Never received buyers offer in writing and now...

matticus7

We had an offer for our property in March which was accepted as it was only £450 off our asking price.

Today I had a call from a company to arrange a survey on behalf of our buyers and when she asked to go through some security questions to confirm I am the owner she asked me to confirm the price agreed on the property. I told her what the agreed price was and she said that the figure was not the same as what she had been told by my estate agent and had been informed the offer was £500 less than what we had agreed on (£950 below asking price).

This caused a sudden panic and I called my estate agent to find out what was going on as I quickly came to the realisation that during this whole time we've never actually received a letter or email to confirm in writing what was offered and accepted.

The estate agent was someone who wasn't dealing with my property but said their system showed that the listed price was correct but the agent had in fact listed the agreed sale price for what the surveyor had mentioned. I advised that this couldn't be true as I distinctly remember the offer being "only a few hundred pounds" off our asking price and not which I certainly wouldn't have said to my wife for £950 on the day the offers were coming through via phone calls.

I realise £500 may not seem a lot when selling a property but we're selling for around £100,000 and could put that money to much better use of legal fees etc right now.

According to The Property Ombudsman Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents it says the following 

"By law, you must tell sellers as soon as is reasonably possible about  all  offers  that  you  receive  at  any  time  until  contracts have  been  exchanged  unless  the  offer  is  an  amount  or  type which  the  seller  has  specifically  instructed  you,  in  writing,  not to  pass  on. 

You must confirm each offer in writing  to  the  seller, and  to  the  buyer  who  made  it,  within  2  working  days.

9b You  must  keep  a  written  or  electronic  contemporaneous record  of  all  offers  you  receive  including  the  date  and  time  of such  offers  and  the  seller’s  response."

My estate agent was supposed to get back to me today about this but haven't which is setting my anxiety off. What can we do if the agent has neglected to inform us by writing and we're now expected to take a £500 loss as a result? This isn't the first time she has messed up but the other mistakes were just annoyances which involved a lot of back and forth calls to rectify her mistake, they didn't impact us financially however this one would.

AdrianC

You haven't had the memorandum of sale?

AnotherJoe

See if they will agree to take it off their commission as its clearly their mistake and they wont want to lose a sale.

Lose this sale and you might see a 10% reduction next time round so try to keep it between you and the agents.

dimbo61

Your were trying to sell your home.
This can lead to stress and anxiety.
Your now trying to sell your home in the middle of a Pandemic so a whole lot more stress and anxiety so I think you should call off the sale completely and hide under the bed.
One thousand pounds under the asking price on a £100,000 property is a very good offer in the current market.
But it's your decision on what you do 

matticus7

AdrianC said:

You haven't had the memorandum of sale?

We haven't received anything to confirm the purchase of our home other than a verbal offer from our estate agent which we accepted over the phone.

Nothing has been confirmed in writing via post or email and other than the surveyor there were alarm bells when the property we offered on and had our offer accepted resulted in an email after every offer from their estate agent and we got our memorandum of sale for our purchase this morning.

As we bought our property through right to buy we've never had to deal with estate agents so it has all been new to us and I wouldn't have thought much of it until today.

I am starting to worry that if I haven't received anything then my buyer may also be in a similar position.

matticus7

dimbo61 said:

Your were trying to sell your home.
This can lead to stress and anxiety.
Your now trying to sell your home in the middle of a Pandemic so a whole lot more stress and anxiety so I think you should call off the sale completely and hide under the bed.
One thousand pounds under the asking price on a £100,000 property is a very good offer in the current market.
But it's your decision on what you do 

I appreciate that we were very lucky to receive an offer £450 under the asking price and that even £1000 is still a good sale price and I wouldn't want to risk the sale over their mistake as we've also found a property, had an offer accepted and have instructed a solicitor and submitted a mortgage application for our new home.

What's bothering me is that the estate agent "forgot" their discussion of a discounted price when using them if we paid for a premium package when we went in to sign contracts which I had to remind them of as it was about £300-£400 difference on completion fees and now this.

LittleNinja

You need to talk to the estate agent. You should have received the offer in writing. It is possible that you misheard the offer or that the estate agent did make a mistake. If you had something written down then you would have queried it earlier on. It sounds like the agent messed up so I would be asking about a reduction in fees.  

matticus7

LittleNinja said:

You need to talk to the estate agent. You should have received the offer in writing. It is possible that you misheard the offer or that the estate agent did make a mistake. If you had something written down then you would have queried it earlier on. It sounds like the agent messed up so I would be asking about a reduction in fees.  

Thanks. This is the route I am most likely to take. I think if they are firm about being correct then I will ask if they have a copy of the confirmation that they sent me as I have never received confirmation of the accepted offer or memorandum of sale and ask for a copy of their complaints process from there. 

[Deleted User]

I think you are creating stressors where its is not worth the effort.  The offer is acceptable or its not.  Even the reduced figure is only a little less than you wanted (particularly when its almost 'the thing' to offer less than the asking price.  Its not 'lost' money, you will be gaining £99,000 (less fees).The estate agent may have made a mistake or you may have misheard, it all sounds a little vague really.  How will you prove the EA gave an incorrect figure if it was a verbal communication of an offer?

I'd concentrate on the fact that you have an offer and can go ahead with your purchase.  There's going to be so many 'big' things to get stressed over.  I'd leave this by the wayside. You purchased through RTB so must be making a reasonable 'profit' from selling your house.  Pick your battles.

AdrianC

matticus7 said:

AdrianC said:

You haven't had the memorandum of sale?

We haven't received anything to confirm the purchase of our home other than a verbal offer from our estate agent which we accepted over the phone.

Nothing has been confirmed in writing via post or email and other than the surveyor there were alarm bells when the property we offered on and had our offer accepted resulted in an email after every offer from their estate agent and we got our memorandum of sale for our purchase this morning.

As we bought our property through right to buy we've never had to deal with estate agents so it has all been new to us and I wouldn't have thought much of it until today.

I am starting to worry that if I haven't received anything then my buyer may also be in a similar position.

No memorandum, no "SSTC".
The solicitors shouldn't be working yet, because they haven't had the formal notification that there's anything to work on.