Up till yesterday I was happily looking forward to moving into a new flat, but today I learned that the owners have accepted a new higher offer, so all I have is a Homebuyers Report and a bill from the solicitor.

I am wondering what to do next. I don’t fancy wasting my time and money on this charade any more, so how do I avoid being gazumped next time? Can I ask that the seller pays a “deposit” that they forfeit in case that they don’t go through with the sale? Or do I just have to bend over and enjoy it?

very unfair to accept an offer then pull out of the deal.

this kind of seller is an ass, make a higher offer and then pull out when the other buyer has buggered off 😉

leave the seller to consider..

was the offer through the same estate agent, if not then they stand to loose commision too, they might be helpful in that case?

Did you offer the asking price ? England or Scotland ?

Personally I’d walk away. I wouldn’t want someone who did that to me to have any of my money. What else are they being dishonest about?

The fixation of making money on houses seems to bring out the nastiest behaviour in people…

I offered over the asking price (England).

make a higher offer and then pull out when the other buyer has buggered off

I love the idea of doing this.

nothing much you can do about this. You can try and make the seller enter into a contract where they forfeit a deposit if they pull out of the deal with you, but they are very unlikely to enter into it.

Its just part of the house buying process, always has been , always will be.

As the poster above says you could enter a higher offer, and then pull out just before contract exchange, but you will incur legal fees (unless you just sit on it for a few weeks without instructing a solicitor).

SOme very unscrupulous sellers wait right up until the day of exchange and then just demand an exta £xk because they know you’re mentally committed to buying the property. This happened to my parents on day of exchange, the sellers demanded another £50k, needless to say , they were told to shove it.

In that case thats very poor form by the seller .I’d walk after letting the estate agents have both barrels .

No sale is binding until exchange of contracts so very hard to avoid this in practice. One solution is to offer conditional on the property being taken off the market , so you can flounce off early if they continue to advertise and show people round. the other is to rush to early exchange but that cuts both ways as you are then contractually bound to pay possibly before a chain is fully in place and all other heaps of nastiness .

This happened to my parents on day of exchange, the sellers demanded another £50k, needless to say , they were told to shove it.

just out of interest, where the vendors bluffing or did the sale fall though when your parents refused to pay the extra?

greed in action; for all Scotland’s odd systems (to others) it kind of(though not 100%) avoids this sort of stuff. not nice, really, agreed an offer should mean that. wee + shoes.

Well, you know where they live. Bombers.

We had sellers pull out the day before exchange as they had decided not to sell after all. Cost me the best part of £1500. Trust me, there is nothing you can do apart from move to a country which doesn’t have such an insane housing market

just out of interest, where the vendors bluffing or did the sale fall though when your parents refused to pay the extra?

The vendors didnt even try to make up a story about someone offering more, they were quite ‘honest’ in that they just said, if you want the house its an extra £50k.

As it happens , after they pulled out of the deal, the house remained on the market for quite a few months, at which point the vendors came back to them and said if they wanted it for the original agreed price (ie before the vendors tried to hike the price) then the vendors would sell it for that. At this point I would have lowered my offer, but my parents are clearly hold less of a grudge, so agreed to proceed again, so the whole process started again (solictors etc etc), and this time on the day of exchange the sellers just pulled out, no reason given, just we’ve changed our mind.

Buying houses is fraught with dealing with people who for whatever reason are just plain nasty.

Nitromores the car thats on the drive in a few months time? 🙄

Nitromores the car thats on the drive in a few months time?

The new owner may have no idea that the original vendors gazumped a third party. Why take it out on them?

The OP had started the process, had his offer accepted and the Solicitors would have known this/told the new bidder the situation/what had been offered/accepted no? I’m feeling naughty this aft 😈

make a higher offer and then pull out when the other buyer has buggered

I also think this is a great idea.

I dunno. Would the new bidder have any contact with the OP’s solicitor? Is the vendors solicitor obliged to tell the new bidder that a bid has already been made?

Not sure, just interested to know if they could be totally unaware or if they are complicit in some way. You see houses advertised in estate agents as sold STC, but I always assumed it was just a oral agreement at that stage.

I work with Americans / Canadians and they cannot believe we have such holes in our laws, despite having one of the oldest legal systems in the world.

My brother has been gazumped four times in a row. He’s a commercial lawyer so you’d think he’d be savvy enough to come up with some sort of sale execution bond/agreement in parallel (as mentioned above) but no, just more renting and a lot of bitching and moaning, understandably

nuke the flat from space, its the only way to be sure (to get back at them)

Buy in France. You sign a contract (sous-seing privé) before all the searches with clauses to protect the buyer rather than the seller and if either party pulls out it costs them 5-10% of the value of the property.

make a higher offer and then pull out when the other buyer has buggered off

This would be a hassle but I’d do it just out of spite. Unfortunately I don’t think there’s any way to ensure you won’t get gazumped in future, but thankfully people of such low moral calibre are in the minority. Try to meet the sellers and build a rapport with them, even if this means repeated visits to check minor details (without coming across as a stalker). It’s much harder to do the dirty on someone you feel you know. A deal like this is not just about the finances, but assessing if the people you’re dealing with are trustworthy.

Just going through a purchase in France and it’s a much better system. Once you have both signed the contract (compromis de vente) which is done before incurring any other costs (the vendor is obliged to provide docs about electrics, deleterious materials/fabric of construction, etc) then the buyer is compelled to buy (conditional only on a mortgage, if you are buying without a mortgage you cant welsh) and the seller is compelled to sell. If either drop out there is a statutory penalty of 10% of the purchase price in either direction. The buyer’s deposit can be taken as part of that 10% penalty.

EDIT: Edukator beat me to it 😉

[hijack] Edukator, while you’re here, quick qu, how do you receive parcels en France? do couriers come to your door or do you get a pick up leaflet in your La Poste box?[/hijack]

La Poste come to my door and if I’m out leave a piece of paper telling me where and when I can pick it up. Most private couriers leave a note with a phone number so you can arrange for them to pass again or pick it up yourself. One company phones me an hour or so before they come to check I’m in and arrange another time if I won’t be there.

With regard to your purchase, Stoner, read and reread everything your notaire sends you. They dig up all sorts of interesting stuff which they’ll put in the acte de vente you’ll sign. Get copies of all the paperwork they dig up too. It’ll cost next to nothing at the time of sale but if you go back later you’ll probably be charged again.

cheers. so much the same as here. good to know.

I will ask for a copy of stuff when I go to the Notaries. Fortunately I also have an exceptionally good solicitor here in UK providing translation and legal advice. She really has been worth her weight in gold.

Yeah, I bought a flat in France. To be honest I didn’t understand much of the process. My strongest memory is sitting in the solicitor’s office signing page after page of analyses of lead in the paint in the building! The process was very quick but maybe it was just Paris – you more or less had to look at a place and agree on the spot to buy it – no survey, nothing!