Buying a repossession

stuart0161

Hi, and good luck with your purchase aktechno. We are due to exchange tomorrow... but today our solicitor has said that part of the deposit hasnt gone into their account yet... and we transfered it on Monday... so its had three full working days to clear. Thats all they are waiting for... The deadline for exchange is tomorrow. So now Im worried that the whole 28 process will have to start again!!! Aaaah! Our solicitor has been terrible throughout the process so poppysarah is right... get a fast solicitor. I just hope and pray that we exchange tomorrow!

m_13

Let us know how you get on. You may have seen our previous posts where we had to complete by the Friday on our repossession purchase but our Solicitor sent the money 'held to order' and then finished for the weekend so we were deemed not to have exchanged.

In our case we were able to prove that we had signed the contracts and sent the full deposit a week before so it wasn't our fault. We exchanged on the Monday morning after a horrible weekend and then completed Tuesday this week. We collected the keys on Wednesday so now I can relax a little bit!

If you sent the deposit three days ahead of time then you should be fine. Did you use online banking or pay the monies direct into their account? Our Solicitors banks with Lloyds TSB and whilst their personal banking customers see their accounts in realtime, commercial customers see their accounts 24 hours delayed so a payment made today (Friday) wouldn't appear on their account until Monday.

ScouseIrish

I've just bought a repo off Spicer Haart and I must say our solicitor had a nightmare getting stuff off them. They apparently only deal with queries in time order rather than order of importance so once your request is in there, you'll have to wait for it to work its way through the system.

Our estate agent told us that Spicer Haart were one of the better repo companies to deal with. They had sold 2 properties for them previously and had stayed with the original bidder in both cases despite some interest from others. Our buy made it number 3. They also didn't advertise our bid in the paper so that was helpful (we must have offered enough so that the bank wasn't losing anything)

Very stressful experience buying a repo though! Make sure you're solicitor calls down the mortgage money from the bank early though - we ended up having a similtaneous exchange/completion which made everything more stressful!

stuart0161

Hi! Well, the money went in on time... everything was set to exchange on our part... but Spicer Haart wern't ready!! Our solicitor said, like Scouseirish that Spicer Haart are very disorganised! At least it wasnt our fault that exchange couldnt happen... but now the 28 days have gone over. Our solicitor told us not to worry, as she would push for exchange Monday (i.e. tomorrow) with completion still on Friday. Have spent a nerve wracking weekend, where all sorts of thoughts have been circulating round my head... what if someone offers a higher price over the weekend... what if Spicer Haart pulls out of the deal etc!? We are so close though so have to remain positive!

stuart0161

Well today has been and gone and still no exchange. I really dont understand why they havent exchanged yet. Everything on our side is ready to move. Oh well, there is always tomorrow!

stuart0161

By the way, I forgot to say that our solicitor spoke to the banks solicitors, but they are waiting for the bank to authorise the exchange! What does anyone think about this?!

m_13

After we paid our deposit money over and the signed contract was sent to the auction house they still had to confirm with their client that they were willing and able to exchange. I guess things change over time. Good luck :j

stuart0161

Thanks for the reply. Did the bank take a while to confirm that your deal was still on?

m_13

I think it was a couple of hours. I think your delay is probably with Spicer Haart as they seem to have been the blockage so far!

stuart0161

Well another day... and another day of no exchange! The Estate Agents got involved today however and rang the seller direct. The seller is annoyed at their solicitors for slowing the sale down... and things have slowly began to turn again in our favour today! The seller confirmed that we wouldnt be liable for any outstanding bills on the property etc, and that exchange will be tomorrow morning with completion on Friday! So watch this space. One thing I have learnt from this is 1 - Spicer Haart is very disorganised and 2 - keep phoning everyone involved in the process so that they know you are serious!