Advice on buying a house that has been repossessed?

WRabbit

We bought a repossession 9 years ago (still not finished it - should really get our fingers out!).

You need to approach the contract quite carefully. Ours had silly things in it like we were liable for all utility costs from the date of the bank obtaining possession NOT from when we purchased it. We quickly told them to get lost with that one. Especially considering the house had been rented out by the bank to the council as emergency accomodation. So double and triple check the fine print.

Remember your meter readings. Utility companies might have been owed money too so they may be cautious about reconnecting. We had to fax BT a bank statement showing our previous address and a letter from the solicitor regarding the house purchasae.

If you're not living in it you may be able to get it council tax free for a period if it's unliveable (which ours was).

We've not had any major hassles with people looking for the previous owners - less than 6 phone calls in total, and all completely prepared to accept us saying we weren't them. We had one bloke turn up at the door looking for them, very polite and apologised for disturbing us. Probably the funniest was Radio Rentals phoning up looking for the previous owners and asking if they'd left a TV behind (the house had practically been stripped back to its bare walls).

Good luck

AndyMac_2

claire1978 wrote: »

hoora & Andymac updates please?????

We're still plodding on! Th survey has been completed on our house (one we're selling) and the sold sign has gone up :j .

The pubic notice has gone into the local paper for the house we're going for and it's all now in the hands of the solicitors. we've also arrangesd the survey, so I guess its just a waiting game now:eek: .....