Q&A

Your property questions answered.

Offering over sale agreed

An apartment we viewed some time ago now has "sale agreed" on it. When I phoned the agent she told me that an offer of €385,000 has been accepted. We are prepared to pay more than that. Could we now approach the apartment owner directly with a higher offer?

What you are talking about is gazumping and there is no law against it here - however in other countries the practice of gazumping is viewed as so morally reprehensible that there are laws stopping a seller accepting a higher offer once a firm offer has been accepted and a deposit paid. So, yes, you could push a note under the door with a higher offer and it might work. But do you really want to get involved in that sort of transaction.

An agent recently told Q&A an illuminating story. After the "sale agreed" sign went up on an apartment, a would-be buyer did just as you intend, he pushed a note under the door offering €20,000 extra. The owner, feeling that it was too good a price to pass up on, cancelled out on the "sale agreed" buyer and instructed the estate agent to accept the higher offer from mister-note-under-the-door. The agent went back to the original buyer, explaining the situation and she then matched the new price and added an extra €2,000. Mister-note-under-the-door added an extra €1,000 and, as the original buyer couldn't match it, the deal looked done.

However, two weeks later mister-note-under-the-door got cold feet and pulled out of the deal. The agent went back to the original buyer in the hopes that she would be prepared to pay the new price, which was €22,000 more than she had originally secured the apartment for before mister-note-under-the-door came on the scene. She said no. The toing and froing was, she told the agent, "bad karma", and she didn't want her home to start off on such a negative footing. You can be guaranteed that, if you do offer more, you will open up the whole bidding process and do you really want to get into that? Maybe you do, but remember there are loads of apartments out there.

Alarmed over loud alarm

I live in a cul-de-sac of new townhouses. My neighbour's alarm goes off at least three times a week at various times. It is very loud, very annoying and it goes on for hours. The woman doesn't seem to live in the house full-time. I did catch her once and, while she apologised, she didn't seem too interested. Is there anything I can do?

Under Irish law, you are entitled to bring complaints about specific neighbourhood noise, including persistent and irritating alarms, to the District Court once the noise is continuous, repeated, loud and occurring at such times and of such duration that it affects your quality of life. This only applies to alarms fitted since September 2003. Under new European rules, there is a limit of 15 minutes maximum that an alarm can sound off.

Try your neighbour again. It may be that she genuinely does not know her alarm is dodgy - it must be if it's going off all the time. Only as a last resort tell her you will have to take the case to the District Court.

For details on how to do that, go to www.oasis.gov.ie/environment for full, and very clear, instructions.

Send your queries to Property Questions, The Irish Times, 10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or email propertyquestions@irish-times.ie.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.