"Mike Mitchell" wrote
| Oh, that's given me a brilliant idea! What's to stop me from
| selling my house the Scottish way, using sealed bids?

Because under the English system they're not legally binding, so you cans
till be gazundered.

It depends on the type of property, but with the larger property it's not
uncommon for a deposit of say 5% to be requested with the offer, and the
vendor places a similar deposit on escrow when accepting the offer, to be
forfeited if either party subsequently pulls out.

Owain