bungeejumper wrote:mc2fool wrote:AIUI, it is although you can override it, but potential viewers must be informed of the state of play.
The default is that the moment someone makes an offer then, until you accept or reject the offer, the property becomes "under offer" and the estate agent stops doing any further viewings.
We once had to pull the rug from under an accepted buyer who was trying to change the deal in mid-process, and the amount of squealing and noise she made was tremendous. She was a television actress in some soap opera or other, and I think she was probably used to getting her own way.
We were perhaps a week away from exchange when she suddenly announced that she would only proceed with the purchase if she got planning permission for a rear extension to the house. Which, considering that it was a listed building, would mean at least a four month delay in the sale, and maybe six or eight months, with no certainty of approval at the end of it. Whereas we were already committed to our own new purchase and would have needed a bridging loan if our sale had failed! (We were buying at a sealed-bids auction.)
It was, in short, a deal-breaker.We had a full and frank discussion with our agent, who rather grumpily agreed to arrange some more viewings. Almost immediately, a wealthy cash buyer turned up and the deal was done, on time and with all the goodwill that we hadn't seen from the TV personality. It was some time later that we heard how she'd been blackening our name far and wide. Fortunately, we didn't need to care about that any more.
Out of interest, how would Scottish law have treated that situation? I imagine she'd have been obliged to go through with her agreed purchase, regardless of her later wish for the extension permit?
BJ
Up here the conclusion of missives ahead of settlement is now often not the case, they seem to conclude these days virtually on settlement day, the one plus of the Scottish system appears ,in a lot of cases ,to have evaporated.