NAEA vice president Chris Wood said the best way to stop gazumping was to put in a good offer, but if a better one came along the estate agent would be obliged to let the seller know.
He said: “If a seller ever found out that the agent had not passed on a higher offer then the owner has the right to come down hard on that agent.”
Wood said the problem was not getting worse but would nor would it go away “until the law is changed”.
A recent survey by consumer website The Motley Fool showed that 73 per cent of homeowners believed gazumping should be made illegal, but one in five said they would be willing to gazump somebody else’s purchase.
It also found that £300 million a year is wasted on surveys, fees and other administration for purchases that never take place because of gazumping.
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