Cash buyer beat me to it and I didn’t get any chance to do anything about it?

Irishpearce26

There is a lot of talk around gazumping on the thread but the OP was not gazumped he just didn't offer enough, when he wanted to offer more the seller had already agreed with a cash buyer.

Think this thread is dead now.

SpiderLegs

Personally I quite like living in the UK in 2021. Sure there’s things we can make better, but I don’t think either the halcyon days of the 1960s or a Middle Eastern justice system are the way to go.

AdrianC

Irishpearce26 said:

There is a lot of talk around gazumping on the thread but the OP was not gazumped he just didn't offer enough, when he wanted to offer more the seller had already agreed with a cash buyer.

And if the OP's higher offer was accepted... (note for the benefit of @billy2shots - and the OP then went on to actually buy the place) then he would indeed have gazumped the person whose offer was initially accepted.

AnotherJoe

Tokmon said:

billy2shots said:

Tokmon said:

billy2shots said:

verb

gerund or present participle: gazumping

1. 1.

   INFORMAL•BRITISH

   make a higher offer for a house than (someone whose offer has already been accepted by the seller) and thus succeed in acquiring the property

I stand by what I wrote. It is not technically gazumping until the the person has successfully completed on the property.


I forgot how fun MSE can be with members highlighting typos thanks for reminding me @AdrianC

You may stand by what you said but your completely wrong and you have posted a definition of gazumping that shows your wrong...


When someone has "completed" on the property that means contracts have been exchanged, money has been paid and they have moved into the house. So that means you think that once that happens someone else can offer more and the seller can accept it and kick them out of their new house 

Gazumping is exactly what it says in your definition and can happen after an offer has been accepted but it cannot happen after contracts are exchanged otherwise the seller will be in breach of contract and can be taken to court for compensation and certainly can't happen after completion because the seller no longer owns the house to sell it to someone else.

What on earth are you talking about???


You have the definition right in front you, you even quoted it. Why are you being ridiculous in making up things  and suggesing I think gazumping can take place after contracts. You're just making things up now.

I'm sorry you don't understand the concept and are trying to be Captain Pedantic but it is very clear. The sale most go through. 



Gazumping is often used incorrectly. Someone might say they have been gazumped when a new offer comes in and the vendor accepts having previously accepted their offer. The actual definition is they haven't  been gazumped until that sale completes. 

I do understand it's confusing as most people jump the gun and the word is commonly used too early but I don't make the rules, the definition is the definition.

Let's try this.

Homeless

People use this term too early. 'I am being evicted soon, I am homeless'

No, when that actually happens you will be homeless'. You could substitute homeless for jobless if you want or any similar example. You can't be something LESS until it actually happens.

Now gazumped.

A new offer has come in and the vendor decides to ditch you. When that process is FINISHED then you have been gazumped. 

Now you could argue that the definition needs to be changed. I don't have an issue with that but until it is then it is what it says on the tin.


If you would prefer the Cambridge dictionary version

gazump

verb [ T often passive ]

 UK informalUK  /ɡəˈzʌmp/ US  /ɡəˈzʌmp/

 

to refuse to sell a house that you own to someone you have agreed to sell it to, and to sell it instead to someone who offers to pay more for it:




The key is 'sell it instead' the same as the previous dictionary definition 'thus succeed in acquiring the property'. If that new sale falls through then the previous bidder technically was never gazumped.

The key wording is 'sell it' I can only presume you thought gazumping was 'agree to sell it'.




I don't make the rules....

Ah now i understand what your saying, the way you worded it and reading that post on it's own i thought you had meant that gazumping was something that happened after completion and not that it was something that can only be realised after completion in hindsight. 

Same here. More than ambiguously worded and to be pedantic, I'd say wrong, in that the gazumper doesnt even have to complete on the purchase to have gazumped, its good enough to have overtaken the previous bidder whose sale was informally agreed ,and got a new informal agreement from the vendor.

 

AnotherJoe

billy2shots said:

AdrianC said:

Tokmon said:
Ah now i understand what your saying, the way you worded it and reading that post on it's own i thought you had meant that gazumping was something that happened after completion and not that it was something that can only be realised after completion in hindsight. 

There are, of course, three main milestones in any property sale...

1. Acceptance of offer.
2. Exchange of contracts.
3. Completion of contracts.

Gazumping can ONLY happen between 1 and 2.

And that's exactly when we were talking about here...

I completely understand your confusion as 99.9% believe the same as you. It's up to all of us to be prepared to learn, correct our misbelief and then help educate rather than continue to unintentionally mislead/misinform. 

language isnt static, if 99.9% believe a word means X, then even if it once meant Y,  it now means X, whatever a dictionary says, it just hasnt caught up, wait for the next edition.

MaryNB

David2710 said:

MaryNB said:

David2710 said:

Mickey666 said:

jordan3939 said:

Yesterday I put in an offer on a flat and the estate agent informed me someone had gone higher than the asking price. I said was it 5k more? If so I will match and she said it was. I then got a call later saying the seller had accepted his offer as he was a cash buyer. How is this fair??? I was going to offer more if they came back to me but I didn’t get a chance to. Any tips for battling against cash buyers for next time? Thank you.

Why does it have to be fair?  Life isn't isn't fair, so why expect the house-buying process to be fair?  Just be glad that you're even in the position to be able to afford a house - billions of people on the planet don't have that luxury.  Is that 'fair'?

I agree life is cruel but it doesn't have to be unfair. I have spoken often about how unfair and discriminatory the private rented sector is, it's basically free market capitalism gone mad. Reforming the Housing act has been debated ad nauseum in Parliament in regards to capping rents, compulsory purchase orders, long term tenancy's etc., as they do in other parts of Europe, but sadly it never passes into law because the Tories always vote the motion down. I'm just saying with a different government the balance of power can be swung in favour of the tenant and not the money grasping landlord and agent.

In other country's gazumping is strictly forbidden and in parts of the mid-east the punishment is much more severe, so in the end it's all about political choices. That's why I say "my house my choice" is not always the case in other parts of the world. The Housing act and specifically the private rented sector needs root and branch reform and if that means rogue and or amateur landlords leaving the playing field then I say that's a good thing. Maybe then and only then will this government act to build genuinely affordable social housing to rent. One day the housing market will collapse as it did in the early 90's and I predict street parties across the land not seen since VE day. Life's cruel but can be fairer.   

I don't remember the street parties in 2008....

I don't think anybody would argue that the rate at which house prices increase is crazy but there is a difference between reducing the rate of increase (which will only really come with a better supply and/or tougher access to credit) and a total collapse. A total collapse with have a significant impact on any current homeowners if they end up in massive negative equity, not just property investors and EAs.

The problem has been massively exacerbated by Help to Buy and Right to Buy. Help to buy because the cap was set at £400K helping the rich get on the property ladder and Right to Buy because genuinely affordable housing stock wasn't replenished as promised by George Osborne. This not only stoked an already overheated/overpriced housing market it forced the low paid into renting in the private rented sector.

A private sector that doesn't consider tenants on low pay or claiming benefits, and with little or no social housing available and net migration at 250,000 a year, many British people are forced onto the streets and especially single homeless people.

I remember back in the 60's when a married couple could buy a decent house with a garden, buy a car and have two Butlins holidays a year and all on a Milkman's salary. I am predicting a huge correction in house prices when furlough ends but I won't be dancing in the fountains in Trafalgar square I'll just celebrate with a Cuban cigar and a bottle of Blue Nun.        

I know all too well how house prices have increase much faster than income. My parents bought their house the year I was born for 4x average salary. By the time I was 18 it was worth 12x average salary. Obviously dipped during the crash but I'd say it's back at 12x now. My mother bought a house in Dublin in her 20s working in hospitality with a small loan from her parents. I'm a engineer in my 30s and I'd need a massive loan from my parents to buy a 2 bed flat. 

I'm not expecting a crash. Most people losing their jobs or on furlough are in the service and hospitality industries and are not on salaries that make it easy to buy. In Ireland (as far as I'm aware) there has been no incentive similar to the SDLT holiday yet house sales have not faltered and prices continue to rise. As with the UK, people losing their jobs are mostly young low paid workers who can't afford to get on the ladder with or without covid. People with higher paying jobs are working from home and saving money because they're not communicating or going on holiday.