vacant pocession, problems.

lostinrates

What happens if a property is not vacant on completion, despite being sold as such?



Do the new buyers have to evict the people there? How long does the process take?

poppysarah

You'd want to speak to your solicitor sharpish.

Would possibly be breach of contract?

Debt_Free_Chick

Agree, speak to your solicitor.

Is this a "real situation" or a "what if"?

pawpurrs

This can cause a lot of fun and games.......Once sold a house and the vendors refused to move out, they had changed their minds, after the removal van arrived, with the new familys stuff.........
If someone refuses to leaves, it can be messy........

jamief

Not sure how it works in England, but up here there is generally something in the missives about what happens when the vendors fail to give vacant possession. Speak to your solicitor.

lostinrates

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Agree, speak to your solicitor.

Is this a "real situation" or a "what if"?

Its both. Its a problem I foresee with a property we are considring bidding for.

pawpurrs, what hapened in your example. Do you know how long it took and how costly it ended up being? Were the buyers able to reclaim the costs from the sellers?

mlz1413

Houses are normally exchanged with the contract stating it is vacant on completion.

Therefore if it is not vacant the vendors will have broken the contract and should be liable for any costs they cause, but if they have no money you will be throwing money at a lengthy legal process as you'd be using the eviction of squatters process.

Do you think the vendors might do this to get a council place? or for some other reason?

I would think it would cause a lot of problems if you have a mortgage and for insurance purposes too. Definately needs discussing with the solicitor, maybe you could ask for property to be vacant day before completion?

lostinrates

mlz1413 wrote: »

Houses are normally exchanged with the contract stating it is vacant on completion.

Therefore if it is not vacant the vendors will have broken the contract and should be liable for any costs they cause, but if they have no money you will be throwing money at a lengthy legal process as you'd be using the eviction of squatters process.

Do you think the vendors might do this to get a council place? or for some other reason?

I would think it would cause a lot of problems if you have a mortgage and for insurance purposes too. Definately needs discussing with the solicitor, maybe you could ask for property to be vacant day before completion?

Thank you.

I'd rather not second guess the occupants/vendors motivation because it could only be a guess. The problem here is that its an auction property; and I'm really a bit concerned about the facts you highlight, because should things go wrong due to finance complications and those things that one would insure for...as I think there is a possibilty of, I'm concerned we'd lose our deposit. There is, because of auction date, no real possibilty of delaying offer (unless they withdraw from market to sort it out) and the time for completion is 28 days. I'm not confident thats enough to resolve the problem.

Unfortunately the type of property isn't one that is likely to come up again in this area soon, and we are considering the stress of things going wrong, and we expect it to not be smooth, with the fact that this could be pretty good opportunity for us.:o

mlz1413

I'm not familiar with auction buying, but I would have assumed an auctioned property have to be empty, due as you point out to the tight time lines.

I'd ask the auction house what safe guards there are for such situations.

Good Luck as well, I went to my first car auction last week to bid as my car died on the way to work and I needed a replacement asap, very scarey stuff putting your arm up for the first time and that wasn't life changing sums of money!

GDB2222

I bought a house about 15 years ago where I was not 100% certain that the vendors would move out, as they were reluctant sellers. I simply went round, checked they had loaded their stuff in a removal van, and telephoned my solicitor to say it was ok to complete. By far and away the best house we ever owned, but DW didn't like it, so we moved again after just a year.

pawpurrs

In that particular case they did move after a couple of weeks, after being threatned with legal action.
I had another case of a house that was left in a will to some daughters, the man who owned the house, had his mistress living there and she had occupancy untill her death, the problem was when she died her daughter refused to leave, and claimed squatters rights. The daughters of the old man wanted her out so that they could sell, but she made it extremley difficult, in fact it went on for years. She was very clever and actually purchased the land somehow up to the property and said she would not allow access to the house. It took years of legal battles........and made the house basically worthless.
I have many other cases, that I have dealt with, so if you dont want to publish the exact senario, and want to pm me feel free, more than happy if I can help.
If its going to auction because of sitting tennants,
have a read here http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/investment/article736331.ece

It would be wise to meet the tenants befor bidding and seeing if you can do a deal with them, if you really want this property, and because of the issues with vacant possession, you can pick it up cheap, then it could be worth your while paying off the tennants, or even buying them a small house.