Sold subject to contract (SSTC) – queries answered by Express Estate Agency

MANCHESTER, U.K. - April 16, 2014 - PRLog -- What does SSTC mean?

It means that the property has been offered a price by a potential buyer but there is no legal binding yet as in England and Wales, no official legal contract is held between the buyer and seller unless a written and signed contract is exchanged between the parties. Till then, the seller or the buyer is under no legal obligation to go through with the sale. This relaxation is provided in case there arise any problem with the surveys of the property that could not have been pointed out before. If the buyer or seller is not satisfied with the deal, either party can pull away at any moment without any penalty before the contract is exchanged.

Hence, if there is an SSTC property that a buyer is interested in, he can put an offer in which will be considered in case the sale falls through. Although the buyer should be cautious about WHY the sale fell through and should learn about the reasons beforehand. However, in cases like SSTC, there is a strong chance of ‘gazumping’ and ‘gazundering’.

So, what is Gazumping?

If a seller makes an oral agreement with a buyer upon a certain price but later cuts off the deal for a higher offer made by another buyer, it is called gazumping. It is not legally wrong. However, there is another concept of ‘ghost gazumping’, a term coined recently by Financial Times. It is when a seller pretends to have received a higher offer from a buyer in the hope of pressing the current buyer to up the price in the last minute. No matter how ethically indecent, it still does not trigger a legal penalty and the sellers get to swindle their buyers just because they can.

Is Gazundering a thing, too?

But humans, who are always determined to find new ways round the corner, have developed an opposite condition of gazumping. It is called gazundering i.e. the buyer, at the last moment, lowers the price of the house because of a defect in the house based on surveys or mere observation.

It is because of gazumping and gazundering, that an offer from a buyer is not a legal contract according to the law of England and Wales. It protects people from falling into sly traps that are fairly very common these days. One needs to be extra cautious and well aware of the market if he wishes to buy or sell a nice house in a perfectly nice deal.

Express Estate not only guides its clients regarding this beforehand but also works in a pattern to avoid afore mentioned situations. The sellers are to be provided complete information of the property they’re selling. Agency itself checks for entire details to make sure nothing is missed. Potential buyers are then treated with caution and contracts are signed after solid guarantees received from both parties. Just in case, a sale still falls through considering the delicate nature of legal permissions, Express compensates its clients with the quickest recuperate.


Express Estate Agency: http://www.expressestateagency.co.uk/

Express Estate Agency Reviews: http://www.allagents.co.uk/express-estate-agency/