Would you gazump?

[kirinm]

We've been gazumped and I'm still majorly pissed off about it. The EA has blathered on about being under a legal obligation to pass on offers but said that the gazumpers knew that an offer had been accepted but chose to gazump anyway. Personally I don't think I could do it and nor would I, as a vendor, be a dick.

The EA said it's actually not that common these days but not sure how true that is.

There's always loads of posts on here from people who are considering doing it, and tying themselves up in knots that it's okay morally, so it is definitely a thing people do.

I wouldn't do it ever, having had it done to me I know how frustrating it is. Sorry it's happened to you!

It's legal and people can do it, that's all that really matters, not any self imposed morality.

Channel your energy into something more productive than being pissed off about it. It's not going to change anything if you are.

If there was anything to channel my energy into - in terms of housing - I would. Unfortunately it seems nobody is selling.

Having been used by an estate agent as a 'stalking horse' one time, I wouldn't bother.

The property HAD been on the market for a while and the estate agent claimed that the buyers were dragging their feet. If I were a seller in this situation and getting frustrated and fearful that buyers were going to pull out/stringing me along, I think I would entertain seeing a new party if the estate agent said they were proceedable etc. So, I could see why the sellers would let us see it and I went with a clear conscience.

I don't believe that the sellers even knew we saw it (selling a parents home after a death.) When we counteroffered, the colleague of the person who showed us the property was horrified and said the sale was moving along. So the guy had misled us. Have no idea why he thought he had nothing better to do on a Sunday morning but mess everyone around.

I have never done it but I can seen why someone would offer if the offer was just accepted, they really wanted the house and it wasn’t their top offer. I think it’s another thing when it happens further down the line and in the past our offers have come with the condition of it being removed from sites and apps.

I think the onus is on the seller. I think it’s shady down the line if the buyer they accepted has not given them any reason to worry. If the buyer has been delaying or nit picking I could see why though too.

When was your offer accepted?

@MiddleClassProblem a month before the vendor accepted the other offer despite us being told there were no viewings taking place.

It’s legal, and you can hardly blame a stranger for getting (probably) thousands of pounds extra. My suggestion is don’t invest emotionally until exchange.

i don’t blame you for being pissed off.

They asked us to match the offer - an increase of £20k. I am looking forward to seeing what it does go for as there are major damp problems - and I'm not talking a lack of ventilation - which I can guarantee will mean the new buyer will try to drop the price. Even the EA thinks that will happen fairly soon.

Ah that’s shit. So sorry to hear it was that far down the road. But hopefully this will turn out as it wasn’t meant to be and the right fit will come along.

I would in certain circumstances. Not when a sale is a month down though
We actually did on one house. The seller had accepted an offer the day beforehand and it was a house we'd wanted for AGES. We'd viewed it a couple months previously and had offered immediately but we weren't proceedable because we didnt yet have an offer on ours. Then typically we and the sellers both accepted an offer on the same day. We got in touch the day after we accepted (took that long for the EA to do a financial check on our buyers) and offered £15k over the asking price. Sellers decided to stay with their first offer. Fair play to them.
I don't feel guilty about it though. There's no way their other buyers would have spent any money by that point. But j wouldn't do it further down the line. That's pretty mean.

We had this once, many years ago. Leave your offer on the table, say you are aware of the damp issue and that is why you cannot increase your offer, and go looking for another property. As your survey is effectively worthless, you could suggest the EA is allowed to share/quote from (but not give) the gazumpers the damp issue in your survey.

We were gazumped recently and it’s very upsetting, the property was a repossession and we were given 30 days to complete with the proviso that the property stayed on the market, apparently it is normal when it’s a repo and the seller is the bank.

on day 25 we were informed that another offer had been received from someone who had previously made an offer but had chosen to withdraw it, apparently she changed her mind. I appealed to the EA to not be morally reprehensible but got the same line about them being legally required to put the offer forward. The bank accepted it as it was a silly offer.

we later learned that fire risk assessment was below standards required by lenders since the Grenfell tragedy, and our broker informed us that not only would we have had our mortgage declined, no mortgage provider would be likely to approve a mortgage for the property as it was considered a bad security. We could have passed that onto the EA but we chose not to 😊

now that all happened on 2 August and the property is still on Right Move, with a message that they have an offer they are working with. Given that she’d have been given the same 30 days to complete, and it’s been nearly 40 days, I would think she isn’t getting the house either

Guzump the mother fudgers straight back!

I remember my parents being gazumped on exchange day and being absolutely devastated. It was their dream home. My dad refused to match. Just a few days later a better house nearby came on the market and my parents bought that instead. The gazumper pulled out of the other sale and the vendors came crawling back. So stupid of them, their house remained for sale for a good while after. My parents stayed in the new house for 30 years until my mum died. My mum said it was meant to be despite all the upset.

I don't blame people for taking extra cash, nobody knows what's going on in the background but morally it's a really shitty thing to do and I would never do it myself nor would I allow it on a sale that had been agreed. You might have escaped a mistake OP, something better will come along and soon I hope. I'm sorry this happened to you.

We were gazumped and we then gazumped the gazumpers.

We offered on a house and our offer was accepted. Another couple offered more but were turned down as our offer had been accepted. They then came back with a much higher offer which the agent obviously had to put to the vendors. The agent contacted us and told us what had happened. The house was a new build and had been built by the vendors to sell so obviously they wanted to make as much profit as they could. But the agent was apparently keener on us as buyers and although we had to out gazump the gazumpers it was only by £100. We did obviously end up paying more that we had initially wanted to but for various reasons we were ok with that. Not entirely and we would have preferred to pay less obviously but it was worth it to us.

And of course at the back of our minds is that it could all have been a bit of a ruse on behalf of the vendors and the agent. But we will never know!

We were tempted to say fine, we will offer another £5k but it's coming off later down the line. If the vendor keeps the additional £20k by completion than fair enough. But I would put money on it being negotiated downwards either by the buyers after the survey or the bank when it down values it.

First of all, it's totally fair to be majorly pissed off. It's an incredibly shitty thing for anyone to do.
However, in fairness to the estate agent, what they say is true - they are legally obliged to put all offers to the vendors. It's a rule that was put in to protect people from dodgy practices where estate agents would "lose" offers so that they or their friends could get properties cheap. I would definitely save your fury for the vendors here being shitty by accepting it, rather than the estate agent for putting it forward.
I think gazumping is a pretty stupid game to play at the moment - so many sales are falling through because of mortgage companies undervaluing properties, or people just failing to get approved for the mortgage they thought they could get.

It’s horrible when it happens to you but they say All’s fair in love & real estate - or something like that.

Who could turn down an extra 10k or 20k? More of us would take the money than like to think we would.

But surely if you know that the new buyers know you're already accepted a lower offer, you've got to be alive to the risk that somewhere down the line, they'll try and take money off as they know you've accepted that sum before?

The EA has blathered on about being under a legal obligation to pass on offers

If you were the vendor in this situation, don't you agree it's right that there is a requirement to pass offers on, even if an offer has already been accepted?

It's very often the sellers that are the bad guys in these situations, rather than the EA.

I blame the EA for allowing viewings when we'd been told there were no viewings because our offer had been accepted. Ultimately it was the vendors choice.

It's been nearly a week since we were told now and I'm a lot less upset about it than I was.

Fair enough, I can understand that. But presumably that was at the instruction of the vendor?

There's no reason for an agent to carry on doing viewings after an offer has been accepted. Extra work and hassle, for an absolutely tiny amount of extra commission.

@Mildura even if it was at the request of the vendor then our offer was never really accepted and they were both lying to us.

Are you sure they carried on doing viewings though? Couldn't it have been someone who saw it before your offer was accepted?