Estate agent suppressed offer we've made - advice please

dc197

Hello
Long time reader, first-time poster looking for advice on how to handle this situation please.

We liked a house we saw on a Saturday, and on the Sunday we asked for a second viewing. The agent was cagey about giving us a second slot and kept saying they were unable to reach the vendor. Finally they called us on the Weds with a slot for Saturday. When we went on Saturday we reported this to the vendor and they were surprised because they were available and even took a viewing on the Tuesday.
After the second viewing we phoned to make an offer. By close of business we'd not heard back and called to chase, again they said they could not contact the vendor but had emailed our offer. Three more calls with the same story, plus more elaborations about the vendor having left for a flight, and we smelled a rat.
We went to the vendor's house and asked whether our offer had been passed on. IT HAD NOT, only two other (higher) offers had been passed on. The agent lied when they told us they'd emailed our offer.

We and the vendors discussed it and concluded that the agent had delayed arranging our second viewing until after they had had a chance to show another buyer - one who the seller knows is also selling their house through this agent - around the house. We concluded also that the agent had not passed on our offer for the same reason - giving them a chance to get double commission by advantaging their own selling clients in passing on only their offers.

We heard from the seller that the other two offers which were passed on were higher than ours at full asking price. We know the seller did not ask to suppress offers below a threshold.

We know it is illegal to disadvantage a buyer by delaying the passing of their offer or to suppress it entirely. We won't pursue that just yet.

For now, we'd love your advice on how to ensure that our new, higher-than-asking offer will be passed on immediately. I plan to visit the agent to present my new offer in writing and then demand they email the vendor (I know the vendor has now caught their flight and is away but still checks email and expects email offers) there and then.
What would you do?

Thanks in advance

D

marksoton

After that much interaction with the vendor i'd have solely dealt with them directly.

Why bother with the waste of space EA?

Leo2020

Contact both the vendor and EA when making the offer. You could write down your offer plus mention the time, date and name of who you spoke to at the EA and post if through the vendors door.

EA are like all sales people there to make as much money for themselves as possible.

MrJB

I don't suppose you happened to exchange email addresses with the vendor when you met with them? Obviously there is a legal requirement for all offers to be passed on to the vendor under the EA Act (unless they have some prior agreement about passing offers on that maybe unacceptable)

Not really useful, but you could send a written copy of your offer to the property if you so chose.

dc197

Thanks all.
Good advice. The unfortunately complication in contacting the vendor too is that the vendor is now away (they live abroad and came back only to prepare the sale). Yes, we did pass our email address to the vendor and are eagerly awaiting the promised message from them, but I did not take their address (d'oh).
I could post a letter to the property via Royal Mail in the hope that they have a forwarding service in place, otherwise the letter will just sit on the doorstep until completion.

Do you guys have any thoughts ont he form of wording I should put in my letter to the agent? We're thinking something along the lines of implying we know exactly what trick they're up to, without explicitly calling them out on it. Also to demand they email there and then while I watch. Do you think that would work?

thesaint

I am not knowledgeable about buying and selling, but I would be surprised that someone with no contract could take action against an Estate Agent.
I would have thought the vendor would need to do that.

getmore4less

You were standing in front of the vendors and did not get a phone No...

MrJB

thesaint wrote: »

I am not knowledgeable about buying and selling, but I would be surprised that someone with no contract could take action against an Estate Agent.
I would have thought the vendor would need to do that.

The saint, the Estate Agents Act 1979 places a statutory obligation on those carrying out work as an Estate Agent to promptly advise their client as to all offers received, unless the client has given written instructions to the effect that they do not want to receive a certain type of instruction. Failure to comply is enforced by the Office of Fair Trading and is not a contractual matter.

rhino_horn

I'd ask the agent to copy you in to the email he sends to the vendor with your offer and state the reason why.

Dan-Dan

the vendors the winner here , your all scrambling over his property , estate agent appears to have played a blinder

HouseBuyer77

If the EA didn't pass on your offer intentionaly without explicit instruction from the vendor couldn't the vendor say the EA has breached their contract and thus sell to you privately without having to pay the EA fees?