Notice of Offer for repossessed house

Rebchappers

We put an offer in for a repossessed house on 16th July and this offer was accepted. We were told by the estate agents that a 'notice of offer' would have to put in the local paper inviting any sealed bids within the next seven days. Can anyone tell me when this advert is supposed to appear?

We have rung the EA and they said it wont be put in the paper until next week. This will be 15 days after we made our offer. All of this time someone could come in with a higher bid and take this house away from us! We are FTBs and have the mortgage ready to go, Valuation/survey being done this week and bearing in mind the EA insisted that we must be ready to exchange in 21 days, i feel that they are dragging their feet with this.... can anyone confirm if this offer has to be put in the paper within any certain time frame or is it just when the EA can be bothered?

Cazza

Hi! I believe the EA has to put the offer in the paper as soon as is reasonably practical. If it's a local paper that only goes to press once a week and they missed the dealine by a day or two then that works out with when you put in your offer. Also, when I worked in an EA's office, some papers we only advetised every other week.

The whole point of the advert is to advise the general public of your offer and to encourage higher bidders, so in some ways, the longer it takes to go in the paper the more it works in your favour! If someone else does put in an offer, the lender selling will need to take into account if the other person will be able to move as quickly as you!

Dan_Collins_2

Yeah you dont have much choice in this one. Then again if you were buying in the standard manner you could still loose out by another bidder.

Rebchappers

Ok, so if we get the valuation/survey done tomorrow and then Nationwoide has said they can get an offer out in 48 hours....

....It is possible that we are ready to exchange BEFORE this notice have even gone to print. Would we still have to wait until the seven days after the notice has expired before we can exchange?

Dan_Collins_2

The notice is a legal requirement.

happybroker

probably...the bank in posession have an obligation to the person they took it from to get the best price they possibly can which doesn't help you I know but think of it from the other guys perspective.

given the state of the market at the moment I would think they would be loathed to lose a buyer who has a mortgage offer in place though so you could try playing hard ball with them but it's a risky strategy.