Slow Repossession Purchase

Emily_Repo

Hello, I'm a FTB and I'm going through a very frustrating repossession purchase which I'm hoping someone can help me with!

My partner and I had an offer accepted on the house on 7th August and were told we had 28 days to exchange and complete i.e. by 4th September. Our solicitor worked really hard and we did all we could our side so we were ready by late August to move in. Our problem is that the repossession's solicitor has been really slow about the whole thing and we have still not moved in even though our deadline was 3.5 weeks ago, and we have no idea what our move in date will be!

There is currently an outstanding issue that only the reposession solicitor can resolve regarding informing the land registry of a change of contract (bit complicated to explain, but it was originally a council house managed by Martlett Homes. Martlett homes sold it to the person who is repossessed 5 years ago and they had a contract with each other. This contract will no longer apply to me but the land registry needs confirmation of this. Or something like that!). Our solicitor has informed us that until this issue is resolved, the repo cannot be sold to anyone.

My question is, do we have a case for getting a reduction in price on the property? The main reason we offered the amount we did was because we thought it would be a quicker sale than if we bought a 'normal' house. We're lucky that we didn't hand in our notice on our rented property, otherwise we would be homeless by now!

Has anyone been through a similar thing before, or have any advice?!

Thanks in advance for your help!

clutton_2

some conveyancing takes 6 months - you are astonishingly lucky to be this close to completion this soon - why would you want compo ????

Emily_Repo

Hi, I'm aware that lots of houses take months to complete, but this is a repossession and it was stipulated that we only have 28 days for completion. We got everything done within 21 days, yet they have not done their part and haven't seemed like they're in any hurry to sort it out soon. I thought banks wanted repossessions to be dealt with quickly!

mistrihelen

I understand your panic. We recently had an offer accepted on a repossessed house and were eager to adhere to the 28-day deadline. Problem was, there were some tricky issues with the deeds that the repo solicitors were slow in dealing with.

But as it was their slowness, there was no pressure on us re. the 28 days. It'll probably be the same for you.

However, I doubt you can ask for a lower price - any house purchase can take longer than you expect and as it's a repo it'll still be on the market, which means if you want to go lower, they might find another buyer.

In my case, the legal stuff dragged on for so long that we were gazumped seven weeks into the process. It would've been a bargain if we got it, so I don't totally regret pursuing the house, but now I wouldn't go for another repossession, simply because there's no guarantees that the sale will go quick or that they'll get taken off the market.

In this case though, you haven't been gazumped and you've done everything you could. I'm sure the bank will not be frustrated with you. But in the meantime, you have to weigh up your frustration with them. If it's worth hanging on longer, do so. You could look for another house, but of course then you'd have to start the process all over again.

It's a good thing you didn't end your rental contract. Having gone through a house purchase that didn't work out, I am glad we never ended our contract the first time around - or we'd be on the streets!

togarama

We're in a similar situation - FTBs buying a repo with a supposed 28 day deadline.

Like you, we got everything sorted well within this time but the repo company solicitors took 2.5 weeks to even contact my solicitors and my own solicitors are not inspiring me with confidence in their speed or competence. The only person pushing this is me.

The deadline passed last week but everything is still just trundling along.

Unlike you, we did give notice and are due to move out of here in 3 weeks time. We do have a Plan B and Plan C but I'd rather have Plan A of being able to move into the property we're in the process of buying.

Good luck!

magicthise

We are in a very similar situation too. We had an offer on a repo accepted, then we were outbid by an investor, so we had to pony up another 10 grand. We paid the deposit to our solicitors on Monday and were told we would be exchanging that afternoon. We are still waiting. Our solicitor, it turns out has no particular sense of urgency and just says she has tried to contact the vendors solicitors a couple of times, but had no response from them.
In the meantime, the investor is still poking around and we are expecting them to come back with an even higher offer, which we won't be able to match.

To complicate everything else, my partner is in a wheelchair, and it has taken nearly three years to find a suitable house that can be adapted to our needs in the area we need to be in, so for us this is a really big deal.

It is incredibly frustrating.

jhe

hi magicthise. we have just exchanged this week. we were given the 28 days to complete but because of various probs it took around 7 weeks. we were given dates to exchange and our solicitor was unable to contact the vendors solicitor on the due day of exchange, turned out the vendors solicitor was to busy to deal with it on the agreed exchange date. i contacted the estate agent who in turn contacted the vendors to find out what was happening, the vendors contacted their solicitors and exchange went ahead late the next working day.

Person_one

Count me as another in a similar position. Our 28 day deadline was originally the 12th October and still no exchange. The management company handling the sale for the owners keep very generously "extending their deadline" which makes me laugh as we've been ready since day 25 and its them holding things up!

I now believe that the 28 day deadline you hear about for repossessions is really just to weed out the buyers who have something to sell, don't have funds in place etc and is nothing to do with the actual length of time it takes to complete.

jhe

person-one ithink the vendor is willing to extend the deadlines if they can see some progress on your side. if its the vendors solicitor holding things up try getting the estate agents to contact the vendors to gee things up, it seemed to work for us. i think repos are a nightmare to be involved with, the vendors call all the shots if and when it suits. good luck hope you get things sorted.

johnson293

Our repo purchase also took 7 weeks, despite the 28 day 'deadline'.

My side was also ready at/around the 28 day mark, but our hold ups were being caused by the buyers of my house - the husband worked away and they were not sorting their paperwork quick enough.

Anyway, luckily we didn't have any higher offers come in on the repo, so the vendor/management company were happy to keep extending the deadline, as I/my solicitors had done everything we could to exchange around 28 days.

That seems to be the case generally - as long as you (the buyer) are proceeding and getting stuff sorted, the vendors seem happy enough if it passes the 28 days, as long as you keep them informed of the progress and of any potential hold ups.

Emily_Repo

It seems very common for the sellers to take longer than the 28 day 'deadline' then! It's been 10.5 weeks for me now, but I've been assured we will exchange and complete within the week. I've heard that before though!

Good luck to anyone having problems with repos at the moment. I'm sure it will all work out eventually and we'll forget about the stress and frustrations!