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Original poster

Gazumped - WWYD? what's my next move?

35 replies

IamwhoIsayIam · 20/08/2020 12:10

Ok - so we had an offer accepted and the estate agent cancelled all further viewings. Great, we got on with progressing the sale. However, someone has contacted the owner privately to view the property, mentioning a figure nearly 10% higher than ours if they can get a viewing. It's not an offer but I'm 99% sure they will offer, given the lengths they have gone to.
The owner agrees they have accepted our offer but wants to give this other person a chance to view ( and most likely offer higher)
What are our options and what are our chances of actually getting this property?!

OP posts:
notheragain4 · 20/08/2020 12:24

Oh I'm so sorry to hear that. I don't think there's much you could do. You could threaten to pull out if they allow the viewing, make it a gamble for them, but it would need to be genuine.

It's the rubbish set up in this country that you aren't tied in until exchange.

MusGus · 20/08/2020 12:30

You have nothing to lose if you take notheragain’s advice. So threaten to pull out.

sunshinesupermum · 20/08/2020 12:35

Agree with PP. Threaten to pull out. The vendors are CFs to contemplate this other offer.

DeRigueurMortis · 20/08/2020 12:37

Next move is simply to wait and see.

It's an awful position but unfortunately entirely legal.

It's worth if you can finding out the position of the other potential buyer relative to yours.

Do they have a house to sell, how quickly could they exchange etc? In that regard you might have a better overall offer even if your bid is lower.

Otherwise the only answer is to bid the same amount (and risk getting into a bidding war) or walk away.

This has only happened to me once and we walked away. The reason being we had no confidence the seller wouldn't do it again and essentially the trust was lost.

In the end it backfired on the seller as the "new" offer wasn't bad "shiny" as it was made out to be and they came back to us wanting us to put our original offer back on the table but by that time we'd offered on another property and told them to get lost.

I understand people want to get the best price for their house but doing this is a risky strategy - especially if it's a private viewing because the estate agent isn't going to be happy if they've lost your sale.

If the private offer goes down the pan there's a good chance the EA will blacklist them and they might even have commercial penalties for this scenario which is worth asking them about.

Rudolphian · 20/08/2020 12:39

I wouldn't be happy with this. If hey have accepted your offer then I would pull out.

DeRigueurMortis · 20/08/2020 12:40

Just read the other posts and I agree with calling their bluff.

First I'd contact the EA and tell them what's happening and say if the viewing goes ahead you'll pull out.

The EA will be in your side here as they won't want to lose the sale, so let them deal with the seller.

You'll lose the house anyway if they accept the higher offer so you might as well play hard ball now.

DeRigueurMortis · 20/08/2020 12:49

Thinking about this a bit more I'd be very wary.

If it's a private viewing how did you find out about it? Presumably the seller?

In which case they were a fool to tell you about it. They could have done the private viewing and if another offer came through removed the house from the market and done the sale privately with no one the wiser.

So why tell you?

The only reason I can think of is as a way to make you raise your offer...but you've got absolutely no proof a private viewing/offer is even on the table....so there's a chance here the whole thing could be a load of bollocks to scam you into increasing your bid.

So you definitely need to speak to the EA and get them up to speed on this ASAP.

notheragain4 · 20/08/2020 12:51

@DeRigueurMortis really good point!

LemonBreeland · 20/08/2020 12:55

Agree with others threaten to pull out if they go ahead with the viewing. You really don't have anything to lose.

WitsEnding · 20/08/2020 12:58

Start viewing other properties immediately, you too may find a better deal and you know they don’t consider themselves bound. Make sure the agent knows.

loutypips · 20/08/2020 13:04

The EA will still get paid either way as the seller will have to prove that the other buyer didn't see any of their advertising etc.

I'd contact the EA and ask what's going on as they won't be happy with the buyer for trying to avoid their fee!

yellowymellowy · 20/08/2020 13:04

Thinking along similar lines to@DeRigueurMortis.

Why have they told you this? I wonder how they have managed to get your contact details.
Neither the seller nor the alleged person making the private offer are behaving decently and neither are trustworthy. The property is being marketed through an agent so the (alleged) potential buyer should be contacting the agent. The seller should decline the request and ask them to contact their agent or decline altogether. I can only think that, whether this is true or not, they are trying to mainpulate you into increasing your offer.

I think you should look for other properties and consider reporting to the agent.

MrsCollinssettled · 20/08/2020 13:11

They show it to someone else, you withdraw your offer. If you don't they'll keep mucking you around and you don't want to waste anymore money or emotional energy on it.

Start looking at other properties too.

ThereIsNoSuchThingAsRoadTax · 20/08/2020 13:12

It could be a ploy to make you raise you offer as PPs have suggested.
Or, it could be genuine. In that case, I would put money on the new buyer gazundering at the last minute with an offer as low/lower than your current one. People who gazump/gazunder are arseholes.

When I was buying a house a few years ago, I offered on one which was priced low for a quick sale. Went to best/final offers and I offered about 15% above asking. The seller went with the other buyer. Land registry shows that they actually paid about 10% below asking - they knew the sellers had been made redundant and needed to sell quickly and move back to home country and it looks like they took full advantage of that info. I loved that house...

Bouncycastle12 · 20/08/2020 13:16

But how can you possibly know if they do the viewing? It would annoy me as vendor to get an ultimatum from you, especially as you can hardly stand outside their house checking there is no viewing!

yellowymellowy · 20/08/2020 13:21

@Bouncycastle12- I'm confused by your post. Do you mean that the OP would be unreasonable to pull out based on what the seller has said>

Bouncycastle12 · 20/08/2020 13:28

@yellowymellowy not unreasonable to pull out, but not much point in saying “you can’t do this viewing” when they quite clearly can, and the OP would never know.

BluePaintSample · 20/08/2020 13:31

The only thing you can do is wait. If they do take the higher offer the only thing to say is I hope it happens to you when you buy.

yellowymellowy · 20/08/2020 13:42

@Bouncycastle12
No, definitely pointless to say that but I didn't think the OP was suggesting it.

DeRigueurMortis · 20/08/2020 13:55

[quote Bouncycastle12]@yellowymellowy not unreasonable to pull out, but not much point in saying “you can’t do this viewing” when they quite clearly can, and the OP would never know.[/quote]

That's why it doesn't make sense.

Why did the seller tell the OP about the viewing?

All they have done is risk a firm bid for one that might come to nothing.

Also who offers 10% above the previous bid on a house they haven't viewed?

There's two scenarios here.

  1. There is no other bidder and it's just a scam to get you to raise your price.
  1. There is another bidder who has bandied the 10% figure to the sellers to get them to break their agreement with the OP about no further viewings. That's why they've contacted the seller rather than the EA.

In terms of the latter there's no guarantee they would make any offer and especially not 10% above the OP's because they haven't seen the house yet.

So it's all back to why did the seller tell the OP...it's not in their interests to piss off a verified offer.

Of course they could just be greedy and daft but either way something doesn't smell right...

notheragain4 · 20/08/2020 13:59

@Bouncycastle12 true, but it's no different to the agreement you make at the beginning when an offer is accepted and no further viewings agreed, you can't physically stop them but it's just one of those agreements you make to show you are all committed. Threatening to pull out shows them if you aren't committed, neither are we. It's all game playing anyway!

SnakesOrLadders · 20/08/2020 14:01

I’d threaten to pull out too

Original poster
IamwhoIsayIam · 20/08/2020 14:08

@Bouncycastle12 the point of saying 'no further viewings' as a condition of the offer is so that there is good faith that the sale will go ahead. Who wants to be spending time, money and effort on a sale knowing the sellers are still fishing around for a higher bid? The vendor can also make conditions on the offer being accepted, its not a one way ultimatum.

OP posts:
RoseTintedAtuin · 20/08/2020 14:09

Say you offered in good faith on the understanding there would be no further viewings. If they are still looking for buyers that is in breach of the good faith and you will have to consider withdrawing the offer.

RoseTintedAtuin · 20/08/2020 14:10

Cross posted... basically what you just said

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