Gazumped

[FiveMoreMinutesPlease]

Has anyone else been gazumped? We just have and we are feeling gutted, especially as we've just paid for the homebuyers survey. We can't afford to beat their offer either.
I wish there was a way of preventing this from happening.

its disgusting you can pay for the survey and still not be 'locked in'

just so unfair

I'm sorry this has happened to you, it's really rubbish

It happened to us years ago and it was awful, I was pregnant with DS2 and we were desperate to move but we lost a lovely house to a gazumper.

It worked out in the end though, we found another on the same road a while later.

And I'm not normally one to bear a grudge, but I never spoke to the neighbours who'd gazumped us even once in the five years we lived there.

Yep, happened to us after homebuyers survey too. Had to pay an extra 20 grand. Still smarts. We maintained a list of shitty/ unethical behaviour that we encountered during the whole home buying process to try and keep ourselves amused. It was a long list.

I can appreciate how a seller would want the best price they can get, but I think once the process has started a seller should be liable for certain fees - like a wasted survey - if they accept another offer. We've lost approx £1k of our already right budget.
I can help but hope it all falls through for them (I know that's bad of me).

It's not bad of you OP, it's quite understandable in the circumstances.

Accepted offers should be legally binding. They already are in Scotland, I think, so this sort of thing can't happen.

Drama I don't think I would have ever spoken to them either.

It is an awful process.

It is awful that sellers can do this.
However have you informed the surveyors? We had a similar situation where survey had been booked/paid but not yet carried out. Surveyor was happy to "postpone" that survey and we then "switched" address to the next property we tried to buy. It meant we weren't out of pocket for survey costs. This worked because we were straight back out looking at other properties so wouldn't be appropriate if you've decided to stay put but worth trying?

Bonjovi, the survey was already completed as we were working to their tight timescale so acted promptly. That'll teach us.
I'll be really cautious on our next offer and ask the solicitor to make sure it goes completely off market and not visible on Rightmove etc. Can we do that's

I fucking hate the buying/selling process in this country it is utter shit and leaves both sellers and buyers in such a vulnerable position for months until exchange. Has anyone ever petitioned to have this changed? Make it more along the lines of the Scottish system or New Zealand, I'd sign that.

Scottish offers aren't set in stone until the missives have been completed and the bargain concluded. Add in the possibility of paying way over the odds because it's gone to sealed bids and you'll see that the Scottish system isn't perfect either.

Apple I totally agree. I'm stuck in the nightmare that is the system. Sold in Jan, buyers pulled out 3 weeks ago, sold again. Its awful to think it can still go tits up again. I fucking hate the process 😡

You aren't legally tied in Scotland until themissivescare signed so people cans and do pull out of deals. However gazumping is really rare as it's a 'gentlemans agreement'. The seller also pay for the survey at the time they put the house on the market and it is available to all viewers.

I work in property in Scotland. In the last 10 years we have had just 3 cases where sales have fallen through.

You can ask for it to be taken off the market yes, we have bought and sold several houses and whenever we make an offer we put a condition on that it is immediately taken off the market if accepted. Each time the condition was met with immediate affect.

However we have always been in a position to move, as we ensure ours is sold first and funds agreed/ in place, but if you're not in a position to move, then I'm not sure it would work.

I found out the other day you can get insurance that will cover your costs eg survey if you get gazumped. its poor comfort now (sorry!) but might be worth looking at for the next attempt?

plus I always secretly hope karma will get them. the sellers are clearly unscrupulous and thats a big jump in price. Maybe let the seller know that your offer is still there in case it all falls through?

Dailystuck71 interestingly, at the moment on ASPC I regularly see houses showing as "under offer" and a then few days later are back on the market.

In my experience a lot of people make offers when they haven't sold, have over priced their own home, and rely on it selling for an unrealistic price, and don't have finances in order i.e. Mortgage not agreed in principle. Understandable maybe but it means a lot fall through.

When we bought this house, three offers had been made on it, each one fell through as the buyers couldn't get the finances together. The sellers were lovely but at their wits end.

Aberdeen is whole other market at the moment though 😀

Could you are if the (arseholes) new buyers want to purchase your survey at a discount? Say £600. Would be cheaper than a new survey and you could recoup your costs?

Another one suggesting you sell them the survey. It would be worth it for them at full price as it saves them time (as long as you used someone mainstream who the banks would approve)

Aberdeen is a whole other market - it always is in an oil slump. But it does show that the Scottish system isn't as perfect as English buyers like to think. Our old neighbours got gazundered on their house sale a few years ago. Fortunately karma can be a wonderful thing

So sorry to hear this OP, it's so frustrating.

This happened to us at the start of the year- we couldn't match what the other buyer could pay.

Funnily enough, the property is STILL on the market and checking of the land registry shows that it hasn't yet been sold, despite the EA telling us a million times that the vendor was at the point of losing the house he was buying.

Ah nice to know there is some justice out there and karma has come around for him.

The same happened to us when searching for our current house, but ended up with a nicer property in the end, still with work that needed doing but not to the same extent as the house where we were gazumped. I pass by that house now with zero regrets. It was on a slightly nicer street but the house had been victim of 1960s/70s "modernising" so Victorian bay window had been flattened and pebbledashed and windows widened so not something that was really fixable. Current house we bought instead still has its lovely old bay windows.

We were ready to proceed quickly but the sellers took the higher offer which fell through, we had since found our current house. All things happen for a reason so don't lose hope OP :)

Same thing happened to us - and today we found out it's come back to bite the vendor on the arse. EA told us we had the winning bid and our offer was accepted, then went with another buyer who offered more. EA called me today to say sale was on the point of falling through and were we still interested? Laughed in his face (we have since found another house that's even nicer). To make the karmic come-around even sweeter, the tenants who were living there moved out immediately rather than wait for the sale to progress, so the vendor has to cover that cost too. Hey ho!