State agent asking more money

ifti12

Hi guys,
I am a first time buyer and need experts opinion with some issue. So here are few details.

The property advertised £325,000

I offered initially £315,000 which was rejected, then I offered £318,000 rejected again, offered £321,000 rejected again. Then finally the state agent advised me that if I offer £325,000 then most likely the vendor will accept your offer and the property will be removed from the market. They were confident on this amount and were keep telling me this figure.

NOTE: Property is on the market for more than a month and during price negotiation they were keep telling me that we have viewings/offers so you need to hurry otherwise so and so.

NOTE: As per my experience if you offer and your offer is less then or equal to already rejected price by the vendor then normally state agent advised this before putting forward your offer to vendor. Because they haven’t advised on my offer of £315,000 in the first place I believe there was even no offer of £315,000. (At that point I think I should wait as opposed to rush and goes up to £325,000 in 1 or 2 days, anyway my mistake that I rushed).

I wait for 2 days and finally offered £325,000 because I like the property and ticked all my requirements. Now when I offered this amount the state agent said they will check with vendor and will come back to me. When they came back they said sorry it can be removed from the market but now vendor is asking £330,000.

Now at that point I was pretty sure that the offer has been accepted and now they are filling their pocket, so I said to them please don’t call me again for anything except with YES/NO on my final offer of £325,000. If now they are looking more then just tell them I am not interested anymore. This was Saturday evening when we discussed this.

On Monday morning the state agent phone me again and said congratulations the vendor has accepted your offer please provide funds proof, so we can remove it from the market hence I provided.

They were happy with the funds proof and the property has been removed from rightmove and I also see the sold sign outside the house. They also sent an email and posted the confirmation letter as well.

Now here is the game starts again. While I am looking my conveyancing service and filling mortgage application form they sent me this email after two days later.

“Afternoon XYZ,
Im afraid we have received an offer today from another person who viewed the property previously in which the vendors are now also considering.
I understand from our conversations last time we would not be prepared to increase form your best and final of £325,000? And I presume this is still the case??
I do apologise in relation to this, but due to this other party having viewed the house before, we legally have to submit any offers still put forward.
Thanks, “

My response to above email:

Afternoon,

Please go ahead with your OTHER offers and viewings. When you are done please let me and we will resume.

Thanks

This is all !!!!!!!! and there is no offer even near to £315,000 otherwise they would have sold this a long ago and State agent want to fill his pocket with some extra £ grands.
Now there are only two possibilities I can think of that they are playing a game with vendor involved or vendor is unaware of this. I am not sure if this is possible to ask more money while vendor is not aware. The reason I think vendor is not aware because I asked few questions and after reading her answers doesn’t looks like they are asking increment in the price, but I might be totally wrong here.

I sent few questions to them and this is what they answered which State agent forwarded their email.

Vendor's email response to my questions.

“In answer to the questions raised by the buyer please find below our answers:
1) I have attached the front page of the lease details that were supplied by the solicitors. 999 yr lease from 15th March 1968 with a rent of £4 per year
2) 1968 house was built
3) Full fixtures and fittings list will be completed as normal with the conveyancing. We will take the chandeliers but all the sockets, switches etc will be staying. The alarm is on a contract with Verisure so we will supply details of that soon as we have spoken to them regards options of cancellation or transfer to the new buyers if they are interested as it is a monitored system which is very good (£52 pm)
Hope that covers those questions for now, obviously anything they want to know or if they want to come back and view the house again tell them to feel free.
Have a good day and speak soon.
Best regards “


Note: As you can see in the above response from the vendor they asked me to feel free to visit the house again hence I thought to do the second viewing and I booked a viewing for Friday morning. In my first viewing the vendor was at home but no discussion with them because we were not sure that we will buy this house. Just before I met with the vendor on Friday morning they started playing this game on Thursday evening and I said I am not going to increase any amount and they can go ahead with other offers because there is no other offers I think but I might be wrong. Hence viewing on Friday evening cancelled as well.

Long story short,

a) Should I wait for the State agent response and see what they come back with, no response since my last email to go with “other offer” to them. Its been second day. If let’s assume vendor has accepted another higher offer and rejected my lower one then altleast the state agent would have informed me that your confirmation of acceptance of offer is no more valid but no response?

b) The other thing I was thinking to go to vendor’s house knock the door and explain the whole story and find out the truth?

Or any other suggestion please.

Thanks
ifti

phillw

I'm not sure I'd buy a house that expensive that was leasehold.

The estate agent could be lying about it being a previous viewing as it could be someone viewing it after you, or there might not be another offer at all.

If you still actually want to go ahead with the purchase then just email the estate agent and ask to clarify whether your offer was accepted as you need to instruct.

That still doesn't prevent them accepting a higher offer, only when you've exchanged do they have any obligation to sell to you.

ifti12

Thanks for your reply.

If they are lying then do you think asking whether my offer accepted/rejected's response will be true?

The house is on the market for more than a month and I am 90% sure there is no offer as you also mentioned you won't buy that expensive leasehold property.

Can I contact the vendor directly and find out the truth of what's going on ?

Is it possible they have agreed the price of £325,000 with the vendor and anything on top of this will be theirs ?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

No, this is not possible. Please discuss with a conveyancer or read a bit more about how house sales occur in this country. PS Its an Estate Agent not a State Agent.

A month is not that long for a house to be offered for sale. The purchasers could be waiting to see what other offers will be made, or as you suspect, the EA could be trying to push the price up a bit. Not really worth their doing as the increase in their fee is fairly minimal, but it does happen.

You could easily speak to the vendors but I am wondering, if you come across as suspicious as you are on here, not really understanding the process, you might make the vendors more hesitant.

Davesnave

phillw wrote: »

I'm not sure I'd buy a house that expensive that was leasehold.

I do wish people wouldn't say this, implying that all leaseholds are the same. They aren't.

In some parts of the country, leasehold is historically common and the ground rent is frequently so low it's not even collected.


My first tiny, 3 bed end terrace was still leasehold in 2014 when it sold for £340k. I lived in it for ten years, and like everyone else around there, I paid nothing to the charitable trust who owned the land. I guess they'll get it back in another 890 years!:rotfl:

AnotherJoe

Depends how much you want the house.
If it was me, since the vendors have not played straight I'd withdraw my offer and look elsewhere. Or, I'd not even bother withdrawing, but stop all work by solicitor,stop responding to them, and get on with another purchaser who can be trusted more and leave them in the dark as to what was happening.
Oniy you know how much you want this house.

shortcrust

Davesnave wrote: »

I do wish people wouldn't say this, implying that all leaseholds are the same. They aren't.

In some parts of the country, leasehold is historically common and the ground rent is frequently so low it's not even collected.


My first tiny, 3 bed end terrace was still leasehold in 2014 when it sold for £340k. I lived in it for ten years, and like everyone else around there, I paid nothing to the charitable trust who owned the land. I guess they'll get it back in another 890 years!:rotfl:

Hear hear.

I really don't understand why anybody would be put off by a 950 year lease at £4/year.

G_M

There is nothing unusual here. Just normal negotiations.

* Your early offers were rejected (perhaps by the seller due to the very small incimental increases, or perhaps because the seller had instructed his estate agent not to accept or pass on any offers below £X)
* a higher offer (325) was then accepted subject to contract - and contracts were not excahnaged, making the offer/acceptance non-binding.
* a higher offer was (apparantly - you'll never know) received, which the seller obviously preferred and accepted.. You were informed

You can now either

* walk away
*increase your offer, or
* leave your current offer on the table, start looking elsewhee and see what happens

Or you could arrange a further viewing (on previous viewings was the seller present?), or drop a polite note through the door - I would NOT accuse the EA of anything (especially not in wriing!), or give the history, just 'confirm' the offer you made via the EA and mention you are a FTB with funding arranged, and hope the seller will consider your offer seriously. NOTHING PUSHY!


As for the lease stuff - well, the EA has done you a favour sending any paperwork at all - that is not his job. It is the lawyer's job.

shortcrust

If I were the seller I'd be really uncomfortable if you turned up on my doorstep to "explain the whole story and find out the truth".

robatwork

You're obviously not from the UK, so you need to understand that England & Wales have the stupidest, most arcane nonsense process of house buying in Europe.

First, everybody lies. Including you.

Second, it's a game, but played with your money.

The thing to do is be very clear. Tell the estate agent (not state) that £325k is your full and final offer. Also tell him you need a firm decision by Monday 6pm as you have seen another house and will offer on that. (There's another lie).

It might not be the estate agent messing you around, it could be the vendor.

If you don't hear back by Monday 6pm pull out the purchase.

ifti12

Agree with you. In North West 90% properties are leasehold with very low ground rent as low as £4 and no one even collect them.

So you can't just exclude because of leasehold.