Advice Re Sealed Bid Offer on House

Hi
We are putting a bid in on a house. The bids need to be in today and are sealed bids (envelopes to be openned after 5:30pm by the estate agent / solicitor).

This is all we've been told/know.

Is this bid binding on us? I've not been told it is and we aren't required to pay over any money with the bid (albeit we will need to next week I imagine)? Just wondering as I don't know.

Also - does anyone know what we should put in such a bid - the following was what I had in mind:

We have mortgage approval
We are ready and keen to move quickly
We are willing to pay the deposit at the earlier convenience
We wish to offer X amount
The bid is subject to title deeds being in order

Particularly I wanted to know - by stating that it's subject to title deeds doe that mean it's also subject to them having planning permission for the current residence or do I have to state that too?

Thanks for your help.

Re: Advise Re Sealed Bid Offer on House

The fact that it is written down, does not make it any different to any other bid that you make.
I agree with the details of what you have said about putting in the letter.

You are still free to walk away, as is the vendor, before the contracts are signed. That is the law in Ireland, and the written bids doesn't change that.

Your solicitor will advise you not to sign the contracts until they have checked out
all title and planning permission issues.

Re: Advise Re Sealed Bid Offer on House

Thanks for your reply, it was very useful.

Can I ask why this house is being sold by written bids. This is something I have only seen during the very top of the bubble,
I have difficulty understanding why it might be happening now.
Do you know for sure that there are other bidders?

It's a wreck of a house in a fantastic area with a very low reserve price. The date for bids is today and it seems to be legit in that this is stated on the advert for the house.

We'll see - haven't offered much as we can't afford much. Just hoping nobody else fancied buying a wreck? Who knows.