Usually, when the selling agent has received notice of two or more interested parties, they will announce a closing date by which all offers must be received. It's a 'sealed bids' system, whereby none of the potential buyers know what any of the others have offered, so it's really a guessing game to outbid the competition.
Your solicitor makes the offer on your behalf. It will also include a 'date of entry' - like a completion date in England, when you will pay for the property and get the keys. You can only bid once for each property. The highest bid the agent receives by the closing date will be accepted and, from this point on, that buyer is committed to proceed with the purchase. The seller may reject all the bids but this is rare.
Make sure you get a mortgage in principle, or 'offer of advance' from your lender before you make an offer. 'Your offer would not be considered serious otherwise,' warns Ross Kennedy.
Once your offer has been accepted, the Scottish system provides a greater amount of certainty for the buyer because, at this point, there is little that can go wrong. This is more to do with convention than the law, points out Caroline James, a partner at Glasgow law firm Tods Murray. 'Historically, the highest offer was a formal legal offer so the buyer was committed. Today, it is only morally the case,' she says.
Unless you are buying a brand new property, there are no deposits in the Scottish system, but if you pull out at this stage, which rarely happens, you are liable for any losses the seller has incurred. 'On balance, having no deposits is not a bad thing,' says Caroline James. 'Buyers do not have to shell out money they may have to borrow and it reduces practice problems for solicitors.'
