Estate agent will not take property off websites - should we proceed?

AdrianC

watermelonspring said:

Slithery said:

watermelonspring said:

But the property remains on websites and I’ve read that by law, the estate agent must take every offer to the seller. 

Incorrect. But how many offers do you think there are going to be if the EA doesn't let anyone else view the property?

Thanks for clarifying. So when we were negotiating an offer, the estate agent said he had a full weekend of viewings booked with more expected over the week hence we needed to act quickly!

Even if people do view, and those viewers do put in offers, and the EA does forward them to the vendor... the vendor doesn't have to accept them over yours.

EAs have to forward all offers... unless they've been instructed by the vendor otherwise. So if the vendor says "Don't bother me with any offer under £X" or "I only want chain-free" or "Nope, I'm not interested in a gazump"...

watermelonspring

AdrianC said:

watermelonspring said:

Slithery said:

watermelonspring said:

But the property remains on websites and I’ve read that by law, the estate agent must take every offer to the seller. 

Incorrect. But how many offers do you think there are going to be if the EA doesn't let anyone else view the property?

Thanks for clarifying. So when we were negotiating an offer, the estate agent said he had a full weekend of viewings booked with more expected over the week hence we needed to act quickly!

Even if people do view, and those viewers do put in offers, and the EA does forward them to the vendor... the vendor doesn't have to accept them over yours.

EAs have to forward all offers... unless they've been instructed by the vendor otherwise. So if the vendor says "Don't bother me with any offer under £X" or "I only want chain-free" or "Nope, I'm not interested in a gazump"...

Thank you 

Slithery

sweetsand said:

Slithery said:

watermelonspring said:

But the property remains on websites and I’ve read that by law, the estate agent must take every offer to the seller. 

Incorrect. But how many offers do you think there are going to be if the EA doesn't let anyone else view the property?

Hi
What the OP is saying that an EA has to take every offer to the seller and they are correct, that is the law.

Incorrect, that isn't what the law says.
Legally an EA has to forward every offer they receive 'unless specifically instructed by the seller'. The seller may well have instructed them not to pass on any further offers.

sweetsand

Slithery said:

sweetsand said:

Slithery said:

watermelonspring said:

But the property remains on websites and I’ve read that by law, the estate agent must take every offer to the seller. 

Incorrect. But how many offers do you think there are going to be if the EA doesn't let anyone else view the property?

Hi
What the OP is saying that an EA has to take every offer to the seller and they are correct, that is the law.

Incorrect, that isn't what the law says.
Legally an EA has to forward every offer they receive 'unless specifically instructed by the seller'. The seller may well have instructed them not to pass on any further offers.

Great stuff, I missed that bit so unless an EA has been advised by a seller they dont want to hear about all offers, the EA has a duty by law to tell the seller of all offers

Sistergold

Eilidh1970 said:

I've seen this once recently, when we'd just started looking for something to buy. We spent time thinking about an advertised property and visiting the general area and then requested a viewing, only to be told by the EA that the property was effectively already sold. Sounds like a weird way for the EA to market themselves as it left us with the impression that they were just time wasters for not having the property marked even as being under offer!

They do this to generate interest as once you call they can then ask for your details so that you can be on their mailing/calling list for similar type properties. 

Sistergold

When I bought my house last year the EA did that to me. Viewed the house in February and we completed in July. I just decided not to bother about it as I asked once months into the transaction but they still did not put SSTC. This was also one of the big nation wide group. On completion the lady I bought from told me that they(EA) kept on pestering her to take on a different buyer well into the process but she kept on refusing out of principle. 

To be honest you just have to just hope for the best as even with SSTC anything can still happen it’s a fragile process to say the least. At the end of the day most sellers are also keen to get it done and would not be wanting to start the process with someone else. 

Good luck

Thrugelmir

watermelonspring said:

AdrianC said:

watermelonspring said:

We haven’t got a mortgage yet but the valuation is booked.  

Do you at least have an AiP?

If not, I'm surprised they've taken your offer seriously.

Yes have an AiP, we had this before viewing. We also have a large deposit. Mortgage applications are taking several weeks these days, I’m sure this can easily be confirmed if you have a look on the mortgage forum board. Some buyers are waiting 6-8 weeks before their mortgage offer. 

No one is disputing that the mortgage process is somewhat protracted at the moment. The lack of a valuation being undertaken as yet is most likely causing the vendor to keep their options open. Even if another offer were to be made. Then you are well advanced and an outcome should be known shortly. When's the valuation booked for? 

watermelonspring

Thrugelmir said:

watermelonspring said:

AdrianC said:

watermelonspring said:

We haven’t got a mortgage yet but the valuation is booked.  

Do you at least have an AiP?

If not, I'm surprised they've taken your offer seriously.

Yes have an AiP, we had this before viewing. We also have a large deposit. Mortgage applications are taking several weeks these days, I’m sure this can easily be confirmed if you have a look on the mortgage forum board. Some buyers are waiting 6-8 weeks before their mortgage offer. 

No one is disputing that the mortgage process is somewhat protracted at the moment. The lack of a valuation being undertaken as yet is most likely causing the vendor to keep their options open. Even if another offer were to be made. Then you are well advanced and an outcome should be known shortly. When's the valuation booked for? 

It is booked for Thursday. The structural survey is complete. Searches should be back in 2 weeks, hopefully. The estate agent has said that nothing will change (re the listing) even with a mortgage offer. 

It is reassuring to read that it is common and it is a helpful way for the estate agent generate interest. 

karenb51

We were in this situation. The seller (who we know personally) had three sales fall through due to people in the chain having issues obtaining a mortgage, causing it to collapse each time. When our offer was accepted, they let us know that they would leave the property as ‘for sale’ until our mortgage offer was issued. We went into it accepting that we may get gazumped, but the financial loss to us would have been minimal in that scenario as we did not instruct our solicitors to start work until we had our mortgage offer, so we would have only lost the valuation fee. We are also renting, so no pressure on us to keep buyers happy while looking for a new property.

As it was, our lender (Halifax) was lightning fast in approving the mortgage and the house was listed as SSTC straight after.

Knowing what the sellers have been through in the last 18 months with loving and then losing three new houses, I completely understood their position, and we had to consider the risks and make a decision. It definitely helped that we know them - had it been a stranger looking to get the most money, I may have felt differently. 

Mutton_Geoff

watermelonspring said:

 So when we were negotiating an offer, the estate agent said he had a full weekend of viewings booked with more expected over the week hence we needed to act quickly!

Did they also say it had one lady owner and had never been raced or rallied? Oops, sorry, wrong industry but similar low level negotiating techniques which you now know not to be true else the vendor would have accepted someone more proceedable than you.

I'm in the process of selling one house, memo of sale issued on 21st Sept and contracts are now ready for exchange. That was a cash buyer with no chain. I'm about to put my main residence on the market and if a proceedable buyer asked me to jump through a hoop backwards, I'd do it. The lack of response to your request from the agent indicates their level of respect for you as a buyer. I'd still crack on as quick as you can though. How come there was a structural survey separate from the valuation survey?