on that information.

Surrey_EA

It is quite a while since I have read the Estate Agents Act of 1979 in full, but I do not recall a section that forbids EAs from passing on the details of an offer to an alternative buyer(s).

It seems to be something of a grey area, with different EAs adopting different approaches.

ultrafox

OK thanks.

I was thinking about complaining. But would probably not do any good.

Grenage

Which says:

If there have been other offers on the property, the estate agent can't legally tell you how much they were for, but they may indicate whether they were close to the asking price, which will also help to inform your own offer.

jjlandlord

In what you have quoted they have not disclosed your offer at all.

In terms of getting the best price, I think that the best strategy is to let everyone know that there are others offers but not to give numbers.
This forces bidders to bid the maximum they are prepared to.

This is the principle behind sealed bid auctions.

What they have disclosed is essentially a minimum bid.

ultrafox

jjlandlord wrote: »

In what you have quoted they have not disclosed your offer at all.

In terms of getting the best price, I think that the best strategy is to let everyone know that there are others offers but not to give numbers.
This forces bidders to bid the maximum they are prepared to.

This is the principle behind sealed bid auctions.

What they have disclosed is essentially a minimum bid.

Eh yes they have.

[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]The vendor has asked me to advise all parties he has an asking price offer.[/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri,sans-serif]
[/FONT]Obviously other buyers will know what the asking price is. So they will know our offer amount.

Grenage

You can read it several ways, but the bottom line is as stated earlier - that the EA is there for the interests of the seller. Whether or not buyers pay more isn't their problem, and it's a free market.

Saying that they've had an asking price offer lets people know that any offers will need to exceed this, and I can't see a problem with it. Beyond that figure, they shouldn't be precise - not because it's 'unfair' to buyers, but because it may limit the amount of money the seller might get offered.

jjlandlord

ultrafox wrote: »

Eh yes they have.

They said that they have an offer at asking price, not that Mr John Doe has offered the asking price.

Since you offered asking price at least you know that their claim is not made up.

As I said it just sets a minimum bid in the other bidders' minds.

Stop wasting everyone's time on this and work out what you are happy to pay for that property.

Dan-Dan

Seems to me the vendor has an AP offer but now appears to feel his house is underpriced for some reason

I would walk away , this vendor isnt one i would personally want to do business with