you know when your offer on a house has been accepted?

[robgil]

can you still get gazumped?
and if so , are there any precautions a person can take to ensure this cant happen?

 

[Schoolmarm]

You can be gazumped or the vendor can pull out. Nothing is definite until the moment you get the keys unfortunately.


To prevent being gazumped you have to keep beating the other offers. Not a game I would ever play.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Just thought, exchange contracts asap then complete asap or do both on the same day is the best thing to prevent losing it.

 

[Pford75]

Everything is at risk until exchange of contracts.

Theoretically, they can still pull out after exchange...but you are entitled to seek damages (which can be significant) which makes the process less likely

 

[robgil]

thanks guys. i guess its fingers crossed and hope it all goes through smoothly and quickly.

 

[MdB]

I believe it is standard that a 10% fee applies if someone pulls out between exchange and completion. My solicitor stated that this happened to a client of his who gained £100k when a £1M sale fell through after exchange. :shock:

Up to exchange, anybody can pull out / change the price / do anything they like as there is no contract. It is common (I think) to insist that when you make an offer, that it is conditional on the house being withdrawn from the market, that there are no more viewings and no further advertising takes place. This reduces the chances of being gazumped, though in the current market I would have thought that the buyer gazundering would have been more common. Nasty practise either way.

 

[robgil]

gazundering? thats a new one on me. the estate agents never mention any of this. it all sounds like a nasty practice indeed.
why not just put a price on the house and sell it to whoever is prepared to pay for it.

 

[Penners]

Having just exchanged contracts on our sale and purchase, Ican tell you that it's a nerve-wracking process waiting for this. Until contracts are exchanged you have no protection whatsoever against gazumping, changed minds or any other disaster.

Once contracts are exchanged, nothin is set in concrete yet, but you're in a more secure position.

 

[robgil]

i am glad its only in the housing market that this seems to happen.
wouldn't it be funny to have your weekly grocery shop snatched away from you at the checkout by an eagle eyed gazumper for a higher offer?
or just before you pay for said groceries you decide to offer a tenner less than the till price stating 'well if you don't accept i am walking and you will just have to re-shelve everything after i leave'

 

[MdB]

gazundering? thats a new one on me. the estate agents never mention any of this. it all sounds like a nasty practice indeed.
why not just put a price on the house and sell it to whoever is prepared to pay for it.

The estate agent won't mention it as they lose money from it and it is an action from the buyer instead of the seller.

Details of gazumping and gazundering here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazump

 

[JoceAndChris]

It iz a completely awful time. Good luck, me and cat will do some incantations for you both.

xx

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Our first house purchase (and subsequent sale) was north of the border.

A much more civilised affair - set a closing date once sufficient interest has been noted, await offers over the asking price, accept one (which is then much more binding on both parties than south of the border), exchange missives (which is then really binding) and then do the contracts thing.

It might be we were young and naive; it might be we only purchased or sold, never both simultaneously in a chain; we might have beenlucky; or it might have been a much better system in Scotland. Either way, it was relativey stress- and trouble free.

One lesson we learned was to always make an odd-numbered offer. The two highest offers when we sold were within £4 of each other - one ending in £50 and one ending in £54. We'll always offer an odd figure if in a "race" in future. We even do it with our eBay bids. Amazing how often it works!

Also - take the advice above; make your offer ocnditional on the property coming off the market, no more viewings and no more advertising. If they won't accept these terms, then they are more likely to gazump you.

My parents were gazundered 15 years ago on exchange day. Their purchasers refused to exchange unless my parents knocked £50k off the price - a very underhand and dishonourable practice indeed.

Good luck rogbil - keep us all posted.

Congrats Penners. When do we get some PPUK porn of "New Penners Towers"?

 

[Penners]

Congrats Penners. When do we get some PPUK porn of "New Penners Towers"?

Thanks FW. "New Penners Towers" is a bit old to qualify as porn. You know - sagging in all the wrong places, and should really be kept covered up. However, once we're in (and assuming I can broadband sorted out), I'll perhaps risk the censor by putting up a few pics.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I hope you have less trouble with your broadband than we did when we moved----- spent the equivalent of 24 hours on the phone :x

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Look forward to it Penners.

I spent 24 hours or so on the phone over the course of a week recently to some very nice Tiscali employees is Bangalore, because my broadband connection died. Did test after test, swapped wires around, waited for BT to visit the exchange to grease their nipples, or shave their flangemonkeys, or something - all to no avail. Muttered darkly about refunds, etc, etc.

Then my sister lent me a new wireless router, and everything came back on.

Just goes to show - at the precise moment you replace your own equipment, your supplier will fix the problem and blame you all along... :roll:

 

[Flyfisher]

can you still get gazumped?
and if so , are there any precautions a person can take to ensure this cant happen?

During the sale negotiation you can propose any terms you like. There's nothing to stop you asking the vendor to sign a legal contract at the time of making the offer with any terms and conditions you wish to impose on the offer; e.g. make it a binding acceptance on the vendor with a (say) 10% penalty if they pull out to accept another offer. But, of course, you can't force the vendor to accept such terms. The vendor might also require a similar condition from you, i.e. a penalty if you retract your offer. It's all part of negotiating.

One thing that has always worked well for me is to always deal directly with the vendor, rather than only dealing through solicitors or estate agents. It might seem rather old-fashioned but I'm a firm believer in shaking hands on a deal. This approach 'humanises' the negotiations and, I think, makes it more uncomfortable for either party to 'do the dirty' on the other - something that is much easier if you're both hiding behind solicitors.

Oh, and don't let solicitors or estate agents manage the negotiations alone; be sure they are always acting on your instructions and never forget they are, or should be, working for you.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

One thing that has always worked well for me is to always deal directly with the vendor, rather than only dealing through solicitors or estate agents. It might seem rather old-fashioned but I'm a firm believer in shaking hands on a deal. This approach 'humanises' the negotiations and, I think, makes it more uncomfortable for either party to 'do the dirty' on the other - something that is much easier if you're both hiding behind solicitors.

Oh, and don't let solicitors or estate agents manage the negotiations alone; be sure they are always acting on your instructions and never forget they are, or should be, working for you.

Very good advice. Work directly with people if you can and build the relationship. Keep the agent out if you can too - remember their objective is to get a deal and move on to the next one - on a 1% commission (you must negotiate the fees with the agent - ours halved at this point), a £10k change in the sale price makes a difference of a hundred quid to them. Not worth much to them, but lots to you. We use the agent solely for advertising (and you can now get online agents who have access to Rightmove, so much cheaper) and did the viewings and negotiations ourselves; again this helps to negotiate the fee down.

 

[Cloudscape]

Some local vendors were heavily messed around by more than one buyer. In the end, they sold to one who had already pulled out once, but a contract was drawn up where they stated that they would not withdraw the property or sell to anyone else within a given timeframe, and that if the seller pulled out or attempted to reduce their offer, they were liable for a financial penalty. It worked. The sellers signed this pre-sale contract and it all went through.

 

[Penners]

I hope you have less trouble with your broadband than we did when we moved----- spent the equivalent of 24 hours on the phone :x

I happen to have read your post while hanging on the phone, listening to an endlessly repeating, inane, musical jingle. I've been doing this for several hours, over the past two days.

I'm trying to get the phone service to the new house reorganised (the vendors having had it cut off without telling me - bless them :evil: ). But we don't use BT for our phone service, and we use a different company again for our broadband.

The moral of the story is - fragmenting your services to find the best deal for your phone and your broadband may seem like a good idea... until you move house.

Aaaaaagh!! :x :x :x

 

[JoceAndChris]

How dull and frutrating it is- poor Penner. Hope you're in there soon.