Is this EA breaking the law?

Sunningdales

We have just made an offer on a property marketed by a national EA. Because of the branch manager's response we wonder if the agent is breaking the law by divulging the amount of the other offers. Are the offered amounts meant to be confidential?

We are also none too impressed by their sales techniques, and have received no further communication from the agent, but will leave those discussions for another thread.

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Our offer, via email, 08 Aug 2015:
Dear EA,
SUBJECT TO CONTRACT: THE PROPERTY, POSTCODE
After a viewing a number of properties in the area we found THE PROPERTY to be the one we would enjoy putting the effort into making into our ideal long term home.
As you pointed out the property would benefit from some updating and as we mentioned the property is priced at the very top of our affordable range.
We also realise we are perhaps not in the most ideal position to proceed quickly due to (a) leaving today on holiday for a week and (b) needing to market our current home with a suitable agent.
All that said we are genuine buyers, both full-time employed holding responsible positions, we have not made an offer on any other properties, we own our current property outright with no outstanding mortgage, we have no debt and have received initial advice from a mortgage advisor that a suitable mortgage would be forthcoming from <a national lender that we also bank with>.
Upon return from holiday (17th August 2015) we will select and appoint an estate agent and place our home on the market. Once our mortgage is arranged and agreed in principle we would instruct our solicitor immediately upon our offer being accepted.
With all this in mind we offer £455,000 subject to the following conditions:
- All future and current viewings are cancelled
- The property is withdrawn from the open market immediately and we have exclusivity over it
- The Sold board goes up within 48 hours
- We receive weekly updates on the progress of the sale
We are excited at the prospect of making this a family home once again, our new home, and we hope your vendor is agreeable and accepts our very genuine offer.
Yours sincerely
The Sunningdales

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The EA's response to our offer, via email, 08 Aug 205:
Hey Mr & Mrs Sunningdale
Thank you for your email and I hope you are well.
It’s great that we have helped you find such a good home for you and your family. I can confirm that the vendor has already rejected £455,000 as an offer and he would be looking for a higher price. Since we saw you on the valuation the vendor has accepted an offer from a buyer with no chain of £450,000. I did try to call you to let you know this and see what you would like to do. We have also received an offer of £460,000 from a buyer who has a house to sell. However this buyer has chosen another agent and the vendor has rejected this offer because we will have no control over the marketing of this property and getting it under offer. This is something the vendor is not prepared to do as it could hold up the sale of his house.
In regards to the conditions of the offer,
We do not stop viewings on any property until the sale has progressed and a vendor is 100% happy to take the house off the internet and stop viewings for a period of time to give a buyer time to instruct a solicitor and get a survey booked. This should happen within the first week of having the offer accepted, if not the sale is normally taken away and given to another buyer to proceed with.
If we take a house off the internet once an offer has been accepted without the above we are not working in the vendors best interest, if a sale does not proceed we will have lost a lot of time and buyers, so to avoid this we keep names and numbers of potential buyers as a backup.
I will put the offer forward for you but I do know what he will say. Please do let me know what the maximum is you are happy to pay and I will push it for you.
We would also need to book a time and day so we can meet up and get your house onto the market and sold at the best price.
Please let me know when would be a good time for us to meet so I can update the vendor telling him you are going to do all you can to get his house, starting with getting your home on the market with us then everything is all under one roof, also appointing a solicitor to start the works.
Thank you for your email again will speak soon have a great holiday.
Peter
Regards
Peter Smith
Branch Manager
A national EA

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We have not heard back from the agent at all.

We are concerned the agent is not acting in anyone’s best interests’ other than its own.
Please don't ask us for the name of the national agent in question, we do not have the heart to divulge that.

Regards,
Suningdales

phill99

The reality is, you cannot proceed with the sale. You haven't sold your own property. Therefore no vendor will take your offer seriously. It may take months for you to find a buyer.

The agent is actually being realistic in suggesting that the vendor may accept a lower offer but from a buyer who has already sold their property. And if I was the vendor, I would do the same.

Far too many people post on here saying 'we've made an offer on a house but having sold ours yet. What should we do'. It is incredibly naive of you to think they will accept your offer when you haven't sold yours, and even more niave (erring towards arrogance) demanding that no further viewings take place and the property is taken off of the market.

jjlandlord

What are you trying to achieve here?

Seems to me he is doing the usual salesman pitch, half of it being made up, and the other half not worth trusting.
These other offers may be real, or the may not be. He is not breaking any law, just trying to make you increase your offer.
Because they know you cannot proceed right now, they won't withdraw the property from the market.

If you want to play then play the game. Do not try to claim that the law is being broken at every step of the way.

mrginge

Did you seriously expect them to take their house off the market when your is not even up for sale?

You have an awful lot tolearn about this game.

Lifes_Grand_Plan

As I see it, you have two options:

1. Get your house on the market ASAP with that EA, increase your offer and play their game. Problem is a) you don't know how long yours will take to sell and if the seller will wait around. For all you know they might just use your increased offer to push up the other buyers offer.

2. Forget all about this house you want to buy for now. Get your house on the market ASAP with an EA of your choosing, hope it sells quickly. If it does then this house might still be around (especially if the EA is lying about the other buyers which is quite possible) and if not, at least you'll be in a better place to move on the next house that you like.

We have our house up for sale and a couple loved it and offered close to asking price about a week after it went on the market. Only problem was their property wasn't even on the market and there are 3 there identical properties of sale on the same street..... Although we told them we would be happy to negotiate with them, we told them that first they needed to get their house on the market and sold, because until that happened it just wasn't worth doing anything with them.

Its a shame but we have since accepted a lower offer from a first time buyer who has noting to sell and can proceed immediately.

Marvel1

Sunningdales wrote: »

(b) needing to market our current home with a suitable agent.

we offer £455,000 subject to the following conditions:
- All future and current viewings are cancelled
- The property is withdrawn from the open market immediately and we have exclusivity over it

We are concerned the agent is not acting in anyone’s best interests’ other than its own.

No wonder the vendor will reject your offer, I would also.

davidmcn

Sunningdales wrote: »

Because of the branch manager's response we wonder if the agent is breaking the law by divulging the amount of the other offers. Are the offered amounts meant to be confidential?

It depends what you think you mean by "breaking the law". At most there might (but probably wasn't) an agreement between the agent and those bidders that their offers would be kept confidential. At least the agent has done you a favour by making it clear that they're unlikely to keep your offer confidential either.

As others have said, unrealistic to expect the sellers to take your offer seriously if you don't even have your property on the market.

kinger101

I agree the the EA is not acting in the best interests of the vendor. Offers from potential buyers who need to sell their property are either acceptable or they aren't. There is no valid reason for them being more acceptable if the EA handles the sale of both properties. The EA doesn't have any more control over the sale (despite what they may have told vendor 1), as the decision of to whom the purchaser's property is sold, when, and for how much, is not theirs. They EA is just trying to get two lots of commission.

The EA should have also forwarded the offer directly to the vendor, without placing conditions on marketing the purchaser's property, unless they were specifically instructed not to.

But at the end of the day, your offer is not one that is ever likely to be accepted, and certainly not with demands that property is taken off the market. You're being unreasonable in that respect. If you still want to put the offer forward, send it directly to the vendor.

But what you probably should do is;

(a) forget about this property;
(b) get your own on the market with a different EA to this one.

david29dpo

Although i am not a great fan of estate agents if i were this agent i wouldn't have bothered replying to your Email.

DaftyDuck

Strictly speaking, you haven't really got an offer to make, particularly one that you appear to have made at great length. Why would anyone in their right mind take their house off the market for your terms. Frankly, if your email had been forwarded to me as a seller, I would hope and plan not to do business with you.

You've naively given away information that undermines your bargaining strength, whilst, simultaneously revealing you have nothing to bargain with. That's some skill there!

Next time (as I see little point in pursuing this one) get your house marketed at least, ideally under offer), find a house, and place an offer without all the guff. Get that accepted before adding conditions.

Late edit to add: why on earth do you think he's breaking the law? He's. Not.

csgohan4

Best to lurk on these forums for a few months prior to buying your house I know I did before I exchanged on my house.