offer accepted on house then another offer accepted without me knowing.is this legal

minxtress

I had an offer accepted on a house at beginning of May for 5 grand less than the asking price, immedialtely put mine on the market.
I was waiting to do surveys etc until I had an offer on my own, on the understanding the estate agent I was buying from would keep me informed of any developments on the property.
I had an interested party at mine yesterday, who have informed my estate agents they will be more than likely putting an offer in on friday after checking thier finances.
I rang EA for house im buying today to start proceedings ie surveys etc to be informed they have accepted another offer and they left me a voice message at beginning of June!!!! Obviously I have had no phone call or message or would of acted immediately.
I am devestated as you can imagine. Is this allowed? Should I of not been spoken to and agiven the chance of increasing my offer? Which I would of.
I have got my son in local school, been accepted to train as a midwife and have a potential buyer for my own property on the strength of this, I am a single parent and this would of made such a difference to our lives.
I dont know what course of action to take now.
The vendor of the other house is the Church Commison, might it be worth writing a letter xplaining my situation from the heart and seeing if that makes a difference?
Help!!

Jorgan_2

Quick answer, yes its legal. It may not be good business practice, but it is legal.

Unless you can proceed without the sale of your own property, I can't really see what options you have.

minxtress

Jorgan wrote: »

Quick answer, yes its legal. It may not be good business practice, but it is legal.

Would it be worth writing a letter to the chirch commision, surely it would of been in thier best interests to of been given the chance of me increasing my offer
Thier estate agent has acted badly for them really also?
Under the 1979 estate agents act I should of been advised promptly and in writing to give me the chance to increase mine.

dander

To be honest I'm very surprised they ever accepted your offer if your house wasn't even on the market yet. If you then didn't proceed any further with the purchasing process they really didn't have any reason to take you seriously as a buyer. Presumably someone came along with an offer backed up with a sale and was ready to proceed immediately - they'd be crazy to refuse that in favour of your offer.

You can't guarantee this won't happen again - gazumping is entirely legal, but if you don't make offers until your house is under offer and then prove you're a serious purchaser by getting the ball rolling fast, you stand a lot more chance of preventing it.
And make it a condition of any offer that the property is taken off the market.

m1ntie

Yes it is perfectly legal and perfectly normal. You put an offer in and then did nothing to progress the purchase. So as far as the vendor was concerned you could be a complete time waster who they would never hear from again.

Most vendors will keep there property on the market until a purchaser has shown some degree of commitment eg survey or valuation, indeed they would be foolish not to in the present market.

My advice to you is not to waste any more time on this, writing letters etc. Now is not a good time to buy, as prices are falling rapidly, but if you are sure you want to go ahead, find yourself another suitable property and then proceed more quickly.

However you should be aware that with property transactions ( in England and Wales)either party can pull out at any time before exchange of contracts- which can leave you severly out of pocket if you have incurred legal fees and survey costs etc.

Good luck

Jorgan_2

You can write to the seller, it may or may not affect the outcome. The biggest problem I can see is that you can't proceed & I assume the other buyer can, it isn't all about money, a buyers position plays a big part as well.

PasturesNew

As you hadn't sold your house you weren't really in a position to be putting in offers. And, as you said, you've not had the surveys done (which would be pure madness in any case as you shouldn't do that until your chain is complete).

You can't expect sellers, especially in this market, to hang around waiting for your house to sell.

You suggest you'd have liked a chance to increase your offer, but you are still not in a position to offer as you still have your house to sell/at least get your chain complete.

Maybe the EA did leave you a message and you just didn't get it. e.g. your machine had a power cut, their staff dialled the wrong number.

There's nothing you can do about it I'd have thought.

And you're still not in a position to put any offers in until you've had an offer on yours that you accept. Is that a person who has a house to sell?

minxtress

I had no intention of moving until I seen the house I put an offer in on. It was too good an opportunity to miss, I could sell my current one, but new one outright with the equity and go on to further education.
The estate agent and vendor were well aware of this. I put my offer in the day after I put mine on the market, all parties aware of this, vendors estate agent advised me not to proceed to surveys etc in her opinion until I had interest in mine, I now have that interest in a first time buyer with a 60% deposit so made contact to day to proceed further. As it was the Church commision selling the house, she advised me when my offer was accepted, theey arent like joe public selling and are in no hurry.
I gave the estate agent 3 numbers for myslef all of which she has rang me on in the past re viewings etc, so if she'd wanted to reach me she could. She didn't plain and simply!!
I would of increased my offer, and started the ball rolling.
Having not bought and sold a house on my own in the past, and this only really being my first experience of doing this I took her advice and waited for developments. now Im with a buyer and without anywhere to go.
The current market is a bit sketchy but Im in a very good position.

Doozergirl

Unfortunately, you are not in a good position. You are not under offer and no agent in the land would recommend that a vendor wait for someone else to find a buyer. Finding a proceedable buyer is the golden rule. What has happened is normal. Perhaps it was rude of them not to let you know but you still haven't sold.

Also, you were still not in the position to proceed this morning! You still don't have an offer, you have no idea whether it will even be acceptable when it does arrive

Increasing your offer when you still don't have the money, or the promise of the money to pay for it, is still pointless. I can't fall in love with a dress in a shop and start making offers for without having the money to pay it. Any sensible shop keeper has to keep it up for sale. They need the money more than they need to sell the dress to me specifically, no matter if I've already bought the shoes to match.

The option is still there for you to find another property and fulfil your dream, or indeed, if you find a buyer to continue making offers on this property. It's immoral, so if you're appealing to their better nature to sell to you over someone else because of your circumstances, they're still renaging on a deal they've made. Damned if they do, damned if they don't

I'm afraid it is your lack of understanding of how the market works that leaves you with the bitter taste in your mouth.

minxtress

Doozergirl wrote: »

Unfortunately, you are not in a good position. You are not under offer and no agent in the land would recommend that a vendor wait for someone else to find a buyer. Finding a proceedable buyer is the golden rule. What has happened is normal. Perhaps it was rude of them not to let you know but you still haven't sold.

Also, you were still not in the position to proceed this morning! You still don't have an offer, you have no idea whether it will even be acceptable when it does arrive

Increasing your offer when you still don't have the money, or the promise of the money to pay for it, is still pointless. I can't fall in love with a dress in a shop and start making offers for without having the money to pay it. Any sensible shop keeper has to keep it up for sale. They need the money more than they need to sell the dress to me specifically, no matter if I've already bought the shoes to match.

The option is still there for you to find another property and fulfil your dream, or indeed, if you find a buyer to continue making offers on this property. It's immoral, so if you're appealing to their better nature to sell to you over someone else because of your circumstances, they're still renaging on a deal they've made. Damned if they do, damned if they don't

I'm afraid it is your lack of understanding of how the market works that leaves you with the bitter taste in your mouth.

and taking the advice of the "experts" who are meant to know what they are doing.
My lack of understanding in the market is one thousands of others are also in, given I havent sold or bought a house before alone. In any position where you dont know the procedure you turn to the people who do for advice. I was given the wrong advice. Had I been given the right advice I would of done something sooner.

Doozergirl

I'm not blaming you for not knowing!

The EA said 'interest in your property' and that really means an offer. If you had phoned today without there being an offer on the table, they would have asked you for your own EAs details to confirm your sale. You don't have a sale, she would have told you to wait.

I know they didn't tell you that there was another offer but really, it would not have made a difference. Unles you were prepared to pay over the odds, you would have missed out on this one anyway. They may or may not have left you a message but it's irrelevant.

There's advice right here waiting for you on this board. It's impartial (mostly) and not given by someone with a vested interest in selling a property that you want. I don't think the EA gave you the wrong information, I think you interpreted it incorrectly because you don't have all the information to hand . Not your fault, not their fault either. It wasn't meant to be.