Advice needed - 2 agents, 2 deposits but 1 house

Hi folks, I've got a problem and I need a little advice, opinion or comments on to try and figure out my next move. I don’t post much but I’m often on here looking for information so I know there are plenty of bright people on AAM.

I recently found a house I wanted to purchase in a nice commuter town outside Dublin. The house was newly built (no stamp duty) in a nice little development of only 12 houses and no more houses could be built there. I met with ‘Agency A’ who were selling the houses viewed it, liked it, left in my deposit with ‘Agency A’ and collected my receipt. Happy days I had my house, this was just over 2 weeks ago.

I called into ‘Agency A’ yesterday as I had a few queries in relation to the house and one of the questions I asked was when I could expect to see contracts as they hadn’t been issued yet. The agent rang the solicitors handling the development while I was there and was informed that someone else had placed a booking deposit and the contracts were sent last week to this other party. It was then that I was shocked to discover 2 separate companies were selling the development. I was dealing with ‘Agency A’ who had sold the previous 11 houses and were in the process of selling me the 12th and final house. However a deposit was left into ‘Agency B’ who it appears had done very little with the development and sold none of the other houses but were entitled to, contracts were then issued to their client. I had assumed wrongly that ‘Agency A’ were the sole selling agent. I don’t yet know if Agency A who I dealt with messed up or if the solicitors for the development messed up.

I am assuming if my deposit went in last I’m pretty much screwed but if I can prove my deposit went down first do I have a leg to stand on. I am pretty annoyed about it all, as apart from anything else I have paid for a valuation on the house, taken time off work to sort stuff out in relation to this particular house and more importantly wasted a few weeks where I could have still been house hunting. I have a feeling they will try and fob me off as it would probably open a can of worms if my deposit was in first but contracts went elsewhere, we shall see. If nothing else I guess I should at least ask to see the paper work that proves who got the deposit down first or maybe at this stage it doesn’t matter.

Any ideas, should I fight it or walk away I really don’t know what to do for the best right now and just thought I would seek some opinions before I even think of getting a solicitor involved.

If nothing else it may highlight an issue for other naïve first time buyers like myself. MAKE SURE YOU GET THAT CONTRACT.

I sympathise, but from reading previous posts, I think you've been gazumped. Until a contract is signed, you haven't got a leg to stand on. Booking deposits don't count for anything. Sorry.

That's a total bummer but unfortunately I don't think you can do much. Possibly sue the estate agent involved for your expenses which were rendered unneccessary by their malpractice and incompetence.

Actually in this case I would contact the developer directly and kick up BLUE MURDER. This is not acceptable, if there were joint agents on the housing estate, it's up to them to communicate and ensure that each has up to date information on the progress.
The developer is the employer of the 2 estate agents, and frankly if 2 agents in my employ behaved like this I'd go nuts. You never know until you complain. This is not professional behaviour by a long shot, I would actually describe this as sharp practice.

Just to update on my original post from what I can gather a third estate agency approached the developer or the developers solicitor directly with a client looking for the last house and they done a deal, developer sells house agent gets commission, I'm screwed but their happy. The "official selling agents" were left out of the loop so when I first viewed the house it was already gone but the agent didn't know and the first they found out was 2 weeks after I placed a booking deposit when I was sat beside them as they rang the solicitor to see where the contracts were. Their time was wasted, my time was wasted and I won't put in writing what I think of the developer. I will never know the full story but stuff them I have managed to find a different house which may actually suit me better so it's not all bad news.

Excellent post!

in my experience,life's way too short to worry about stuff that has happened-it's good that you have looked on the bright side and moved on..

daithi