Recommendations from the Law Reform Commission on legislation to deal with the practice of gazumping are expected to arrive on the Minister for the Environment's desk sometime in the new year.

Chances are Mr Dempsey will peruse the Commission's work just as the government in Britain introduces its legislation against the practice there. Reforms were presented to the British government last week which, say their proponents, would not only stamp out gazumping but also reduce the time-scale for a house sale from an average of 12 weeks to under four. Gazumping, an often misunderstood term, happens when a vendor pulls out of an apparent deal with the purchaser to either increase the asking price or sell to a higher bidder.

Much newsprint was taken up last year with reports of the practice in the Irish house market. The reports, as well as complaints to government and the Construction Industry Federation, led to the matter being taken up by the Attorney General, who in turn referred it to the Law Reform Commission for examination. With the housing market very much a vendor's one, a degree of gazumping is probably inevitable. Depending on who one talks to, legislation against it could either unjustly favour the purchaser while adding an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy, or streamline the whole business while protecting both purchaser and vendor.

Mr Michael Goggins, director of the Irish Home Builders Association, says his members would "absolutely campaign against legislation". Legislation is unnecessary, he says, because since the IHBA introduced a voluntary code to stamp out the practice in February, it is a problem which no longer exists - in the new homes market.

"The practice was always a minor one, but it gave the industry a bad name," says Mr Goggins. Since the sanctions were adopted by the association's 1,300 builders, he says "hand on heart, not one complaint of genuine gazumping has passed my desk".

His association's sanctions include publicly naming any builder who puts up the price of a house following an agreement to sell at a certain price. A specific time frame is also set out - a maximum of seven weeks - within which contracts must be signed. However, as Mr Alan Cooke, chief executive of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Association, points out, this code applies only to the new house market and the majority of homes sold in this country are secondhand.

Legislating for the issue is complex, he acknowledges, so complex that successive governments in Britain have, until now, rejected the notion of even attempting such legislation, because it must protect the rights of the vendor as much as those of the purchaser. He regards Fine Gael's recently proposed Private Members Bill against gazumping as unworkable. Under it, the taking of a booking deposit would put a legal obligation on the vendor to sell at the agreed price.

"This would mean a vendor being tied to that purchaser, while the purchaser carries out surveys and possibly changes his mind. Vendors would just instruct their solicitors to stop accepting booking deposits."

Legislation could never totally eliminate gazumping, he says, but it is possible to legislate to greatly curb it. While currently solicitors issue contracts which effectively deny that any contract exists until all papers have been signed, Mr Cooke proposes that a draft contract be issued as a step in the legal process. This would be temporarily legally binding for two weeks from the date of issue. The purchaser would then have two weeks to return the signed contract and so copper-fasten the agreement to purchase at the agreed price.

"Then, even if the vendor is offered three times the agreed amount by someone else during that two weeks, they couldn't back out of the original agreement. If the original purchaser fails to return the contract, the vendor is free to accept any other offer."

HE further believes that it would speed up the whole process as minds become focused to comply with the time limits.

Gazumping, he believes could be almost eliminated. "If the Law Reform Commission deems legislation necessary," he says, "the government should show its resolve to deal with this and move speedily to introduce it."