Estate Agents not letting us put in an offer?

[Abcdefghijklmnoo]

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.

My understanding is that an agent is legally obliged to pass on an offer. We had multiple offers when our house was first listed, and I asked the agent why they were still passing on offers after we had accepted an offer and the memorandum of sale had been issued, and they were very clear they they had to make us aware of all offers, regardless of how proceedable they might be.

No
OP has already posted they will offer without a viewing

Fine for you personally but for every one person like you there may be another where the EA isn’t passing on info that the sellers might have been interested in.

the passing on could just be a simple email to say we had 4 phone enquiries and 2 offers come though. If you wish to discuss let us know otherwise we have responded that you aren’t interested.

at least you had that info and if the sale fell though then you know you could go back and Say well we know we had a few others interested. You could just delete the email if you weren’t interested.

in the situation I was in the EA literally scoffed at me and didn’t even let me get near the property, let alone make an offer. The sellers lost out in the end as months later they accepted an offer much less than I was willing to pay the time.

swings and roundabouts obviously but I believe it should be an industry that works on full transparency.

Because it hasn’t SSTC at this stage as an informal agreement has been reached.

Annoying for you but it happens.

Yes but that would be ridiculous for you to put an offer in without viewing and the seller will very likely not take it seriously.

This sounds somewhat dodgy to me. I believe that EAs are obliged to relay any offer to the Vendor unless they have good reason to believe you are a time waster. On the other hand, perhaps the Vendor wants to sell to this particular person as they are a friend etc. But why would they then need an EA?

You could try making an offer, subject to a viewing!

See also this article
https://www.propertysolvers.co.uk/articles/can-an-estate-agent-refuse-a-viewing/#:~:text=Estate%20agents%20should%20never%20refuse,actions%20are%20not%20considered%20discriminatory.

Pestering neighbours is horrible, my aunts neighbours thankfully were very clear to folk who contacted them to get lost. Most of the letters put through the door were binned, we read the first two and the rest went in the recycling.

Also, the neighbours in this scenario have no idea if the OP (or anyone trying the same thing) is genuine. She could be a jealous ex; someone with a grudge; a debt collector… anything. Why would you happily dole out contact details to any old Tom, Dick or Harry?

That depends, legally the status quo is that the agent must pass on all offers - but the caveat is that if the seller has asked the agent in writing not to, then the agent does not have to as they follow the clients instructions.

I would expect a good agent to keep a note of offers and contact details even if the client has decided not to want to see them - in case it all falls through.

Are you genuine cash buyers? As in, you have access to the funds immediately?

If so, they should offer you a viewing because you're proceedable.

The agent is obliged, unless the vendor has instructed them not to (in writing), in which case the clients instructions override the situation in law.

Also, you can put an offer in. In writing. Legally it must be forwarded to the vendors.

But it seems they're not stopping you offering but not offering viewings.

They don't have to, its entirely up to the vendor to decide what they want to do, just because one person is proceed able and another is not does not mean the vendor is obliged to take the proceedable offer.

In this case the vendor has decided to take an offer in principle, and not to have any more viewings or look at any other offers - they are within their rights to do that, and the EA must follow their directions.

You have two options either put a note through the door or knock on a neighbours doors and see if they have contact details for whoever owns it / is selling it .

Not if the vendor has instructed the agents in writing not to forward any more offers - the EA would then keep it on file, along with the clients instruction.

For whatever reason it seems this is the case here.

There is no should about it. The sellers have clearly decided not to offer more viewings because they have found a buyer they wish to sell to. Not all sellers want to proceed as quickly as possible, for some it’s more important who they are selling to and they will wait for that person to be in a position to proceed.

I would not accept an offer from someone who had not viewed. There is little that suggests it will waste time and cause issues further down the line.

If I was the vendor I would want nothing to do with a potential buyer who was ignoring what the agents conveyed and the started pestering the neighbours.

The OP needs to back down, write to the agents expressing interest and asking them to contact them if the sale falls through and the property is available again.

Then forget about it until something happens.

Exactly, some people want to go slow, I sold my last house to a very nice couple who had yet to even list their house, it took 8 months, I was in no rush and it gave me and them plenty of time to sort out and have a low pressure move.

@Thatsanotherfinemess1 many years ago, we took an EA to the Ombudsman regarding insider dealing. It didn't amount to much in the end that benefitted us, bar knowing we had done all we could to find out why we didn't get the house, but looking back it wasn't the house of our dreams after all. Saying that, there is a local estate agent in my area who is known to purchase the bargains via his family - and is also in deep with a lot of very dodgy people. Those not likely to be amongst the 'chain of gossip' would think his agency is the most upmarket, and straight kind of business, as it has a large presence in the area. They also value everyone's home high; an old trick but people still fall for it.

How would you feel if you hadn’t told the EA to not pass on interest and they decided not to anyway as they had a vested interest in the deal that had been secured to go though?

You cannot go through life assuming that everyone you have dealings with are behaving illegally or immorally, especially when it’s purely because they aren’t caving to what you want.

Oh give it a rest @Abcdefghijklmnoo

No-one is obliged to sell you their house.

Well that would be illegal, so I'd not be happy.

But I wasn't born yesterday, I've always only ever done my own viewings, check their valuation against other sales to make sure its on the money etc.

I immediately liked the couple (only moved a few roads, still friendly with them), they offered full asking - and we just carried on from there.

I asked the EA not to bother with any further viewings or offers unless it fell apart.

That was that.

Well I think it’s pretty obvious how anyone would feel about that. But there isn’t one shred of evidence that this is the case. It’s literally just that the OP wants the house and is annoyed someone else has got/is getting it.

I am currently selling an empty house (not the one you are looking at unfortunately) and part of the insurance conditions is that I have to visit it every 14 days. My advice is to pop a note through the door for the sellers (in a sealed envelope), with information you have shared regarding cash buyer and very interested.

True but people on this thread have said it happened to them.

As I said before it happens to me to an extent that even when a house hadn’t been sold, the EA gatekept the property and wouldn’t let me see it as they felt the sellers wouldn’t entertain a certain offer. (Didn’t even ask them) The sellers lost out as a result ultimately as they couldn’t sell it at all for what they wanted and they hadn’t taken any of my details to come back to me to see if I was still interested.