Repossesed Transaction Gone Pearshaped.

gazza0210

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to run something by you guys here.

I was in the final stages of completing a reposessed house buy today when it all went pearshaped.

Once the estate agent was informed that the completion was on the cards in the next day or two he magically informed me of a potential offer :mad:. I phoned him later in the day and he said an offer had been made and accepted by the bank and they would be persueing the purchase with them.

After this had happened our solicitor was speaking with the banks solicitors who had agreed in the exchange of contracts within 48hours. They then phoned back a couple of minutes later and said "sorry we have had a better offer and we are going with them".

Can anyone advise whether I can persue the transaction as binding as the two solicitors had a verbal agreement in place to exchange contracts.

Obviously the last minute bid seems a bit fishy considering there was no interest in the property all the time through the process and as we are completing this bid materialises.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Gary

ILW

They have a duty to get the best price for the previous owner.

gazza0210

This I can understand but when an agreement is made between solicitors surely there is some code of conduct that would stop them from turning around and saying "by the way that agreement, It dont stand anymore".

Thanks for the reply by the way.

clockworks_2

Not with repossessions, their duty is to get the previous owner the best price.

sonastin

You're dealing with a business here, not an individual. Remember it will be less emotional on their side. Their obligation is to get the highest price possible as quickly as possible. The new offer is more than likely significantly higher if they are willing to risk a buyer ready to exchange for one who might not get to the finish line for some reason.

The agreement that you are talking about between the solicitors does exist but your transaction hadn't got there yet. Its comes into play most obviously in a chain when the first guy says "I'm ready to exchange if everyone else is" - that is then binding until they find out whether everyone else in the chain is ready too. Exchange sometime over the next 2 days isn't quite the same thing. If there are no other transactions in your chain, the "agreement" to exchange would only be binding when the solicitors are on the phone actually exchanging contracts.

gazza0210

Thanks for all the replies.

I was told the offer was 3k over what we had offered, we could beat this but the 3% stamp duty kicks in which prices us out of the deal but the new buyers completion would take 4/5 weeks and ours would be 48 hours. It dont make sense to me and obviously im very frustrated especially the way the bid magically appeared when we were finalising the deal.

I can appreciate that they are looking for the most for the property, its obviously emotions kicking in on my part due to the effort and expense that has been invested in trying purchase this property.

G_M

gazza0210 wrote: »

......

After this had happened our solicitor was speaking with the banks solicitors who had agreed in the exchange of contracts within 48hours. .....

Can anyone advise whether I can persue the transaction as binding as the two solicitors had a verbal agreement in place to exchange contracts.

Thanks.
Gary

The whole point about 'Exchange of Contracts' is that that is the point at which .... the contracts are exchanged. And become binding. Before then, nothing said by anyone - buyer, seller, solicitor, estate agent, mortgage lender, uncle Tom Cobbly - has any legal force.

Repossessions are notoriously stressful, and 'gazumping' is common.

Running_Horse

Instead of beating the other offer and paying stamp duty, why not match the offer and stress you are in a position to complete much quicker. Then at least you will know you did everything in your power to get this place.

gazza0210

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

The estate agent came back to me today saying match the offer and I would probably get the house as I am within hours of completing. Do you think this could just be another ploy to bump the house price up or does this sound a realistic idea. I understand that it does but dont know how the banks solicitors would see this.

If anyone has had any experience with this it would be great to hear from you.

poppysarah

Let the others have it. Plenty more houses about and more repos yet.

G_M

It might be a ploy but there is really no way to know.

Banks try to do two things: get the best price; sell as fast as possible. They balance these. Sometimes speed and reliability of sale is more important than a small difference in price (a bird in the hand is worth two....)