Madam, - Politicians rightly decry property owners who gazump prospective buyers by reneging on an agreement to sell to them in favour of a higher offer.
The other side of that particularly nasty coin is called "gazundering" - when a prospective buyer reneges on a deal that has been agreed, but which has not yet been committed to formal contract. Both actions are immoral.
Galway City Council, which has both elected members and a paid executive, has gazundered dozens of home owners from whom the council had agreed to buy homes under a house purchase scheme (The Irish Times, July 11th). Even before pen formally went on paper, once these sales were agreed in principle the sellers involved should have been in no doubt that their sales would proceed in light of the identity of the proposed buyer. Some intending sellers may face serious financial losses as a consequence.
Shame on any arm of the State that adopts such shoddy tactics! The Irish Auctioneers' and Valuers' Institute calls on Galway City Council to reverse this decision immediately. If not, let the State and its component parts forever remain quiet about the morals of others on such issues.
Local authorities have been quick to criticise estate agents for being reluctant to strong-arm their clients into selling to local authorities under various schemes. Such reluctance centred on the client's understandable unwillingness to commit to a sale that experience had shown would take considerably longer than the norm to complete. Now Galway City Council has created a much more substantial reason for sellers to refuse to deal with local authorities - they may, if they follow Galway City Council's example, renege just as quickly as any buyer if the need arises.
The institute has pressed for a change to the law of contract to curtail gazumping. The Government has been slow to act. No wonder, if it permits local authorities to act in this reprehensible manner. Would the new Minister for the Environment and the new Minister for State for Housing please intervene in this mess as a matter of urgency? The State's moral reputation is at stake. - Yours, etc,
ALAN COOKE, Chief Executive, Irish Auctioneers' and Valuers' Institute, Merrion Square, Dublin 2.