Gazumped & angry

fluffymuffy

We just lost the house we were buying. Apparently someone offered more and were in a position to proceed. Our own house is sold and the buyer has had a survey and we are about 3 weeks from moving with nowhere to go. We don't need a mortgage and were going to buy the house with the proceeds of the sale of our house. The house we were trying to buy doesn't have building regulations approval for the extension. We spotted this but decided we didn't mind. If the person who gazumped us doesn't need a mortgage then they might not find the lack of building regulations approval to be a barrier. My dilemma - how to overcome the urge to report this to Building Control once they have moved in?

user1977

When was it built? Why do you think building control are likely to care?

fluffymuffy

user1977 said:

When was it built? Why do you think building control are likely to care?

About 2 years ago. Our local Building Control does take action.

Miri_J

I feel your pain. I've just withdrawn from a sale where I felt planning rules hadn't been followed. A loss to me financially, in much time wasted, and in loss of dreams. It's a grieving process. You've put all your hopes into that house and now it's gone! It's really difficult. You have to start over again. For me, I'm now looking in a more expensive area too and struggling to find anything nearly as nice. I guess some of that is dealing with the loss too. I won't mention mine to planning but I know how frustrating the whole house buying and selling process can be! Sorry.

Phoenix72

How does reporting it after the new buyer harm the 'guilty' party here, the seller.

Either report it now or let it go.

LinLui

I don't condone this,  and we need laws to prevent it. But being as big a ***** won't make you feel better. If it bothered you that much you shouldn't have agreed to buy it yourselves. It's either right or not.  That isn't measured by how annoyed you are. 

sheramber

So you don’t hold a grudge against the seller for accepting a higher offer , but you hold a grudge against the person whose higher offer was accepted and want to penalise them. 

youth_leader

I'm so sorry, but you have to let it go. 

I sold to a horrible, unethical man and I was looking for a dead badger to plant under the floors in the basement without success before I completed.  The way the man treated me made me very angry.  Luckily I never found one, and I realised this type of anger is harmful to us, the person that caused it blissfully unaware. 

I do hope you find another property quickly. 

Bigphil1474

OP, don't be surprised if the new buyer suddenly decides to pull out when their survey identifies there's no sign off from BC on the extension and they don't want the risk, or their mortgage company says no. The time for karma with the seller is when they ask if you are still interested. I'd doubt BC will be interested. Planning maybe, but BC would generally look to get it sorted retrospectively. 

fluffymuffy

A good question is "Who is the villain?"

The homeowner was desperate to move (for good reasons). The buyer went out of their way to entice them with their new offer. The house was no longer on the market when they made their approach. What sort of person does that?

Now we need to find somewhere to buy urgently. We're looking at those with "No Chain" on the advert. 

silvercar

fluffymuffy said:

A good question is "Who is the villain?"

The homeowner was desperate to move (for good reasons). The buyer went out of their way to entice them with their new offer. The house was no longer on the market when they made their approach. What sort of person does that?

Now we need to find somewhere to buy urgently. We're looking at those with "No Chain" on the advert. 

A "good" seller wouldn't show to anyone else or accept any offers. 

We've had buyers and sellers behaving badly in the past, it's all part of the stupid England house buying system.