We are currently living in Perth, Western Australia but are moving back to England at the end of July. My parent’s have been looking at houses on the internet, last week they found one. It’s a repossession and we are a cash buyer, we asked family and friends to go view the house on our behalf which they kindly did, the estate agent they spoke to said ” No issue us buying the house from overseas as long as we could prove the funds etc” but when my dad spoke to another estate agent within the branch, he was told ” We are not allowed as we haven’t viewed it” We then phoned back a day later to place an offer and spoke to the same guy who was still adamant that we could not do this, a family member then went into the branch and put in an offer on our behalf after an argument had occurred. We later found out that the offer had been rejected but believe it never went to the owner as it was £11,000 over the asking price and at least £7,000 over the previous offer, correct me if I’m wrong but wouldn’t the owner accept a higher offer? isn’t it in their interest to get as much money as possible for the property?
We then got in contact with our solicitor who said “There is no issue with buying a house without viewing it” so he then kindly phoned them and was told the exact same thing, We told them ” We could prove where the money came from, would send over Identification and a statement showing the funds” This still isn’t good enough for them, our family member even offered to buy the house yesterday but was told no! Our solicitor is trying to find out who the owner is then try direct contact with him/her, apparently contracts exchange on Friday!
My mum has also spoke to two different estate agents within the town as was told “No you don’t have to view a house in order to buy it as long as you can prove the funds etc”
Personally believe an underhand deal is going on!
Is this particular estate agent breaking the law in anyway? Doesn’t all offers have to be presented to the Owner, regardless? Why is this estate agent so different to all the others?
We already have plenty of stress with moving to the other side of the world in a few weeks, we don’t need anymore over buying a house,
if anyone could please provide any information that maybe useful, so we can try and understand this bizarre situation, i would be extremely grateful.
Thank you x

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