Gazumping in Ireland: is it legal, and how do you protect yourself?

Gazumping is when a seller accepts your offer, you go sale agreed, and then the seller takes a higher offer from someone else before contracts are signed. It is a horrible feeling. It is also lawful. This guide explains why, what you can do to lower the risk, and what you can and cannot get back if it happens to you.

Why it is lawful

In Ireland, a sale of land is binding only when there is a written contract signed by both sides. Sale agreed is not that. Nor is the booking deposit. Nor is an email from the agent saying the seller has accepted your offer; those emails say "subject to contract" for exactly this reason.

Until contracts are signed, either side can walk away for any reason. A seller who takes a higher offer is doing what the law allows. The same freedom lets you walk away if the survey is bad or your loan offer falls short. The sale agreed guide explains this stage.

The window of risk

The risk runs from the day you go sale agreed to the day both sides sign contracts. That gap is usually four to eight weeks. In those weeks the seller's solicitor gathers the title documents, your surveyor inspects the home, the lender values it and issues the loan offer, and your solicitor raises questions. The longer the gap, the more time there is for another buyer to come along. The buying timeline tool shows the typical dates.

Why sellers do it

Most sellers do not set out to gazump. It happens when:

• A buyer who missed out comes back with a bigger number.
• The home was priced low to draw bids, and a late bidder appears.
• The sale is dragging and the seller fears you will not get there.
• The seller's own purchase has gone up in price and they need more.
• An investor or cash buyer offers a faster close.

The agent (an agent needs a PSRA licence; see the estate agent page) is obliged to pass every offer to the seller, even after sale agreed. The agent is not allowed to invent an offer. If you doubt a rival bid is real, ask the agent to confirm it in writing and keep a note of the date.

What lowers the risk

You cannot remove the risk. You can shrink the window and make yourself the buyer the seller wants to keep.

1. Instruct a solicitor (check the Law Society's register; see the conveyancing solicitor page) before you bid, so the legal work starts the day you go sale agreed.
2. Book the survey in the first week. A surveyor or engineer (Engineers Ireland or the SCSI; see the house survey page) can usually visit within days.
3. Have your full loan application ready to go: payslips, statements, proof of deposit. The loan offer is the slowest piece on your side.
4. Ask your solicitor to chase the contracts, and to raise questions quickly once they arrive.
5. Sign and return the contracts as soon as your solicitor says they are ready.
6. Keep in touch with the agent each week. Agents hear first when a seller is wavering.
7. Ask the seller, through the agent, to agree a date for contracts and stick to it.

A buyer with approval, a solicitor, a surveyor and no chain is a safe pair of hands. Sellers often keep a safe buyer over a slightly higher offer from a riskier one.

What you can recover

If you are gazumped, you get back:

• The booking deposit, in full. The agent must return it.

You do not usually get back:

• The survey fee, about €300 to €600 plus VAT.
• The lender's valuation fee, about €185.
• Any legal fees for work your solicitor has done.

There was no contract, so there is nothing to sue on. A few sellers agree to cover a gazumped buyer's survey cost as a goodwill gesture; most do not. Ask, in writing, through your solicitor.

A worked example

Niamh goes sale agreed on a house at €350,000 and pays a €5,000 booking deposit. She books a survey (€450 plus VAT) and her solicitor starts work. Five weeks in, the agent calls: another buyer has offered €362,000. Niamh can match it, beat it, or walk away. She has already spent €553 on the survey and about €500 on legal work. She decides the house is not worth €362,000 to her and withdraws. The agent returns her €5,000 within a week. The survey and legal money is gone.

If Niamh had matched the offer, she would have paid €12,000 more for the same house. Whether that is worth it depends on the number she wrote down as her ceiling before she bid. The bidding guide explains how to set one.

Should you match the higher offer?

Only if the new price is within your ceiling and your loan offer covers it. A higher price means a bigger mortgage or a bigger deposit. Check both with the mortgage calculator before you answer. If the lender's valuation was done at the old price, a higher price may need a new valuation too.

Gazundering

Gazundering is the reverse. A buyer lowers their offer just before contracts, when the seller has taken the home off the market for weeks and does not want to start again. It is also lawful before contracts. A seller can refuse and relist. If you are the buyer and the survey has found a real fault, asking for a reduction is fair; asking for one with no reason is gazundering.

When it becomes binding

Everything changes when both sides sign contracts and you pay the 10% contract deposit. From then on the seller cannot sell to anyone else. If the seller tries, your solicitor can go to court to force the sale or claim damages. The signing contracts guide explains what you are agreeing to on that day.

Where this leaves you

The way to beat gazumping is speed. Put your sale agreed date into the buying timeline tool to see where the weeks go. Get quotes from a solicitor and a surveyor before you bid, and follow the first-time buyer journey so nothing on your side holds up the contracts.