Estate agents won't pass on offer

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Our house went otm on Monday. We are having viewings start on Saturday and already have 5 booked in. We live on a new build estate popular with BTL and houses normally sell within a week.

We have seen a house we like, and the vendor is moving to another part of the UK, and has not found anywhere yet. So today we tried to make an offer of asking price and asking for vendor to give us 2 weeks to sell ours.

Estate agents said they will not accept that it is an offer, just "expressing interest" and will tell the vendor we are interested but that it isn't an offer.

Can they do this?

Seems an odd approach. Tbh if I were the vendor I would want the full story and could then decide.

I likely wouldn't accept if you didn't have an agreed offer yourself though.

put a note through the vendor's door. EAs are supposed on all offers so the vendor is being cheated.

oops: 'EAs are supposed to PASS ON all offers'

If you haven't sold your house yet then I'm not really surprised that they are not taking your offer seriously, you are not in a position to proceed.

If your house sells quickly, then you can go back to them and make a genuine offer.

It may just be terminology. You're not in a position to proceed so the EA says he is going to tell the vendor you're interested (and presumably the level of your offer) but presumably is just saying its pointless until you're under offer yourselves.

I agree with special subject, put a note through vendors door - explain your position as you have above. If they get a better offer in the meantime with someone who's in a position to go ahead straight away then they can go with them, but they at least get chance to hear about your offer!

Exactly, they can't pass it on as a formal offer because you aren't in a position to make one. It's like if you were a first time buyer with no mortgage arranged, you might want to offer but you wouldn't be able to formally offer what you don't have.

You haven't even started viewings let alone have an offer on yours, you can't move forward on the possibility of one. EA is being responsible.

But you're not in a position to offer! Or to buy!

I think you can express an interest and say you intend to offer x amount

Fair enough I wasn't sure. I've seen oosts on here and also people I know who have an offer on a property before their has sold (including the vendors of one of the houses we have viewed) so I assumed it was a common thing

I may be out of date but I understood that EAs were obliged to pass on all offers, irrespective of amount or proceedability. The fact that you haven't yet sold yours is irrelevant and for the vendor to consider in the context of whether they accept your offer or not.

If they're signed up to The Property Ombudsman:

The estate agent must record all offers received and pass a written copy of the offer promptly to the seller. The estate agent must not conceal or misrepresent offers made on the property to the seller and where relevant to prospective buyers.

It could also be that the vendors have stated not to waste their time with offers that aren't immediately workable.

I'd write a letter to the owners explaining that you have approached the estate agent but that he's reluctant to pass on the offer of £XX. They are supposed to pass on all offers.

Those guidelines say words to the effect that the offer must be passed on unless it is for an amount of type of offer that the seller has instructed the EA in writing not to pass on.

So its probably that the seller has told the EA only to pass on offers who are proceedable etc. I know when we last sold we instructed the EA not to tell us of any offers below X because there was no way we'd have even considered them.

"By law, you must tell sellers as soon as is reasonably possible about all offers that you receive at any time until contracts have been exchanged (in Scotland, missives have been concluded) unless the offer is an amount or type which the seller has specifically instructed you, in writing, not to pass on."

When we were in this position the EAs called it a "non-proceedable offer" and the vendors were happy to know we were interested but kept the property on the market which was perfectly reasonable of them. In the end it was months before we sold ours and the house we wanted was bought by someone else but you can't blame anyone for that. "Accepting an offer" means taking the property off the market and it's not fair to expect vendors to do that if you haven't sold yourselves unless you would be in a position to proceed before your current place sells.

We are in a similar position, we are about to have an "Open Day" on our house, there is no point having an open day this weekend or next as people are away. So first week in September. I am fairly hopeful of a quick sale as the last open day on our street secured 5 offers and sold to one of them. We may not sell that fast but equally may do.

I have seen two properties that I would in theory consider making an offer on but the agent won't take it as an offer as we haven't sold.

In the past you could offer and agree a price before getting a buyer but I think that the buying cycles were longer.

they should put your offer through and the best you might get is that your offer is acceptable in principal but cannot be agreed until you are under offer yourselves. It is probably just the jargon they are using - but just double check that they are putting the offer through - say you realise it is unlikely to be accepted at the moment but as soon as you have an offer on your own property you will let them know.