Estate Agents not letting us put in an offer?

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Hi all. We have no experience with dealing with estate agents so I was hoping someone would be able to advise on the below!

We really want to put in an offer on a property. It’s listed on Rightmove (and has been for 5 weeks), and is a £900,000 house on a street full of £2m+ properties. The area is full of elderly people in average properties that are then typically snapped up by developers and resold for insane amounts.

I initially rang hoping to view the property after it has been on the market for 2 weeks. I was told that there are to be no more viewings as the seller has accepted an offer in principle, but was waiting for them to sell their own house. End of call.

I rang back a week later and asked about the house again as it was still on RightMove. I was told that it was still on Right Move as it hadn’t sold as the seller was waiting for the buyers own house to sell. I asked if I could view as I may want to put an offer in too and was told no as the buyer had accepted the sellers offer (then surely it should be taken off of Right Move?).

A couple of weeks on and the house is still available to view. I rang off of another number and was told the same story again.

Can anyone shed any light onto this? Surely if the sellers are waiting on the buyers to sell, then they may still be interested in receiving new (potentially higher) offers? I can’t help but think something dodgy is going on by the estate agents as the house is such a bargain in a very desirable area.

Op won’t listen. She’s determined to be right and keep hounding them. What she doesn’t realise is that by hounding them she’s got rid of her chance of ever getting that house if it was available because they’ll ignore her now

Yes. We have seen the property from the outside and are aware of the area etc. It’s clear from the images that it’s in great condition. The house is very underpriced.

Put a note through the door, mark it as confidential and explain. But The estate agents are legally bound to pass on an offer

Sounds fishy to me. Which EA goes flying round doing offers and viewings on an empty house for two days and then nada.

When we were looking for our last house we had a couple of these. I called them ghost listings. In our case they were ag tied - and I think they were in cahoots to list them, say no interest and then they can apply to get the tie removed.

Or use it as a way to lower the price on paper for inheritance purposes or something. Never go to the bottom of it. I am not sure but something was going on.

If it’s the estate agents you can try to bypass the, but if it’s the probate/ owners up to dodgyness then not sure what there’s anything you can do tbh.

Of course it’s not. But she’s been told they aren’t accepting offers. PPs’ suggestions like going through the land registry or funeral notices & obituaries would be weird and would put me off as a seller.

Bit over involved aren’t you? You were very rude

Yes Estate agent is probably interested or a local builder who will pay cash to the estate agent to get the sale. I know a builder who did this for his own home. I would put a note through.

EA are obliged to pass on all offers (in England anyway) under the Estate Agents Act (which I think was 1979) and must pass it to the seller promptly and in writing, and they must continue doing this until contracts are exchanged, regardless of whether a previous offer has been accepted or not.

So I'd write to the EA with your offer (sending it recorded of course or video yourself posting it through their door) AND drop a copy in to the property and see what happens

Id be wondering if a local newspaper had an investigative journalist who might take a look . . . or whether BBC Moneybox might be interested.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

“I would put hours of work into stalking down the owners or the executors of the estate for a house I haven’t even seen inside of and am clearly not going to be considered to purchase”

Honestly that’s bordering on stalking and harassment - it’s creepy!

😆😆😆

They’re obliged to pass on all offers, even if it’s a ‘Hi seller, we know you don’t want to receive any more offers but we’re legally obliged to pass them on to you, we’ve had one come in at £900k, let me know if you’re interested’ - I work in a solicitors and we get copied into these all the time on probate files.

If you really want it and it’s a bargain I’d pop a note through the door with your best offer.

I’m not rude at all. And I’m not any more “over-involved” than anyone else on this thread. You’re being ridiculous.

You can get hung up on how things should be, or you can accept how they actually are and get on with it.

Yes, legal obligation to put forward ALL offers, up until actual date of exchange. I'd put a letter through the postbox.
Tbh, it sounds as if the property might be going through probate which is why they are happy to wait for the buyer to become proceedable. Not unusual, not unusual for sellers to put a stop to viewing, if that is the case, but the agent IS obliged to pass info/ offers onto vender. (UK)

This. This happened to my parents

Can’t you see that harassing sellers, their family members, their neighbours is the rude option here?

Baffled by how entitled some posters on this thread are!

This has happened in our area with high potential, doer upper properties owned by elderly people.
The buyer is a developer who arranges to pay under value for the house, and pays a further cash amount to the adult children of the elderly/deceased owner, avoiding care home fees or inheritance tax.
If you suspect wrongdoing you could consider reporting to RICS.

Or themselves...