Rejected petition Make gazumping illegal in Wales as it is in Scotland.
There is a huge problem in Wales particularly in coastal areas, where people are doing anything they can to buy holiday homes, including gazumping. They can afford to pay escalated prices and my worry is that house prices are increasing so much, that local people, who's wages tend to be low, will not be able to buy property and live in the areas where they work. Even if gazumping doesn't happen, the prices of local housing is rocketing as people are paying well over the odds for second homes.
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When I first started looking for a small house near Llanelli (because my job had moved) I was warned that gazumping and paying inflated prices, without even viewing the properties was becoming a real problem in Wales. Having had my offer accepted on a house in Mynyddygarreg about 8 weeks ago, I thought I was going to be OK. The estate agents told me that if anyone enquired they would take their details on file in case the sale fell through. What happened was, someone looking for a holiday home, did enquire but went behind the backs of the estate agents and straight to the vendor to view secretly. They then went on to offer 20k more than my offer (which was the highest of 3 local people) I realise now, that I haven't a hope of completing against these people to be able to live in the area where I work. I might have to give up my job as driving 2 hours a day, isn't sustainable. To ban gazumping would be a start to stopping this trend that is pricing out local people.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the Senedd or Welsh Government is not responsible for.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 establishes the extent of the Senedd’s power to make new laws and amend existing law (also known as legislative competence). Schedules 7A and 7B of the 2006 Act set out the issues which are ‘restricted’ or ‘reserved’ - i.e. areas where the UK Parliament, not the Senedd, can legislate.
Powers relating to the buying and selling of homes rest with the UK Parliament and are not devolved to Wales, including the regulation of estate agents which is reserved under heading C6 of Schedule 7A.
As a result, it is not possible for the Senedd to take the action called for by your petition.
Further information about the legislative powers of the Senedd can be found here: https://senedd.wales/en/abthome/role-of-assembly-how-it-works/Pages/Powers.aspx
You may wish to consider petitioning the UK Parliament regarding this matter instead: https://petition.parliament.uk/
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards
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