My purchase offer was accepted but estate agents proceeded with another offer without telling me.

ThisIsWeird

Hi Ron'D.

Crime? I'm not aware of any, but then my knowledge of this is very limited.

Dirty, lowdown, perfidious behaviour? Certainly sounds like it. Contrary to EA guidelines? Quite possibly, but I don't know.

But surely worth a formal complaint to the 'budsman' if they don't, at least, offer to cover your loses.

Perhaps worth an initial series of Qs to clarify the situation, and indicate your concern; things like, "Why didn't you inform me that another party was being considered after you told me my offer had been accepted, and you told me the MoS had been sent out?" "Why didn't the MoS have my name on it as it should have?" "Why didn't you give me the opportunity to consider the matter, eg increasing my offer if that is what it would have taken to secure the property?" And any other relevant Q you can think of - especially if the 'dates' involved suggest some poor practice. Tell them you want answers to these Qs as you intend to make a formal complaint to the EA's CO (are they a chain?), and then - depending on their response - to their regulating body (find out who these are so you can mention both by name. Ie, show you have 'done your homework', and are serious about this).

Do this in a recordable way - email is fine. Keep it factual and unemotive, but by all means mention your disappointment, as well as your financial loss, as well as the loss of trust between you and this agent.

eddddy

RonsDaughter said:

I have already checked internet but cannot find anything relevant except for the Trading Standards Code of Conduct for Estate Agents.

Is the estate agent a member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme? (Most estate agents are.)

From your description, it sounds like the Estate agent has...

1. broken Consumer Protection Laws
2. and/or not treated you fairly

If the estate agent is a member of the ombudsman scheme, then both 1 and 2 above are breaches of the ombudsman's code of practice.  The ombudsman can order the estate agent to pay you compensation for your financial losses resulting from breaches.



The law that the estate agent has probably broken is "the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008" - because they made a "Misleading Omission" (they omitted to tell you that an offer had been accepted from somebody else, and they had issued a MoS to somebody else).

Here's what the law says:

Misleading Omission

6.—(1) A commercial practice is a misleading omission if, in its factual context, taking account of the matters in paragraph (2)—

• (a) the commercial practice omits material information,

• (b) the commercial practice hides material information,

• (c) the commercial practice provides material information in a manner which is unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely, or

• (d) the commercial practice fails to identify its commercial intent, unless this is already apparent from the context,

and as a result it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise. 

Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/regulation/6/made?view=plain

It sounds like the Estate Agent hid material information from you and/or provided it in an untimely manner.

You can see the process for complaining to the ombudsman here (you have to complain to the estate agent first) :
https://www.tpos.co.uk/

CSI_Yorkshire

Hanlon's razor applies here, followed by a botched attempt at !!!!!!-covering.  Just as it does in most of these cases where people jump to 'scam', 'criminal', 'dishonest' and similar.

Ksw3

I'd try and found out when they knew your offer had not been accepted, I would be quite put out if I had handed over my personal data (passports etc) and had a credit check when the agents had no legitimate interest in collecting or processing that data. 

I however imagine thay it was just a royal f up and only came to light recently. 

RonsDaughter

eddddy said:

RonsDaughter said:

I have already checked internet but cannot find anything relevant except for the Trading Standards Code of Conduct for Estate Agents.

Is the estate agent a member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme? (Most estate agents are.)

From your description, it sounds like the Estate agent has...

1. broken Consumer Protection Laws
2. and/or not treated you fairly

If the estate agent is a member of the ombudsman scheme, then both 1 and 2 above are breaches of the ombudsman's code of practice.  The ombudsman can order the estate agent to pay you compensation for your financial losses resulting from breaches.



The law that the estate agent has probably broken is "the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008" - because they made a "Misleading Omission" (they omitted to tell you that an offer had been accepted from somebody else, and they had issued a MoS to somebody else).

Here's what the law says:

Misleading Omission

6.—(1) A commercial practice is a misleading omission if, in its factual context, taking account of the matters in paragraph (2)—

• (a) the commercial practice omits material information,

• (b) the commercial practice hides material information,

• (c) the commercial practice provides material information in a manner which is unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely, or

• (d) the commercial practice fails to identify its commercial intent, unless this is already apparent from the context,

and as a result it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise. 

Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/regulation/6/made?view=plain

It sounds like the Estate Agent hid material information from you and/or provided it in an untimely manner.

You can see the process for complaining to the ombudsman here (you have to complain to the estate agent first) :
https://www.tpos.co.uk/

thank you for taking the time to write such a clear and informative answer. I very much appreciate this. Obviously I only posted the bare bones of the story for brevity, and there is far more to it than what I have divulged in my post. I don't want to accuse the estate agent of criminal activity in my complaint if his actions do not amount to such, but it is clear the estate agent has at the very least breached aspects of Trading Standards, Consumer Protection and their own Code of Conduct. 

Thank you for the above information. I will check through my notes very carefully before I choose my path.

eddddy

RonsDaughter said:

thank you for taking the time to write such a clear and informative answer. I very much appreciate this. Obviously I only posted the bare bones of the story for brevity, and there is far more to it than what I have divulged in my post. I don't want to accuse the estate agent of criminal activity in my complaint if his actions do not amount to such, but it is clear the estate agent has at the very least breached aspects of Trading Standards, Consumer Protection and their own Code of Conduct. 

Thank you for the above information. I will check through my notes very carefully before I choose my path.

You don't have to explicitly accuse the estate agent of breaking the law. You can simply state the facts to the ombudsman, and say that you believe you have been treated unfairly. Something like...

• xx/06/2023 - I made an offer of £x for property
• 29/06/2023 - [estate agent] emailed me to say my offer was accepted (see copy of email as attachment 1)
• xx/xx/2023 - phoned / emailed etc etc
• etc
• etc
• xx/xx/2023 - booked survey
• xx/xx/2023 - survey carried out
• 18/08/2023 - [estate agent] informed me that I had been gazumped on 15/07/2023 and buyer had accepted a different offer

So it appears that the estate agent knew that another offer had been accepted before my survey on xx/xx/2023, but did not tell me until xx/xx/2023. Had they told me in a timely fashion, I would not have spent £x on a survey etc.



And you can leave the Ombudsman to decide if the law and/or the code of practice has been broken.


(I guess it's possible that the estate agent might argue that they got confused - e.g. when they were talking to you, they thought they were talking to the other buyer. But I think the ombudsman might say that was negligent on their part - they should have checked more carefully. And so still make them liable to pay you compensation.)

 

GDB2222

RonsDaughter said:

eddddy said:

RonsDaughter said:

I have already checked internet but cannot find anything relevant except for the Trading Standards Code of Conduct for Estate Agents.

Is the estate agent a member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme? (Most estate agents are.)

From your description, it sounds like the Estate agent has...

1. broken Consumer Protection Laws
2. and/or not treated you fairly

If the estate agent is a member of the ombudsman scheme, then both 1 and 2 above are breaches of the ombudsman's code of practice.  The ombudsman can order the estate agent to pay you compensation for your financial losses resulting from breaches.



The law that the estate agent has probably broken is "the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008" - because they made a "Misleading Omission" (they omitted to tell you that an offer had been accepted from somebody else, and they had issued a MoS to somebody else).

Here's what the law says:

Misleading Omission

6.—(1) A commercial practice is a misleading omission if, in its factual context, taking account of the matters in paragraph (2)—

• (a) the commercial practice omits material information,

• (b) the commercial practice hides material information,

• (c) the commercial practice provides material information in a manner which is unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely, or

• (d) the commercial practice fails to identify its commercial intent, unless this is already apparent from the context,

and as a result it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise. 

Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/regulation/6/made?view=plain

It sounds like the Estate Agent hid material information from you and/or provided it in an untimely manner.

You can see the process for complaining to the ombudsman here (you have to complain to the estate agent first) :
https://www.tpos.co.uk/

thank you for taking the time to write such a clear and informative answer. I very much appreciate this. Obviously I only posted the bare bones of the story for brevity, and there is far more to it than what I have divulged in my post. I don't want to accuse the estate agent of criminal activity in my complaint if his actions do not amount to such, but it is clear the estate agent has at the very least breached aspects of Trading Standards, Consumer Protection and their own Code of Conduct. 

Thank you for the above information. I will check through my notes very carefully before I choose my path.

Accusing them of crimes is not going to help you in any way. All you want is for them to admit that they made a mistake and will pay the loss you have incurred. 

TheJP

No crime, no claim for out of expenses as you didn't have a contract with the estate agent. Did they act pretty shady yes, you never instruct any kind of work until the chain is complete let alone even getting the MoS.

Complain to the EA on their conduct but you wont get any money out of this, chalk it up as experience and move on.

This happens to people who are just about to exchange and they have no claim on money lost.

eddddy

TheJP said:

No crime, no claim for out of expenses as you didn't have a contract with the estate agent. 

Just to clarify - the Property Ombudsman does not require a contract to exist, in order to instruct Estate Agents to pay compensation to prospective buyers.

As I explain above, it's possible that the Estate Agent has broken the law (Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008) and/or broken the Property Ombudsman's code of practice.

(Most estate agents are members of the Property Ombudsman Scheme.)

TheJP said:

This happens to people who are just about to exchange and they have no claim on money lost.

That would be correct if the estate agent has done nothing wrong.

But it's not necessarily correct if the estate agent has broken consumer protection laws, or broken the Property Ombudsman's code of practice - and the buyer suffered a loss as a result.

ThisIsWeird

Just to third and possibly fourth, do not 'accuse' them of anything. By all means ponder if, but don't claim it is.

Outline the facts, relate them to Eddddy's useful post content where possible, and ask for their response - making it clear you are intending to take it further, should you not be impressed by their explanation.