Chance of Gazumping and what to do? Help please?

Cola133

We're buying a house that has signs of a water leak above a lounge bay window (we know there is a rip in the roofing felt we noticed on viewing). There is also a water leak above an upstairs back bedroom window - we don't know the cause. Our offer for the house was accepted 10k under the asking price (huge new building estate starting in 2025 behind the property and loads of properties for sale in the village as the locals don't want to be near the new estate). The estate agent phoned us today to say that although they've accepted our offer, someone else put in a higher offer after ours was accepted, but the sellers are going to stay with us.

We were waiting for the surveyor to go in next week to do a RICS Level 3 survey, before we mentioned the leaks just in case anything else crops up, but now I know they will not lower any further should anything else be highlighted on the survey, as they have the higher offer in their back pocket - I kind of feel that the Estate Agent shouldn't have taken anymore offers once they accepted ours as they can just switch to the other offer and make more money

My issue is, if the survey doesn't find anything else wrong (god willing), we can't complete/get into the property before December (as that's when our tenancy ends) then the leaks have had a whole Autumn wet season to get more damaged, so it will be even worse than it is now. We are also on a very very tight budget, we made sure to have 7k left over to make changes so that the property fits our needs better, but a large chunk of that will now have to go on leak repairs on the 2 roofs.

Basically whatever is found on a survey we will have to 'put up and shut up' with as the sellers could easily go with the other offer and be around £5k+ better off even if they ask them for a reduction for the repairs.

I don't know whether we should walk away at this point. The survey is £800, the only money we've spent so far is on a Mortgage Broker who got us accepted with NatWest. I don't want to waste the £800 so I'm undecided whether to go ahead with the survey or pull out completely now :-( 

I just feel like we will lose money and get gazumped if we challenge about things that are wrong with the property and then we will have lost £800 which when you're on a shoestring is a huge amount of money.

Jemma01

You should ask for the property to be taken out of the market. They shouldn't be presenting the seller with more offers.

Have you thought about Home buyer protection insurance? You'll need to read the terms and conditions, if you walk out of anything they won't cover you, or if you're the result of the fallout 

The house needs a survey level 3 with all these leaks, and if it turns out it'll cost you 40K to fix, then you'd rather know before. I'd speak to an insurer to understand the art of the possible and when I'd be covered/not covered for a potential scenario if you make a lower offer (based on a quote for fix) and the seller declines.

Cola133

Jemma01 said:

You should ask for the property to be taken out of the market. They shouldn't be presenting the seller with more offers.

Have you thought about Home buyer protection insurance? You'll need to read the terms and conditions, if you walk out of anything they won't cover you, or if you're the result of the fallout 

The house needs a survey level 3 with all these leaks, and if it turns out it'll cost you 40K to fix, then you'd rather know before. I'd speak to an insurer to understand the art of the possible and when I'd be covered/not covered for a potential scenario if you make a lower offer (based on a quote for fix) and the seller declines.

I did, as soon as our offer was accepted I asked for it to be taken off of the market, but the reply I got was "As the sale is not binding at this stage, we will continue to market the property for a reserve list only until a

valuation/survey has been instructed by your mortgage lender. Once this has been carried out the property

will be regarded as Sold Subject to Contract and we will write to your solicitor and to the vendors’ solicitor

asking them to commence the legal work". It was a week later and in that time they took another offer!

We've got Homebuyers Protection Insurance, but it will not pay out if they just refuse to pay for any of the work that needs doing, it only pays out if they actually gazump us, and if we pull out it won't pay.

Thank you for your help

sammyjammy

If they aren't even accepting this so called offer I wonder why the EA even mentioned it....  To be honest I wouldn't buy a house where they put it on the market not having done the most basic of maintenance to stop a leak, goodness knows what else will be found!

Jemma01

Cola133 said:

Jemma01 said:

You should ask for the property to be taken out of the market. They shouldn't be presenting the seller with more offers.

Have you thought about Home buyer protection insurance? You'll need to read the terms and conditions, if you walk out of anything they won't cover you, or if you're the result of the fallout 

The house needs a survey level 3 with all these leaks, and if it turns out it'll cost you 40K to fix, then you'd rather know before. I'd speak to an insurer to understand the art of the possible and when I'd be covered/not covered for a potential scenario if you make a lower offer (based on a quote for fix) and the seller declines.

I did, as soon as our offer was accepted I asked for it to be taken off of the market, but the reply I got was "As the sale is not binding at this stage, we will continue to market the property for a reserve list only until a

valuation/survey has been instructed by your mortgage lender. Once this has been carried out the property

will be regarded as Sold Subject to Contract and we will write to your solicitor and to the vendors’ solicitor

asking them to commence the legal work". It was a week later and in that time they took another offer!

We've got Homebuyers Protection Insurance, but it will not pay out if they just refuse to pay for any of the work that needs doing, it only pays out if they actually gazump us, and if we pull out it won't pay.

Thank you for your help

I wouldn't pay 800 with the risk that I'd be out of pocket! They need to investigate the issue present quotes for fixing at least and then let you decide. Either they fix it themselves or deduct it from the price. Leaks can be very costly, and I honestly think 10K may not cover it if you need to rip off the toilet for example.

I personally would walk away from an agent that facilitates gazumping. Not a penny they're getting.
Make sure your tenancy rolls into a periodic contract, so you can leave anytime you want.

silvercar

If I was the seller I would expect that your offer price reflects any obvious defects that you will have noticed. So your survey will suggest that you investigate further the cause of the leaks and budget to fix them. The survey may not identify the cause of the leaks unless it is obvious.

Does your seller know that you don’t intend completing before December? As a seller that would concern me. If I’m selling without being able or willing to fix known leaks I would want to be out of the property before heavy rains make living in the house unpleasant.

The other offer may be real or not, all you can do is go with what you want. If you love the house and think it’s good value then £800 on a survey is money well spent. 

RHemmings

Can you ask your landlord to let you out of your rental contract? If both you and the landlord agree to the contract ending early, then that can be done with no problem. If I was in your situation, I would mention the possibility of doing a deal so that your landlord is not out of pocket. Though, I'd want to use a less obvious word than 'deal'. What first came to mind is offering an extra month's rent over and above the time spent in the property. 

If you are on a year's contract (for example) and your current rent is under that typical for the market, then this is something that you can possibly point out to the landlord. 

lincroft1710

Although it will be financially burdensome, providing you have completed on your purchase, you can move into your new home before your tenancy ends. You just have to keep paying the rent and council tax at your old home.

Jemma01

seems to take months before a purchase happens, December is at the doors!!
Been waiting 3 months + 1 day and we're still in square zero with property 3 finding another home they like more!! and here we are again with an open chain and properties keep coming, if we complete in 4 months, it'd be a miracle. 

December is around the corner.

MeteredOut

I wonder if an EA has ever lied to someone about another offer in the home of pressurising them to move ahead with the sale...

Is there any way to get that validated?

BarelySentientAI

MeteredOut said:

I wonder if an EA has ever lied to someone about another offer in the home of pressurising them to move ahead with the sale...

Is there any way to get that validated?

Sworn testimony from the seller?

After all, the EA has to tell the seller about all offers.