Gazumping: don’t blame auctioneers

LIKE much media coverage regarding the auctioneering profession, your lead story (Irish Examiner, June 10) was inaccurate in that it referred to regulations being published to protect house-hunters from “tricks of the trade, including gazumping — where auctioneers pull out of a deal after receiving a higher bid”.

The review group that examined the auctioneering profession — which was appointed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and which included four consumer agencies — correctly identified gazumping as the act of the seller, not that of the auctioneer.

Far from being a ‘trick of the trade’, this particular problem exists because of the outdated law of contract operating in Ireland.