Can you see other offers on a house?

Before you put in an offer on a property, can you see other offers made on that house? And if an estate agent claims a higher bid has been made on the property, can you get proof? We take a look at this and also how you can protect yourself.

Angela Kerr Director, Editor

Can you see other offers on a house?

Not exactly. You can certainly ask the estate agent the question. But, they work for the seller not you. So while they are unlikely to tell you the exact amounts already offered, they may feel able to give you a guide number so you know the region in which you need to pitch your offer. They may also be able to tell you what offers have been made and turned down.

Once you have made an offer, then an estate agent should keep you informed about any further offers on the property. This is set out in The Property Ombudsman Guidance for Residential Estate Agents which states they must “…keep all buyers who have recently made offers through you, and which have not already been rejected, informed of the existence of other offers you have submitted to the seller.”

Note that it says “existence” of offers, not the offer amount. But it’s still worth asking the question “how much did they offer?” directly.

Can you ask for proof to check if another offer on a house is real?

If you’re in the process of buying a house and get told a higher bid has been offered, how can you know that the offer is real and not a tactic to get you to pay more?

By law estate agents must not misrepresent or invent the existence or details of any other offer made or the status of any other person who has made an offer. So in theory estate agents can’t lie about offers.

If you have your doubts though, you could always ask the estate agent for proof from the third party to confirm that the other offer is real. The agent isn’t obliged to provide this. But it is a simple thing to do. Usually, they will simply share a signed letter or email from the vendor’s solicitor, acknowledging receipt of a legitimate offer.

Can a seller disclose offer amounts?

The seller can allow their estate agent to disclose offer amounts to buyers. But it’s unusual as it can cause problems. For example, buyers may think the estate agent is exaggerating the amount in order to get them to increase their offer.

Not sure what to offer? See our guide on Making an offer on a house and negotiating effectively and How to tell if a house is overpriced

What happens when there are multiple offers on the property?

If there are multiple offers on the property, the estate agent needs to inform every buyer about other offers. You may decide to increase your initial offer if you’ve been outbid or walk away.

Can I retract my offer on a house?

Yes, up until you exchange contracts, you can withdraw from the transaction at any time. You don’t even need to give a reason, though it would be polite to do so. As soon as you have second thoughts, speak to your conveyancer and the estate agent who may be able to address the source of your concern. If you don’t want to purchase the property, the estate agent can let the vendor know. Try not to let the transaction drag on if you think you are going to pull out. Dropping out with no notice at all can cause problems to the vendor and possibly other parties in the chain.

If you have exchanged contracts, you are legally obliged to continue with the purchase through to completion. Pulling out would mean that the seller would retain the 10% deposit you paid at exchange and you may be sued by the seller for extra costs e.g. legal fees, disbursements and estate agency fees and charges.

Can I reduce my offer on a house?

Yes. This is very common. Most properties are sold subject to contract. It’s normal then that in the process of pulling together the contract and making further enquiries, your conveyancer or you may spot issues which lead you to want to renegotiate how much you pay.

Many homeowners that have a survey investigating the condition of their property use it to renegotiate the price to take account of problems that will need fixing. See our guide on How to renegotiate the price after a bad survey report.

We would advise against reducing your offer at the last minute. This is called gazundering and it’s a practice whereby a buyer lowers their offer at the last minute, just before contracts are exchanged. Sellers, conscious of the fact refusing the new lower offer could mean they are back at square one and an entire chain falling apart, often feel forced to accept. It’s something we see raise it’s ugly head when we are in a “buyer’s market” where property transactions are slow and house prices are dropping.

Can the seller pull out of the house sale?

Yes, the seller can also pull out at any time up to exchange of contracts. This could be for a raft fo reasons. They may have simply changed their minds, had a better offer or have lost out on the property they wanted to buy.

1 in 3 housing transactions fall through. You can protect yourself against the financial losses of your house purchase falling through by taking out Homebuyer Protection Insurance which helps cover legal, survey and mortgage lending costs should your purchase fall through.

What is a lockout agreement?

A Lockout Agreement (sometimes called an exclusivity agreement) depending on the wording, can stop a seller negotiating with another party for a period of time (say 6 weeks).

This gives you security while your conveyancing solicitor carries out investigations and contracts are drawn up. If during this period they do decide to sell to a third party, you will be able to recover your costs such as surveyors fees. And if you change your mind, for example if you get a bad house survey report, there is no obligation for you to buy the property.

You will need to get a solicitor to draw up a lockout agreement for you. Usually, the buyer is required to pay a holding deposit to their solicitor to forward to the seller’s solicitor to hold on order (for example, £2k) to show you are serious and in consideration of the vendor entering into the lockout agreement.

A Lockout Agreement shows you are serious, will proceed quickly and are willing to put your money where your mouth is, and therefore could offer you protection from future gazumping.

Disadvantages of lockout agreements

Lockout agreements are more common in times of rising house prices, however, most solicitors try to avoid them.  If it is purely an agreement that one side can have say 21 days to exchange, then that can simply be added to the estate agents particulars and takes no extra time or costs.  However, because there is no consideration on either side, should, for example, the seller decide to sell elsewhere, they could avoid exchanging within the 21 day lockout period and then sell to another buyer after the 21 days. In this instance, the buyer has no recourse against the seller.

Paying a pre-contract deposit

You may consider paying a deposit to get the seller to take the property off the market. But there has been a lot of criticism about these deposits and in 2016 The Property Ombudsman updated its code of practice to say: ‘Unless the buyer and seller wish to utilise a reservation agreement, you should not generally facilitate pre-contract deposits. However, if you are instructed to do so, you must ensure that before a deposit is taken, the circumstances under which the deposit is to be held, refunded, forfeited or used towards the purchase, are clearly stated in writing, agreed by the relevant parties and a copy of the agreement provided to those parties. In each circumstance the beneficiary of the deposit (and any interest accrued) must be clearly defined.’

So think very carefully before doing this. And if you choose to do so, ensure the estate agent is a member of a redress scheme like the Property Ombudsman and ask for the proposed conditions of the pre-contract deposit in writing.

There is the additional issue that by paying money, the buyer can weaken his or her negotiating position if something comes to light about the house they are buying. The buyer may end up accepting something about the house they might otherwise have asked for a reduction on. Say if there was an old boiler that needs replacing. This would not constitute a reason to withdraw from the purchase. If the seller refuses to give a reduction on the sale price, the buyer is in a difficult position.

Can I offer on a property that is ‘sold subject to contract

Yes you can make an offer on a property that is ‘sold subject to contract’ (SSTC). An estate agent is legally obliged to pass on any offers they receive to the sellers unless they have asked them not to. When another party makes a higher offer on the house you are in the process of buying and has that offer accepted this is called gazumping (not to be confused with gazundering). Read more in our guide What does SSTC mean? Sold subject to contract explained.

What other information do estate agents need to give buyers?

Information an estate agent needs to give to buyers includes the council tax band or rate, whether it’s freehold or leasehold and details of any reservation fees. Estate agents also have legal obligations to buyers that cover matters like the requirement to accurately describe the property and to not withhold important information. For more on this and on upcoming changes on the rules around what estate agents must tell buyers read our guide Estate agents legal obligations to buyers.

How to make the right offer

To make the right offer on a house you should start by researching local house prices and sold prices to understand how much house like the one you’re looking at are selling for. And before you start house hunting, make sure you’ve checked how much you could borrow and have an idea of how much you can afford. If you’re not a cash buyer, get a mortgage agreement in principle in place so the estate agent will take you more seriously. Read more in our guide Making an offer on a house and negotiating effectively.

Making an offer: video