Q&A: I made an offer on a house, but the estate agent won’t put it forward

My mother-in-law was chatting to someone last week who’d had this exact dilemma. The lady sounded very disgruntled by what had happened, so I thought I would try to explain why this situation may have occurred.

Firstly, in the usual circumstances any offer made on a property must be reported to the homeowner, in writing, at the earliest opportunity. There is only one exception to this rule, which is if the homeowner has specifically asked the agent to omit reporting certain offers to them, such as offers below a certain figure. As this is the homeowner’s decision and therefore instruction, the agent will need to comply.

The lady was told by the agent they wouldn’t put her offer forward as she hadn’t sold her own home. Now, assuming the lady doesn’t have the money to buy the house without selling her own first, she is not actually in a position to agree to buy another house. She can however, absolutely make an offer ‘subject to the sale of her own house’. This is something I would actively encourage if it’s a good offer as it shows the lady’s level of interest and intent.

The homeowner may not wish to enter into negotiations regarding the offer at this stage, but they could ask to ‘leave the offer on the table’ and the agent can keep in touch with the potential purchaser to see how the marketing of her own property goes. They could also offer to help her sell her property if it’s in the area the agent covers.

What we aren’t aware of in this scenario is specifically what the vendor has instructed in terms of reporting offers from potential buyers who are not yet in a proceedable position. We also don’t know how much the offer was, whether there is other interest in the property or how long the interested lady’s own house may take to sell.

I believe the offer should have been reported to the vendor and formally acknowledged and rejected in writing to both parties. Again, the only reason this usually wouldn’t be done is if the vendor has specifically requested not to be informed about this kind of offer. It would still be a good idea for the agent to record the offer for future reference even if they didn’t report it to the vendor at that point.

Given how disgruntled this lady was, we can only assume that none of this reasoning had been explained to her or if it had been, she may have just been frustrated with the situation. Let’s face it, if you’ve got your heart set on a house, rightly or wrongly you have developed an emotional connection to it and being told your offer isn’t acceptable for whatever reason, is going to cause some level of upset.

Educating people of best practice within the industry is our responsibility. For an estate agent to simply refuse to put an offer forward with no explanation as to why is both unhelpful and bad business sense, particularly given the lady has a house to sell. It costs nothing to be polite or to send a quick email of acknowledgement and/or refusal.

If you’re ever concerned as a buyer or seller that the practices you are experiencing don’t seem right, you can check out The Property Ombudsman code of practice which is freely available on their website. You can also contact me directly for an independent and professional opinion on the situation.