Buying from Social Services

saver_newbie

Hi, I have seen a house I am interested in. I was told that the house is being sold by social services. Does anyone have any experience dealing with social services? How do they decide on a valid offer price? The reason I ask is if they have a valuation of the property and they decide to accept the first offer above the valuation, I may have to act fast and put in an offer. How does one contact the social services, is this a central department or is it a council run service? The Estate Agent is cagey when speaking about the sellers and while I would like to continue working with them towards the purchase I would prefer to learn a bit more about how the sellers makes their decision.

Rabiddog_2

Social services do not sell houses or flats or vegetables..
The flat is being sold by the Council.. speak to the Estate Agent .. buyers are in a good position at the moment IF they can get a mortgage.

lynzpower

saver_newbie wrote: »

Hi, I have seen a house I am interested in. I was told that the house is being sold by social services. Does anyone have any experience dealing with social services? How do they decide on a valid offer price? The reason I ask is if they have a valuation of the property and they decide to accept the first offer above the valuation, I may have to act fast and put in an offer. How does one contact the social services, is this a central department or is it a council run service? The Estate Agent is cagey when speaking about the sellers and while I would like to continue working with them towards the purchase I would prefer to learn a bit more about how the sellers makes their decision.

I do

Yes, social services DO sell off properties indeed.

I work for a property maangement company and we deal with the managment pre-disposal of many local authority buildings, including offices and care homes.

The property would more as likely have been used as a supported living placement or an old childrens home for example. Once the local authority has decided to stop using that property for that use, they can see if it has any other use within the council, if not they will more as likely sell it. In my experience they can go two ways- fist is to auction, secondly they may advertise in specialist press for new owners to take over. One council run ex- childrens home ( 5 bed) was sold through the specialist press to a private company who manages care homes.

The difficulty will be is that the status of the property is likely to be commercial, ie that the planning use of the propery ( if its a care home its likely to be c2, or c2a)

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/genpub/en/1011888237913.html

Generally this means that in order for you to live in it you will need to apply for a change of use for the property to be reclassified into residential.

BEWARE: this is not always as straightforward as you would think. I have come accross a number of investors who have bought these sort of buildings with a view to converting them into residential and this has not always been granted.

Additionally, you cannot legally live in the property whilst the change of use is to be applied for.

AND ALSO owners of properties such as this have to pay vacant business rates ( many thousands) if the property is empty- which it will be- as you cant live there until change of use is granted. There seems to be an exception if the property is listed- this is being investigated by the company I work fors lawyers at the mo.

I expect mortgages for these sort of properties are difficult, unlikely to be a residental mortgage, it would have to be a commercial mortgage in the start.

HOWEVER it could be C3 ( dwelling houses) in which case you MAY not need to apply for material change of use and thus these problems might not arise as above. Without seeing the property ( you can PM me a link if you like, more than happy to help) its difficult to say/ guesstimate. Does it give details of planning grade on the particulars?

However, because of this there are some "good buys out there" one place my company manages, I have an eye out on to see what it fetches at auction. Given these risks ( and they are large, and expensive!) I might be interested myself, HOWEVER, one needs to have a great solicitor and the backing of plenty of money. These moves are LADEN with risk.

Premier_2

saver_newbie wrote: »

Hi, I have seen a house I am interested in. I was told that the house is being sold by social services. Does anyone have any experience dealing with social services? How do they decide on a valid offer price? The reason I ask is if they have a valuation of the property and they decide to accept the first offer above the valuation, I may have to act fast and put in an offer. How does one contact the social services, is this a central department or is it a council run service? The Estate Agent is cagey when speaking about the sellers and while I would like to continue working with them towards the purchase I would prefer to learn a bit more about how the sellers makes their decision.

It's basically no different to any other seller using an EA.

The seller has employed the services of an EA to market the property and attain the best offer with a view to a successful sale. The seller will take the advice of the professional employed to consider the merits of all offers made and will proceed with the best overall offer (which may or may not be the highest) presuming it is acceptable to the seller.

All negotiations by prospective buyers should be through the sellers appointed agent.

lynzpower

Just noticed that the property is going through an EA ( teach me for skim reading first thing in the morning)

DONT bet on the EA knowing about the planning regulations. Simply ask them to ask the vendors what the planning use code is.

saver_newbie

Thanks for all the replies. The building is an ex-residence of someone (without relatives) who went into care and has never been a commercial property.
The EA's, at least the one who is showing me around, I suspect don't know all the answers to my questions, and sometimes I feel they are making up the answers instead of saying 'I don't know'. Which is why I was wondering if I can contact the 'sellers' who are the social services. Of course I will make my offers through the EA.