Advice for homebuyers
QGazumping is at an all-time high where I live. We want to buy a new house but are worried about losing out at a late stage after we’ve spent money on surveyors and solicitors. How can we avoid being gazumped?
Despite the fact that the housing market has had a wobble since the Brexit vote, the practice of gazumping remains widespread. Gazumping is when a buyer accepts a bid on their property, only to later accept another higher offer further down the line. As a buyer, you lose not only your dream home, but also the money spent on searches, solicitor’s fees and surveys.
According to online estate agent Emoov, gazumping has increased from 13 per cent in 2013, to 36 per cent in 2017 and in London and across the Southeast the problem is particularly acute.
Unfortunately there are no surefire ways of avoiding the problem, but you can make yourself a more attractive buyer. Be sure to present yourself to the vendor in the best possible light, so they know you can move quickly and are less likely to mess them around.
It would be good to have an Agreement in Principle (AiP) for your mortgage ahead of making an offer and if you’re chain-free, tell them. Once the offer is made, make it a condition that the house is taken off the market, with no more viewings conducted. Request the online listing is changed to ‘under offer’, or ‘sold subject to contract’. Chase up all the paperwork with your solicitor, or conveyancer, and read, sign and return any forms as quickly as you can. If you’re really worried, get a contract drawn up that says buyer and vendor will exchange within a certain timeframe, and that if the vendor backs out they’ll be liable to pay a small amount of compensation.
None of these things will guarantee you won’t be gazumped, but it means there will be more confidence about the sale and a smaller window of time for things to go wrong. There are some specialist insurance providers that will offer loss of fees if a sale falls through, but be sure to read the wording of a policy very carefully, since there will be exclusions and limits to the cover.