Estate agent query

[fuzbuz 10]

Me and my b/f have just had our offer on a house accepted. Because were first time buyers were not sure how this works! Im assuming that once we put the offer in the house was under offer therefor people can still view the house, take a brochure and out bid us and when our offer was accepted the house is sold subject to contract therefor no one can view the house,take a brochure or out bid us IS THIS CORRECT?????????

 

AHHHH PLEASE HELP

[DaBouncer 13]

Technically yes no one is 'supposed' to be able to view the house or outbid you.

 

However if someone wants to Gazzump you and just go direct to the vendor and offer a bigger price than yours... the vendor can accept as they have no legal contractual obligations to you until contracts have been exchanged.

 

All should go pretty well though I must say.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Incidentally... where is the house you've bought? And am I allowed to enquire how much?

[robh 10]

Bad news, but don't panic. Expect the best but it's better to be prepared for the worst.

You don't have a binding contract, you have to rely on the integrity of the agent and the vendor. The vendor can pull out at the very last minute and some do play games. You might be told, a day or two before exchange of contracts when you've already spend on a survey and solicitor that they have had a better offer and "what do you want to do about it" on the assumption you'll match the competing (and possibly fictitious) offer (it's called gazumping). Please don't.

 

Works both ways, purchasers sometimes threaten to pull at the last minute knowing the vendor is committed to purchase of a new house and dependent on the sale. Purchaser says "we've fallen in love with another house and it's £10K cheaper, do you want to give us an incentive not to back out". As first-time buyers, not reliant on the sale of another house to raise the funds you are in a position of strength and potentially in a position to do this (called gazundering).

 

The law in this area is pathetic. It's no help to you to know but in Scotland it's different, when you agree to buy and they to sell, you are both contractually bound to complete and if one party defaults the other is entitled to compensation.

 

Best practice is to appear to the agent and vendor as spent up to the hilt and under no pressure to move in on a specific date. They need to feel that if they tried to up the price you'd pull out.

 

On the other hand they need to feel confident that you're not going to play any tricks on them, so seem keen to buy that specific house, not overtly still looking at alternatives and planning as if it's a done-deal. Asking to visit to measure for curtains for example indicates serious intent. Discussing completion dates in terms of "giving your landlord notice" but maybe at the same time saying you might be able to stay with your parents for a few weeks but only if there was a serious problem makes it sound as if you are committed - but if they mess you about you have an alternative.

 

People can be quite irrational so don't tell the vendor you plan to strip out their pride and joy decor at the first opportunity. Make them think you're nice, straightforward, honest people they want to do business with and who appreciate all they've done to the house.

[max 13]

There's a little known legal precedent which is called, if I remember rightly, partial completion. If, after an offer being accepted, either party pulls out the other party has the right in law to sue for any expenses which have been incurred.

[Skatiechik 10]

There is also the other complication after having your offer accepted that the seller won't move out of their home

 

Me and the partner (first time buyers) had an offer accepted on a property we liked (march 2002), they were in a chain but we didn't mind as we didn't need to move until july/august time.

 

So all the surveys, fees etc were paid for the property, but come September 2002 they had still shown no signs of moving out.

 

So we ended up having to look elsewhere for a property, I actually now prefer the 2nd property as it has a bigger garden/more land.

 

We never informed the estate agents that we had bought another house, as at that point house prices had risen a fair amount so if we had still got the first house for the original amount we would have made a small profit selling it again. Up until the summer of last year my partner was still getting phone calls from the agents saying the sellers had still not found another house yet. So it was lucky we decided to cut our loses and find another house.

[fuzbuz 10]

Well the woman we are buying (touch wood) off needs to be out soon as shes doing a degree in london and is moving in to a shared student accomodation. She was really keen on us as we could move in asap and said we could go and have a 2nd lookround whenever we like . so its not looking to bad. She seemed really nice and genuin

H X

[robh 10]

Originally posted by max

There's a little known legal precedent which is called, if I remember rightly, partial completion. If, after an offer being accepted, either party pulls out the other party has the right in law to sue for any expenses which have been incurred.

While theoretically true - you have (arguably) made a verbal contract, probably not much use in practical terms. If you were totally committed to a purchase then the other party varied the terms a couple of days before completion would you hold everything up for court proceedings or decide to sign the contract and complete at the new price? If you decided to pull out would you want the expense and hassle of a court case, including the possibility of losing and having to pay costs? And pulling out might mean you had to cancel the sale of your current house so your buyer might be looking for damages from you too.

 

In reality most deals run smoothly and there's no need to worry but it is better to know that things can go wrong in case they do and in order to modify your behaviour to reduce the risk if possible. Fuzbuz wasn't sure but thought that "offer accepted" implied there was no scope for things to go pear-shaped: therefor no one can view the house,take a brochure or out bid us IS THIS CORRECT????????? (and, fuzbuz, why not pop into the agent's offices and see if they still have the property on display, if so is it marked as "under offer" or "sold"? Are the brochures still available - because who would want one apart from a potential buyer?).