Estate agent lying about offers?

[DaveyJonesLocker]

So I've just been to view a house listed at 80k.
I spoke to the seller about what she wants and what offers she's had. She's had 2 offers. 60k and 70k but she wants 72.5k.

So I wrang estate agent and offered 72.5k.

To be told that they'd had multiple offers OVER 80k and they wanted me to up my offer before even telling the seller.

Have I missed something or is this just blatant lying?

We don't know they are lying. We don't know how many offers were put forward. Nor does the OP. And the agent may not have put the offers forward because they weren't proceedable - which is usually a condition. Agent may be waiting for higher offering buyers to come back when their mortgage is in place. No-one knows. But OP believes what she wants to believe as do PPs so best left there as none of us knows..

@SayItStraight I did eventually! But they did lie in the end, didn't give the seller my actual offer. Took loads for themselves

Wow, @DaveyJonesLocker - just goes to show your spidey-senses were spot on! Glad it all went well for you and hope you're happy in your new home

I thought estate were legally obliged to tell the seller about all offers??

They do this all the time, and it is counterproductive in a falling market - we didn’t offer on a house which apparently had “offers over asking price” already (we were not planning to offer over asking price).

House sat on market for four months, and is now reduced, so those offers clearly didn’t exist.

Depends what the vendor has instructed. If the vendor has told the agent they don't want to hear about offers below a certain value, or they don't want to hear about offers from people in a chain, or from people whose name starts with the letter "S", then the agent will act accordingly.

@SayItStraight I absolutely love it! Thank you.

The sellers were going through a horrendous health problem and had essentially said they wanted less than it was worth to make it quick and easy, estate agents saw an opportunity to cash in. The seller told me when they handed the keys over what had been happening their end.