Gazumping Is Back!

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24298557
anyone remember this from the 80's. What are your memories? will you own up to being a gazumper? where you a gazumpee?

[Wharton]

It was not permitted in Scotland.

[ToraToraTora]

yes that is one of the few things I envied about some of the Scottish laws.

[bazwillrun]

Until theres something on paper thats legally binding , why shouldnt you be able to take a higher bid if someone comes in with one.

I've been mucked around plenty of times on property deals where some bozo has said theyll take the property ...meanwhile nothing is heard from them and then when you contact them to see if they still want the place they come out with all sorts of excuses for backing out.

I learnt my lesson years ago, i'll take any offers going until its signed on the dotted line.
I aim to get as much as possible for my properties I sell, im not in it for charity.

and if i'm buying and I want the property I know my upper limit and will keep upping my bid till i either get the property or reach the limit and thats it win or lose.

[Wharton]

Friends of mine in Carlisle were gazumped, 30 odd years on they still remember it with bitterness. Gazump (Yiddish 'gezumph' - to swindle).

[VHG]

I was left some money last year after my mother died and have been thinking of buying a flat to let out.

Saw one in the local paper this morning priced at £129,999 (probably under priced) and it seemed just what I was looking for.

Rang the estate agent this morning and they said they have already had a number of bids, the latest being £147,000.

To be fair, the £129,999 probably was far too low (not sure why they put it on at that price) but that means it has gone up nearly £20,000 since the paper came out on Thursday.

I am considering bidding £148,000 but will probably get outbid.

[FredPuli43]

High time we had the French system. There you make a formal offer.If it is accepted, you and the vendor are bound by it and if either party withdraws they have to pay a penalty of a percentage of the offered price, the penalty being higher for the vendor than for the proposed buyer. This acts as great deterrent to unscrupulous vendors.

But our system of conveyancing is archaic anyway. It is ludicrous that someone can sell a yacht for £10 million on little more than a handshake but they can't sell a house here without delays, lots of form-filling and questinnaires, and great risk of the deal falling through.

[FredPuli43]

Baz, please explain why you feel free to back out of an agreement; one offers to sell , one agrees to buy; to buy or sell property but are not free to back out of an ordinary sale of a car or yacht or anything else without risking an injunction for specific performance or damages..

[bazwillrun]

Read my post again
I couldnt make it any clearer.

[FredPuli43]

exactly, baz, the key words are 'legally binding'. But if you bought at auction, or did what auctioneers do, you'd be legally bound straight away. That's because auctioneers take advantage of the Statute of Frauds, section 4, a very old Act, and the old, but still current in modern legislation, Law of Property Act 1925 section 40 which provided for a memorandum of sale. In auctions, that's usually found printed in the auction catalogue. Once that's signed, the parties can't back out without legal consequences. It doesn't matter, short of outright fraud or defect in title, that the property might be itself defective or undesirable or that the vendor might get a better offer.

[Peter Pedant]

as a house buyer, I dont mind that 2/3 fall through

It is one of the largest purchases of your life - the next largest will be your next house and is a serious step

chains are more of an issue as it sort of ruins more people at one go when they collapse.

I have more than once asked in an open plan property and garden where the property boundaries are and been told: oo I dont know you ask you lawyer that when you draw up the conveyance....

and I said excuse me ? and didnt proceed....

[nungate]

It's still not permitted up here. Once an offer has been made and accepted a higher offer cannot be accepted. No chains up here either I understand