Mortgage in principle and gazumping

nomi01

Hi. I have made offer on a house, it was accepted, mortgage approved. Now looks like we may be gazumped.
I have paid initial fee to MA for application and also fee for homebuyers survey. This is on hold until we know decision of vendor re; new higher offer from other buyer, so survey not yet carried out.
The MA is associated with EA that list the house.
If I am gazumped and then buy another house, do I have to find a new M A and apply again for mortgage if new house is with different EA?

MortgageMamma

Did they tell you you had to use their in house advisor? when you made your offer did you ask them to confirm to you that the house is off the market and no more viewings or offers will be accepted? Its something I always push my clients to ask for as a condition of their offer on the property.

You don't necessarily have to use another mortgage advisor from another estate agency. Find one that's not connected with an estate agency who will act in YOUR best interests - if I was the advisor at that estate agents I would be playing hell with the owner for wasting both my own and my clients time and money.

Have you signed a fee agreement with the mortgage adviser?

nomi01

Tbh the MA issue is my fault, never thought to check if she was independent, I have paid initial fee but there is further payment on completion. I was never told to use their M A, but as I didn't have mortgage arranged at time and wanted to make offer, I used in house service. My own stupidity there.
My offer was made with condition that no one else saw house and it would be off the market. The other person viewed the house before us and put in a lower cash offer. Our offer was accepted but now the other buyer has increased offer.
I have checked a d unfortunately this is legal as no contract has been exchanged.
We have another house in mind but it's with another agent.
Do I need to repeat the whole process?

MortgageMamma

Are you going to increase your offer of walk away? You will have to repeat the process if you walk away, but you could still use their adviser if you felt they were competent HOWEVER the new estate agent may try to coerce you into using their advisor. In that case you should be looking at asking your original advisor to cancel the remaining fee in the agreement as why pay for an advice and service you cannot possibly receive as you were messed around with your offer?


Its not nice but many estate agents force buyers into using their own advisers, and occasionally you get agents who won't put offers through unless their in house adviser has "qualified you". Its a bit of a pain to be honest but you don't have to give in on it if you have an adviser somewhere else who you are comfortable with. One way to get around this is to find an advisor you trust and instruct THEM to negotiate your offer on the property. That way the advisor rings the estate agents in question are says "I've got a first time buyer, no chain, I have qualified them and they have an agreement in principle for x amount that I can send you. They would like to put an offer on property x and have instructed me to act for them on the matter" - this method takes you out of the loop where you can be pushed into using an advisor "in house" and takes the pressure off somewhat.

Some advisers will do this for you, some won't. What area of the country are you in? I'm only asking as some areas are easier to buy in than others...

hcb42

don't use an EA mortgage advisor!

amnblog

If you are happy with the adviser at the Estate Agent that you are currently dealing with, you can continue to use them for a future purchase no matter who is selling the property.

You may find of course, some encouragement to buy another property from the original Agent.

The gazumping, of course, tells you everything you need to know about the entire operation.

Another reason independent advisors are recommended.