Mr. Patrick Davitt:

I would say they do not have to but many agents feel that they are under an obligation to tell people, especially if they have been bidding on the property prior. If people have been bidding on the property prior, for €345,000, for example, and the property went for €350,000, they will have an idea that the property went for that figure anyway. In other cases, if the property is sold for €350,000 and people have never bid on the property, there are other ways that they can find out how much the property was sale agreed for apart from the agent. There could be a brochure on the property. They may even go to the vendor, ask how much the vendor got for the property and say they are prepared to give the vendor more. The person who owns the property may well decide to cut out his or her agent despite the fact that he or she cannot do that because there is a PSRA legal agreement with the agent on the sale of the property.

There are many ways that people can find out the value or what the property was sold for, but if it happened to be brought in in this proposed Bill that gazumping was against the law, agents would be absolutely delighted.

As an agent, there is nothing as bad as having to go back and tell someone who bought a property in good faith for say, €350,00, that there is now an offer of €370,000 on it. What is even worse, many vendors would not go back to the under bidder. The agent is then left with a lot of egg on his or her face. They cannot even go back and take a further offer. Even if they were allowed to go back and give the under bidder or, as it would be then, the sale agreed person, the opportunity to make a further offer, it would be something. In many cases, one cannot do that. If an agent does not go to the vendor with the further offer, they are afraid of the person themselves going to the vendor. "Sale agreed" means very little, except that a vendor is happy to sell the property at that price. That is really all it is.