Gazumping Drama

Greymug

14sprocket said:

- Do I have a legal claim against the agency? Is there any point in complaining to the agency HQ? Or should I just leave a review on Google/FB and move on?

Thanks!

It's a shame and the agency's behaviour is very unethical, but they haven't done anything illegal.

Same principle of when you're selling something on gumtree: if you receive a message from a dude saying he agrees to buy the thing from you, do you remove the ad from the website straightaway? No, you don't, because the dude may not show up. Therefore, you keep the ad live until the dude shows up and hands you the money. And, if in the meantime, someone else comes with a better offer, you sell it to them rather than the first dude.

You can complain to the agency HQ, but all the people working for that agency are cut from the same cloth. Very likely that sort of behaviour is encouraged from the top.

I'd leave a bad review everywhere I could think of. It won't send the agency out of business, but even if it helps one person, that's still a good thing.

MoJoeGo

Whilst I know that house buying is still a bit 'wild west', and that pretty much anything goes up till exchange (at least in England); I did assume there was at least some sort of industry code of conduct around behaving ethically that means that the EA here could get a slap and the OP some token compensation (not the property obviously, that ship has sailed).

Or perhaps that's just me and my rose tinted spectacles from working in banking, where following the spirit as well as the letter of the rules is the driving force behind regulation. 

Yes, I did say that with a straight face  but at least it cuts out some of the more egregious unfair treatment of customers...

Irishpearce26

Its not a nice situation for anyone but im not sure what you are complaining about to the EA?

Unless you stipulated in your offer that the house marketing would stop then the EA with the vendors wishes continue to market the house and pass on any offers they receive. The best and final route is a way to get things progressing however the loosing party can still make a higher offer after. Its up to the vendor and their integrity if they wish to entertain it.

It sucks but don't waste your energy complaining just move on and find another property.

Tiglet2

This is an excerpt from the Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents:


9. Offers

9a 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 In accordance with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, you must undertake Customer Due Diligence and, where appropriate Enhanced Due Diligence, on the buyer before a binding contract has been entered into (for example, exchange of contracts). Should you have suspicion, knowledge or reasonable ground to suspect that money laundering is taking place, you must report this in accordance with your money laundering policy and procedures. You must keep records of yourCustomerDueDiligence checks for five years from the date of the transaction.

9c 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.

9d By law you cannot make it a condition of passing on offers to the seller that the buyer must use services offered by you or another party. You must not discriminate, or threaten to discriminate, against a buyer because that person declines to accept that you will (directly or indirectly) provide related services to them. Discrimination includes but is not limited to the following: • Failing to tell the seller of an offer to buy the property. • Telling the seller of an offer less quickly than other offers you have received. • Misrepresenting the nature of the offer or that of rival offers. • Giving details of properties for sale first to buyers who have indicated they are prepared to let you provide services to them.

Continuation of Marketing

9e When an offer has been accepted subject to contract you must take and confirm the seller’s instructions as to whether the property should be withdrawn from the market, or continue to be marketed. In the latter case, you must advise the buyer in writing and ensure your marketing clearly explains that an offer has been accepted subject to contract. The buyer must also be informed in writing should the seller later decide to put the property back on the market. You remain under the legal obligation to pass on offers, as defined in 9a.

9f You must keep all buyers who have recently made offers through you, and which have not already been rejected, informed of the existence of other offers you have submitted to the seller.

9g You must be fair and not misleading when disclosing the amount of any offers made to other buyers. Before disclosing the amount of an offer, you must advise the seller of such intention and get the seller’s agreement; and you must warn all buyers who make offers that it is your practice to do so. If you do disclose any offer to one buyer, then all offers must be immediately disclosed to all buyers with a current interest in negotiations for the property.

9h After an offer has been accepted subject to contract, you must promptly tell that buyer if the seller accepts another offer.

9i By law you must not misrepresent or invent the existence, or any details, of any other offer made or the status of any other person who has made an offer. If you know that the seller has instructed a legal representative to send a contract to an alternative buyer, you must then tell your buyer in writing.


By all means complain to the EA about their shoddy treatment of you, but they will quote from their Code of Practice in order to refute any claim you make.

NameUnavailable

From the above the OP could complain that the agent breached the terms of 9e, if they didn't explicitly say the property was still being marketed, however the OP has already confirmed that the higher offer was from someone who had already seen the property and not the Instagram post.

Back in the day when properties were advertised in the local paper, the ad copy would have to go in several days prior to the publication date, by which time some of the properties would already be under offer. I expect some 'slippage' would be deemed acceptable in terms of online ads too as it probably wasn't the agent that took the offer who posted the ad online.

Ulitmately it is the greedy vendor who took the higher offer - they could have said no, I have already accepted an offer and that would be unfair, but they didn't, they took the cash.

Of course it works both ways as the OP might have changed their mind about buying the place anytime up to exchange.

I think the OP needs to write to Boris and ask him to reform the legal process of buying a house in England/Wales to stop this happening, complaining about the agent is futile.

babyblade41

Ulitmately it is the greedy vendor who took the higher offer - they could have said no, I have already accepted an offer and that would be unfair, but they didn't, they took the cash. 

The piece you wrote  which I have highlighted above may not be the case. The new purchaser maybe in a better position to proceed and not because the offer was higher 

NameUnavailable

babyblade41 said:

Ulitmately it is the greedy vendor who took the higher offer - they could have said no, I have already accepted an offer and that would be unfair, but they didn't, they took the cash. 

The piece you wrote  which I have highlighted above may not be the case. The new purchaser maybe in a better position to proceed and not because the offer was higher 

Yes, or they might be in a worse position but the idea of more cash was most appealing to the vendor - who knows!

14sprocket

babyblade41 said:

Ulitmately it is the greedy vendor who took the higher offer - they could have said no, I have already accepted an offer and that would be unfair, but they didn't, they took the cash. 

The piece you wrote  which I have highlighted above may not be the case. The new purchaser maybe in a better position to proceed and not because the offer was higher 

Well, matter of fact they were not - EA confirmed that when encouraging us to up our offer to get back in the game.

The other buyer was in exactly the same position (had to go through the mortgage application process etc), so they didn't have an edge from that perspective

14sprocket

NameUnavailable said:

From the above the OP could complain that the agent breached the terms of 9e, if they didn't explicitly say the property was still being marketed, however the OP has already confirmed that the higher offer was from someone who had already seen the property and not the Instagram post.

I didn't confirm that - EA was very elusive in that respect, first saying that it's a new buyer coming into the process, then stating that it's actually the buyer who lost in the auction. I obviously have no way to confirm that.

babyblade41

I really understand how upset you must feel , I know as  I've been in the same position more than once  but I don't play hard ball and walk away 

Try and use all that energy into  finding a better house ..