Q My partner and I recently viewed a house through an estate agent. When we got there we quickly realised it was the house of someone we know.
We were outbid by another buyer but we are now wondering if it’s a possibility to go to the owners direct and see if they would do it outside of the estate agent.
Is this legal or will the fact we were shown round by an estate agent have an impact?
The other buyer put in an offer a week ago so also we weren’t sure what fees they would incur from pulling out should they want to. ES
A Buying property from people you already know is perfectly legal as is making an offer directly to the sellers of a property (whether you know them or not). However, going behind the estate agent’s back is unlikely to persuade your sellers to turn down the offer from the buyer who outbid you especially if, as I suspect, you are not intending to put in a higher offer. Even if you were prepared to pay more, there’s no particular benefit for the sellers of accepting a direct offer from you rather than an offer through the agent.
As you were introduced to the property by the estate agent, the sellers would still be liable to pay the estate agent’s commission as specified in the contract between the agent and the sellers.
It is also probably too late to put in another offer since the buyer who outbid you is highly likely to have made it a condition of proceeding with the purchase that the property be taken off the market and so not open to offers from other buyers.
Muddled about mortgages? Concerned about conveyancing? Email your homebuying and borrowing worries to Virginia Wallis at virginia.wallis.freelance@theguardian.com
