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

[Gareth Hughes]

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.
Aaaaaagh!! :x :x :x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR7VIhcdYNI Les Barker's poem "Voicemail", read by Radio 4's Charlotte Green.
You are not alone...

 

[AMc]

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'

This is actually perfectly legal. I forget the exact wording but the ticket price is something like 'an offer to treat' and you can offer less
Under the Sale of Goods Act the vendor can't ask a higher price at the till than is shown on the goods or display. They are legally entitled to refuse to sell the item at any price though. They're also not allowed to increase the price on the shop floor and must remove stock before doing so.
It's amazing most people don't know about their rights under SoGA and some more stringent EU rules
e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/may/23/tesco-consumer-guarantee

On the original point. We decided a long time back when house prices were booming that we wouldn't view houses under offer, accept a higher offer and more recently we would tell anyone who tried to lower their offer at exchange to take a hike regardless of the cost to us. It's a pity there is little honour in the house buying process, many people give the "it's just business" excuse, but I try and behave honourably in business too, it makes life taste better.

Good luck with the legal stuff and I hope you get your house!

 

[Flyfisher]

It's a pity there is little honour in the house buying process, many people give the "it's just business" excuse, but I try and behave honourably in business too, it makes life taste better.

I've never understood the "it's just business" excuse either. And you're absolutely right about the feelgood factor of an honourable transaction.

Our best experience was a house purchase in 1992. We made an offer slightly under the asking price and the vendor, rather than accepting it but keep looking for a better offer, said he wouldn't accept anything below the asking price. We then offered the asking price and he accepted (and we shook hands on it). Three weeks later we learned that another couple had seen the house but had delayed their offer to investigate planning permission for an extension. They subsequently offered 10% more than the asking price but the vendor said he had already agreed our offer, but would give them first refusal in case our purchase fell through, which it didn't.

So there are honourable people out there when it comes to house buying.

 

[Penners]

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.
Aaaaaagh!! :x :x :x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR7VIhcdYNI Les Barker's poem "Voicemail", read by Radio 4's Charlotte Green.
You are not alone...

Thank you, Gareth. I needed that. A few minutes of Charlotte Green can soothe the most fevered brow.

And my brow was pretty bloody fevered...

 

[Moo]

We, too, were very lucky when we bought our present house.
We made an immediate offer at the (very reasonable) asking price the day it went on the market. The agents asked about our solicitors and, presumably, rang them to check whether we were kosher and the following day we got a letter accepting our offer.

A couple of days later, after a pre-booked feature in the local property pages, I made my first visit to the agent to borrow the keys. The nice girl behind the desk told me about the amazing amount of interest that the feature had created, and showed me the book in which she logged calls and queries: in those two days she had filled three pages.
Over the next week or so I became a regular key-borrower and learned that there was at least one very persistent enquirer who claimed to have the money all ready in the bank on instant access.

I don't know who deserves the credit, the agent or the vendor or both, but in the event they didn't budge and we got the house and have, since then, lived happily ever after.

 

[robgil]

thanks guys , all very reassuring stuff.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

We did at least get a refund, but only after careful scrutiny of the following bill and another phone call to a far away country.