You can tell you are a newbie to house buying when gazumping is news to you

Me and SWMBO's plans to purchase our first home together have been disrupted by coronavirus but it has enabled us to save up more. In addition to our help to buy ISA's, we have 75% of the costs to cover legal fees and searches etc already saved and will reach the £2k target during May. This is all as advised by our very experienced and well recommended independent mortgage advisor.

So, the issue of gazumping! Has anyone been stung with it? I have read up on things you can counter it with such as insurance for around £50 and lockout agreements. Trouble with those is they typically require a £2k security deposit to prove you are serious plus the solicitors fees for drafting it.

I await our advisors opinion on this as I have just emailed him to get the AIP process rolling for a house we are keen to view once some restrictions ease. In the meantime, any experiences would make interesting reading.

Cheers  LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

Congratulations on being very close to buying your own home. I would think as first time buyers and almost ready to go you're in a very strong position and unlikely to be gazumpted. I cannot imagine the UK property market is particularly bouyant just now and sellers just dream of buyers in your position.

Having bought a few homes in England (Scottish rules are different) over the years I'm quite philosophical about the whole process. Nothing is certain until it's certain and there are usually some last minute surprises. I remember once selling to a solicitor who on the very day of exchange tried to demand all sorts of extras. A firm "no" and the sale went ahead anyway. A last minute "try on" is not unusual.

My advice is to let the conveyancer get on with it and to let matters take their course. I know it's easy for me to say that as you are bound to get excited at the prospect and do not want to lose the home you've chosen but in reality there is little you can do to ensure a smooth purchase (or sale). driving on the right side

It happened to us & we did to someone, we had more money.

Enjoy not paying someone else's mortgage. The day will come quicker than you wished for when you finish paying your mortgage. A great feeling but where did the years go! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

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anglaslt wrote:

Having bought a few homes in England (Scottish rules are different better)

FTFY

You are subject to being gazumped up until exchange of contract, some sellers will try the "we have a higher offer" on or just before the exchange date, this may be genuine or not, but don't get involved in a possible non existant bidding war, stand by your original offer, some sellers do run two buyers to cover themselves against a last minute drop out. If you are buying a normal house in a not in demand area you should be ok, gazumping began in the late 60's in London and got pretty bad later, generally if the vendor already has a property to go to you will be ok, dodgy ones are deceased sales where the relatives will push for higher price or some one testing the market, though I suspect with Covid 19 and the present restrictions there may well be many that need to review their finances before buying so the market won't be terribly buoyant.
Scotland isn't that straight forward now if the last sale was before the change over to the Land Registry of Scotland, the system is a joke as someone can register your property and the land registry are not required to check the previous system, the Scottish lawyers statement "the deeds are deemed to be in order until proved otherwise" can cause serious problems and your money. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
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It's been some years since I last bought a house but I was approached with a better offer in the closing stages of the sale/purchase and my estate agent advised me to carry on as I was already getting my asking price and the person in question had made offers like this before and then had pulled out. Bird in the hand and all that.

The agent then said that he often advised his clients to go to the house you are buying and offer to pay cash for the stair carpet or curtains or some similar item which is not normally included and to hand over say £100 in cash. This then puts the seller into a legal obligation to you and makes things more difficult although not watertight of course. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
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Thanks for the input so far We are indeed ideal buyers for any seller as we are ready to go and no house to sell. Plus we have the mortgage advisor to ensure everything runs smoothly and to take care of all the financial matters for us. He will even chase up the solicitors for progress and recommends certain one's based on quality and speed rather than lowest price.

The house we have our eyes on is currently vacant. Built in the early 1900's, the current owner has completely revamped it. Brand new and unused kitchen with new boiler and it includes an oven, hob and wine cooler. We would just be buying a fridge/freezer and washing machine.

The bathroom is also brand new and unused and new carpets are fitted throughout. Fresh paint has been done throughout and new front door. Essentially it's a blend of old school build quality and character combined with new fixtures and fittings. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

You will be ok Dave. After all you are in “The Trade” already. You should be able to smell a rat if there is one. Seems like you are buying from a speculator/ renovator who will be looking forward to being able to bid for his next project! Good luck!

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In the current market gazundering is more likely than gazumping.

I don't condone either.

Can't imagine, in the current market, anyone being gazumped unless of course you have screwed down the purchase price on someone who is really desperate to sell and they have accepted a silly offer. MY 09 GS manual in Lago Grey, Wood Co arm rest and side bumper strips - now sold.

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The Doctor wrote:

Plus we have the mortgage advisor to ensure everything runs smoothly and to take care of all the financial matters for us. He will even chase up the solicitors for progress and recommends certain one's based on quality and speed rather than lowest price.

Would concur with Richard, as you are in the legal profession I don't understand why you are using a mortgage advisor, if not in the legal business one would either use ones insurance broker, financial advisor or deal direct with the building society or bank, standard charge for a broker is about £100 arrangement fee, direct often no fee depending on the conditions, often it is better to get the solicitor and let them advise on the mortgage, the Law Society have much tighter controls on their members than other professional organizations.
Are you sure the mortgage advisor is using a solicitor rather than a conveyancing agent or company who are not members of the Law Society and have varying reputations and legal coverage in the case of errors, similar to a small limited company building firm. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
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Just to clarify, although I started down the legal profession path initially after completing my degree, I veered from the path some years ago and I'm actually a detective now.

To clarify re the advisor, back in January we had planned to call in at the Nationwide for some tips when my cousin and her husband said that we should try the same advisor who was recommended to them. 30 years experience and a bit of a legend apparently. Epic customer reviews and they weren't getting commission for recommending him.

We had a first meeting with him early in February and he played it straight and said what we can and can't afford and said that at least we had a sensible and realistic mindset rather than so many who want to push boundaries so they can boast and show off about some big house that is realistically out of reach.

He definitely uses solicitors and doesn't recommend a particular firm all the time. He is regional and recommends solicitors based on customer feedback, quality and reputation etc. We could of course choose our own but I trust his judgment and would of course Google the solicitor myself out of curiosity. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

I would ask the broker to confirm what referral fee he is getting from the conveyancer and who they are. There are many factory conveyancing operations these days some using overseas administrators with only the final sign off of the file done by a paralegal in the UK. Unless the firm you are recommended to use is in your town so you can walk in off the High Street and see your named legal adviser face to face, I would walk away. Mortgage brokers chasing legal firms also isn't something you want or need, just too cosy an arrangement, and you are perfectly capable I am sure of ringing/emailing for updates yourself. Finally, unless the broker has access to special deals that aren't available on the High Street then why use a broker? I bet they haven't told you which lender they will place you with as they are scared you will go direct. I could be wrong in that and call me cynical but I have seen too many brokers at work especially with FTB's like you. Anyway, good luck at this exciting time. We found a house four days before lockdown and exchanged on the Thursday before Easter. God knows when we will be moving, however!

He has been very straight with us when we had the meeting and he discussed initial rough figures. He actually showed us the figures on the screen from Nationwide and NatWest. It's such a minefield out there that we feel better having his services at our disposal and particularly so having had the recommendation from close family.

He said it's local solicitors and mentioned one in our town he has used recently and that like you say, we could just walk into ourselves. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey