Auctioneer ignoring our offer?

A

alana

Registered User
Messages
38
One week ago, we put in an offer on a property with the auctioneer. The property is currently vacant (the owners have died). They had no family between them and the proceeds of the sale is going to the church!We rang the auctioneer today ( he said he would ring us two days ago and didn't) and he told us that our offer is the highest but he wants a few more weeks to view the house. When i asked him was our offer rejected, and he said that he didn't tell the estates solicitor about it.Surely, our offer should be accepted or rejected? I don't want to be strung along for weeks in limbo so we will be ringing the auctioneer on Monday to say that we need an answer by Wednesday. We have bought houses before and I've never been treated like this by an auctioneer before - what do ye think?
 
Look for another house or put your offer in writing to the solicitor with an expiration date.
 
Thanks for the quick reply! To be honest, i'd love to tell the auctioneer to shove it but we love the house! We don't know who the solicitor acting for the couples estate is.....
 
Just because there isn't a live person on the other side of the transaction doesn't mean that the property shouldn't be sold for the maximum amount possible, perhaps that is the light that the auctioneer is viewing it in. In which case he is acting on behalf of his clients.
 
I thought auctioneers were obligated to relay bids to vendors.
 
You'd think so, wouldn't you?


10. Members shall at all times make it their first duty to protect and promote the legitimate interest of their clients to the utmost of their ability. To the extent possible without prejudice to that duty, members shall adopt a fair approach in relation to business conducted by them and encourage property sellers, property buyers, property owners, landlords, tenants, licensors and licensees to adopt a similar approach.
 
I had a similar situation with an autioneer. He didn't pass on the offer so I said I have to have an answer by 12 tomorrow as there is another house I was keen on .

He called me back 10mins later saying the seller had accepted my offer (he had been on bridging finance & it was costing him a fortune to keep the property)
 
Folks

I have had to delete a post with foul language and a number of posts quoting it.

If you see foul language, report the post. The little red triangle on the top of every post.

Don't quote it.
Don't get into a discussion with the poster.

The poster in this case has been banned for foul language and for the abuse of the posters who responded to him.

Brendan
 
alana said:
Thats actually what i think as well. Is there anything i can do? We love the house!!!!!
Click to expand...


What was the asking price and what was your offer? If the EA was being underhand why would he tell you exactly what he was doing, surely he would simply say that they have not accepted your offer?
 
The house is on the market for €299,000. We put in an offer of €280,000. The highest bid before ours was €250,000. We thought that putting in an offer 30k above highest bid, would secure it for us. As other posters have said, i want to put a termination date on our offer, but will that just "put us out of the picture" so to speak, once that date has passed?
 

Well he has to come back to you as the under bidder, but I would first contact IAVI or IPAV (whichever he is affiliated with) and put your case to them and ask that they approach the EA about his conduct and revert back to you. Tell the EA that you are not happy with his mishandling of the situation and that you will be contact aforementioned bodies.
 
I don't see that it is either necessary or appropriate to report the auctioneer to anybody. It is entirely possible that the auctioneer has been instructed to conduct the sale in whatever way he sees fit. It is possible he has agreed with his client vendor that he will keep it on market for a certain minimum period before bringing offers to client for consideration (a period which may not yet have expired) and is simply doing exactly as agreed with client. Based on the limited information to hand, it certainly does not seem to be the case that there is anything untoward. If OP is worried about the property being sold to someone else, possibly for less than OP is willing to pay, then OP should put their current offer in writing and make clear that they want auctioneer to come back to them if there is a higher offer. Other than that, I don't see that there is much else to do.
 
Contacting one of the main bodies may resolve the mystery for the OP. If the EA has been instructed to carry out the sale as he sees fit then there should be no worries for him, if he is not acting in the interests (deliberately or not) of his client then the OP might get a little more leeway. In fairness to the OP the offer is decent.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice. I will be ringing the auctioneer after lunch, so we'll see what he says. I certainly don't want anyone to get into trouble - i just want to buy the flippin' house!
 
I appreciate that you want the house, be firm with the EA and give them no more than 24 hours. Given that you have put in a good offer and some time has since past it is unlikely that a better offer comes along.

This may sound very silly but I had a similar problem in the past and when the issue got dragged out for too long I took it as a sign that the house was not for me. 2 weeks later I managed to find a much nicer house for 50k less!
 
tried ringing the auctioneer, wasn't there, so was told he'll ring me back.....will try again tomorrow.
 
Saw something similar happen before. Turned out that a colleague of the auctioneer was the lower bidder.
Does the owner live in the property? Stick a letter in the door to let them know of your bid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register