Gazumped in Scotland?

sheramber

I expect because the formal was not forthcoming the sellers continued with marketing the property. and another offer came in before yours had been received. 

 On two occasions that we have bought we have contacted the seller and asked what price they wanted. ( selling at offers over).

We agreed a price and the seller contacted the EA the next morning to  advise that they they were accepting an offer from us and to await the formal offer.

 We instructed our solicitor the same day and the sales progressed as normal.

That was before the current market where houses are getting several offers.

user1977

Koalabear82 said:

Given what everyone has said I’m a bit confused as to why the ea advised me my verbal offer was accepted.

Presumably that was with an at least implied "provided we get a formal offer pronto", whereas it sounds like they had waited a whole working week and still hadn't heard from your solicitor. You need to have your solicitor lined up in Scotland before you get to the stage of making offers. 

theoretica

Even if this particular property doesn't go through do continue with getting ID to your Scottish solicitor and anything else they need, like mortgage in principal, so you can make a formal offer in a few hours next time.

onylon

Why was ID needed for the offer? We just called our solicitor and asked them to make an offer. I think the only thing they wanted up front was an email saying that I accepted their quote.

Are you trying to tie your Scottish purchase into an English chain? I've heard thats a total minefield.

Pixie5740

Koalabear82 said:

Thanks for the insight.

Given what everyone has said I’m a bit confused as to why the ea advised me my verbal offer was accepted. Would have been better if they had said my offer would be considered when submitted formally, but as you say lesson learned! 

What is confusing is that you are attempting to buy a property in Scotland the same way as you would in England.  You don't make offers to the estate agent you make offers through your solicitor.  If your solicitor is asking for ID then it sounds as if you weren't even fully set up with your solicitor to start submitting offers on your behalf.

You've jumped the gun and lost this property.  You have not been guzumped because you did not submit a formal offer therefore your formal offer could never have been accepted.  Before attempting to make any further offers it would be wise to familiarise yourself with the house buying process in Scotland.

https://www.mygov.scot/buying-a-home

If you are trying to line up a property sale in England with a property purchase in Scotland this has the potential to get messy unless you are not reliant on the money from selling the property in England to purchase the property in Scotland and have enough savings to cover the Additional Dwelling Supplement for LBTT until the English property sale completes.

user1977

onylon said:

Why was ID needed for the offer? We just called our solicitor and asked them to make an offer. 

Solicitors are required to check ID before doing any substantive work for clients, because of anti-money-laundering regulations. And also because of how the law of agency works (make an offer on behalf of a client who doesn't actually exist and it becomes potentially a binding offer by the solicitors themselves). 

onylon

user1977 said:

onylon said:

Why was ID needed for the offer? We just called our solicitor and asked them to make an offer. 

Solicitors are required to check ID before doing any substantive work for clients, because of anti-money-laundering regulations. And also because of how the law of agency works (make an offer on behalf of a client who doesn't actually exist and it becomes potentially a binding offer by the solicitors themselves). 

The OP needs a mortgage so it would have been a qualified offer and non-binding. The ID and money laundering stuff can be done any time before conclusion of missives.

Our IDs weren't checked until pretty late in the process due to covid related issues.

user1977

onylon said:

user1977 said:

onylon said:

Why was ID needed for the offer? We just called our solicitor and asked them to make an offer. 

Solicitors are required to check ID before doing any substantive work for clients, because of anti-money-laundering regulations. And also because of how the law of agency works (make an offer on behalf of a client who doesn't actually exist and it becomes potentially a binding offer by the solicitors themselves). 

The ID and money laundering stuff can be done any time before conclusion of missives.

It really shouldn't - solicitors have a duty to know their client at an earlier stage (and if their systems are set up properly, won't even let them open a file before they have ID). Some may of course take a more lax attitude to these things.

Koalabear82

Well the ID issue is sorted and the my formal offer went off on Friday.

To clarify my house in England has sold and it is going through conveyancing. I am reliant on the sale of this property plus my mortgage (I had an DIP before I made the offer) to purchase the house in Scotland. However I understand that it won’t be possible to move straight from one to the other and I’ll be moving in with family in between. I also understand that I would be in a stronger position if I had exchanged contracts on my house in England before offering on Scottish property. However I was told by more than one ea that’s it’s totally fine to make offer conditional on sale of eng property. So I decided to get stuck in. I am looking on the Eng/Scot border so I do wonder if vendors and ea are a bit more open to conditional offers in that area.

The vendor in Scotland is aware of my position and wasn’t put off. Further, when I went to view it was the vendor that told me it was acceptable it agree a sale verbally and then instruct solicitors… But he is English so maybe it’s a case of blind leading the blind!

Ah dear, steep learning curve.  

Pixie5740

Koalabear82 said:

Well the ID issue is sorted and the my formal offer went off on Friday.

To clarify my house in England has sold and it is going through conveyancing. I am reliant on the sale of this property plus my mortgage (I had an DIP before I made the offer) to purchase the house in Scotland. However I understand that it won’t be possible to move straight from one to the other and I’ll be moving in with family in between. I also understand that I would be in a stronger position if I had exchanged contracts on my house in England before offering on Scottish property. However I was told by more than one ea that’s it’s totally fine to make offer conditional on sale of eng property. So I decided to get stuck in. I am looking on the Eng/Scot border so I do wonder if vendors and ea are a bit more open to conditional offers in that area.

The vendor in Scotland is aware of my position and wasn’t put off. Further, when I went to view it was the vendor that told me it was acceptable it agree a sale verbally and then instruct solicitors… But he is English so maybe it’s a case of blind leading the blind!

Ah dear, steep learning curve.  

You haven't sold your house in England until the sale completes and goodness knows how long that will take.  A vendor might be open to a conditional offer until your sale in England drags on, and on and on and then you could find the seller withdraws from the sale.  As has been said already in the thread property purchases in Scotland move a lot faster.  


I'm not sure why you would take advice from an estate agent when it is your solicitor who should be guiding the purchase in Scotland.  Your solicitor is qualified to give advice and works for you.  The seller's estate agent does not work for you.