If you are selling a property and suspect your estate agent is not passing on all offers you have received, or if you are a buyer worried that your offer is being buried in favour of a higher competing bid or a preferred purchaser, this is the question that matters. The short answer is yes — estate agents in England and Wales are legally required to pass on all offers to the seller. The longer answer covers what that obligation covers, how it is enforced, and what happens when it is not met.
The Legal Obligation
Estate agents operating in England and Wales are bound by the Estate Agents Act 1979, which sets out their legal duties to sellers. Section 21 of the Act is the specific provision that addresses offers.
Under Section 21, an estate agent is required to pass on to the seller promptly, and in writing, every offer received for the property — unless the seller has given specific written instructions that certain categories of offer should not be forwarded.
The key elements of this obligation are:
Every offer — not just the ones the agent considers realistic, not just offers above a certain price, not just the ones that fit the agent’s preferred timeline. Every offer received must be communicated to the seller, including offers that arrive after another offer has already been accepted, offers the agent considers too low to be worth the seller’s time, and offers from buyers whose financing the agent has doubts about.
Promptly — the Act does not define a specific timeframe, but the clear intent is that offers should be communicated without undue delay. In practice, this means the same day or the following day at the latest. Holding an offer for several days before communicating it to the seller is not compliant.
In writing — the offer must be confirmed in writing. An agent who verbally tells a seller about an offer but does not follow up with written confirmation is not meeting the full requirement of the Act.
What Sellers Can Instruct Agents Not to Pass On
The Act does allow sellers to provide written instructions limiting what offers the agent is required to forward. Common examples include:
- Offers below a specified minimum price (a seller who has set a firm bottom line and does not want to hear about lowball offers)
- Offers from buyers who are not in a position to proceed (no mortgage in principle, not yet sold their own property)
- Offers made after a specific date (for example, once exchange has taken place)
These exclusions must be in writing from the seller. An agent cannot unilaterally decide not to pass on offers — only the seller can authorise that limitation, and only in writing.
Why the Obligation Is Not Always Honoured
Despite the legal requirement, there are circumstances in which offers are not passed on, either accidentally or deliberately.
Conflicts of interest are the most serious concern. An estate agent may have a financial incentive to favour a particular buyer — for example, if the agent also offers mortgage or financial services and the preferred buyer is using that service (earning the agent an additional fee). This practice — known as tied selling or conditional selling when linked to financial services — is heavily regulated, but the potential for conflict of interest is real.
Buyer registration with another agent in the same chain — where an agent is acting for both a buyer and a seller in related transactions — creates similar pressure.
Commission structures can occasionally create perverse incentives. An agent whose fee is based on achieving sale above a certain price may be less inclined to pass on an offer that falls below it — though this does not make the omission legal.
Administrative failure — offers that arrive by email or voicemail and are not properly logged and communicated to the seller. Less sinister than deliberate concealment but equally a breach of the obligation.
Timing pressure — an agent managing an offer situation with a preferred buyer may be slow to communicate a competing offer that arrives at an inconvenient moment. Again, this is not compliant regardless of the reason.
The Obligation on Timing: Before and After Acceptance
The obligation to pass on offers does not end when the seller accepts an offer. Under the Estate Agents Act, estate agents are required to continue passing on offers received after an offer has been accepted, right up to exchange of contracts.
This is a frequently misunderstood point. A property sale in England and Wales is not legally binding until exchange — either party can withdraw before that point without legal penalty. This means that offers received after acceptance but before exchange are still relevant to the seller, who retains the right to consider them and, if they choose, to accept a later higher offer and withdraw from the first.
The practice of accepting a later, higher offer after the original agreed sale — called gazumping — is legal in England and Wales precisely because no binding commitment exists before exchange. It is widely considered poor practice and causes significant distress to buyers who have spent money on surveys and legal fees, but it is not illegal. And it is only possible if the agent passes on the later offer as the law requires.
Sellers who do not wish to be placed in this position — and who want to honour the moral commitment of an accepted offer even if a higher one arrives — can instruct the agent in writing not to forward further offers once an offer has been accepted. This instruction removes the agent’s obligation to communicate subsequent offers, and effectively removes the gazumping option.
The Obligation to Disclose the Agent’s Interest
The Estate Agents Act also requires agents to disclose to sellers any personal interest they have in a buyer or in the transaction. If an agent is related to a buyer, has a financial stake in the sale, or stands to benefit in any way from a particular buyer being successful, this interest must be disclosed to the seller in writing.
Failure to disclose such an interest when it exists is a breach of the Act and is treated seriously by the regulatory bodies.
What Happens When an Agent Does Not Pass On Offers
Complaint to the agent’s redress scheme. Since October 2014, all estate agents operating in the UK are required by law to be members of a government-approved redress scheme — either The Property Ombudsman (TPO) or the Property Redress Scheme (PRS). These schemes investigate complaints about estate agent conduct, including failure to pass on offers, and can award compensation to complainants.
Report to Trading Standards. The Estate Agents Act is enforced by Trading Standards authorities. A complaint can be made to the local Trading Standards office, who have the power to investigate the agent and, in serious or repeat cases, apply to ban the agent from operating under the Act.
Civil claim. If a seller can demonstrate that failure to pass on an offer caused them financial loss — for example, that an undisclosed higher offer would have resulted in a better sale price — they may have grounds for a civil claim against the agent.
Referral to HMRC and the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT). The NTSELAT has national oversight of estate agency compliance and investigates the most serious cases of misconduct.
In practice, proving that an offer was received and not passed on can be difficult — it requires the buyer who made the undisclosed offer to provide evidence of having done so. However, agents who are found to have breached the Act face consequences that range from formal warnings and compensation awards through to prohibition from carrying out estate agency work.
What Buyers Should Know
If you are a buyer who suspects your offer has not been passed on, your options are more limited than those of the seller, since the Act primarily protects sellers. However:
Make your offer in writing — by email to the agent, with a clear record of the price, terms, and your contact details. This creates an evidence trail.
Follow up in writing — if you have not heard back within 24–48 hours, send a written chase. This documents your attempt to have the offer considered.
Contact the seller directly if possible — in some circumstances, if you know the property and the seller’s details (which may be visible on the Electoral Roll, Land Registry, or through the property listing), direct contact is legal. It bypasses the agent entirely and ensures the seller is aware of your offer.
Raise a complaint with the redress scheme — if you have reasonable grounds to believe your offer was concealed, a complaint to The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme is the formal route.
Summary: What the Law Requires
Estate agents in England and Wales must:
- Pass on every offer received, promptly and in writing
- Continue passing on offers after an accepted offer, until exchange of contracts
- Disclose any personal interest in a buyer or transaction
- Only exclude offers from communication if the seller has given written instructions to that effect
They must not:
- Decide on their behalf which offers are worth passing on
- Delay communicating an offer without good reason
- Favour a particular buyer without disclosing any interest in doing so
- Conceal offers to protect an accepted deal or advance their own financial interests
The legal framework is clear. The consequences for non-compliance — complaints to redress schemes, Trading Standards investigation, potential civil liability, and in serious cases prohibition from estate agency work — are real. If you suspect an agent is not meeting this obligation, the redress scheme is the first and most accessible route to a remedy.
