Help - first time buyer - ready to exchange and trustee in bankruptcy hike the price

BitterAndTwisted

You should be able to download the deeds from the Land Registry site for four quid. I'd be surprised, nay shocked, if your solicitor hasn't done this. Depends on what you've instructed them to do and how far along they are with it considering the situation is currently so uncertain.

Helen_J_3

silvercar wrote: »

There is a phrase and I've no legal background so can't recall it, but what your solicitor needs to do is to ask the seller's solicitor to guarantee the completion. That means that the other solicitor is prepared to put his head on the block for completion to happen.

An undertaking? If the seller's solicitor has his/her head screwed on I'd imagine they'd only undertake to ensure completion if it were totally in their own control. From reading this thread it seems it is the lenders who are delaying things so I don't think the solicitor would be prepared to do this?

silvercar

Helen_J wrote: »

An undertaking? If the seller's solicitor has his/her head screwed on I'd imagine they'd only undertake to ensure completion if it were totally in their own control. From reading this thread it seems it is the lenders who are delaying things so I don't think the solicitor would be prepared to do this?

The seller's solicitor shouldn't exchange until he has in writing from all parties that the sale can proceed. This is normal practice and I'm sure he wouldn't do so. In this case there is the seller, the trustee, the mortgage lender, the secured loan lender. Now if the seller exchanged on the basis that the solicitor advised that it was safe to do so ie he had agreement from all the other parties and then something went wrong, ordinarily the buyer would be able to sue the seller for breach of contract. Except here we know that the seller is trying to play games and that the seller is bankrupt. The seller has no money so no point suing. The solicitor would be acting in good faith in advising the seller to exchange and should be prepared to underwrite this. (In any case he has professional indemnity insurance if things go wrong). So I would be wary if the solicitor wasn't prepared to put his name to it.

When we bought a few years ago, we encountered a bit of a legal wrangle in that charges were put on the house while it was on the market we also suspected that the seller was in financial difficulty; our solicitor requested that the seller's solicitor give an undertaking and they did.

bouncing_bubbles

Hi thanks for all your replys.

Can i just check what:
ORs interest in the property means?

I havnt heard from EA since friday - dispite being promissed redemption figures. Has anyone got any ideas to move this forward? I will call solictors and ask them to check land registry docs, but then what?

Thrugelmir

silvercar wrote: »

The solicitor would be acting in good faith in advising the seller to exchange and should be prepared to underwrite this.

The solicitor is equally acting for the lender. So should not underwrite anything without complete certainty.

Yorkie1

bouncing_bubbles wrote: »

Hi thanks for all your replys.

Can i just check what:
ORs interest in the property means?

I havnt heard from EA since friday - dispite being promissed redemption figures. Has anyone got any ideas to move this forward? I will call solictors and ask them to check land registry docs, but then what?

OR is usually the Official Receiver in the context of bankruptcy

silvercar

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The solicitor is equally acting for the lender. So should not underwrite anything without complete certainty.

Exactly. It is an added measure of security. If the solicitor is not prepared to take responsibility for the seller completing, then they shouldn't be doing it.

Remember the seller has no money, so no point pursuing the seller for damages should they exchange and not be able to complete. By "not be able to complete" I mean that a charge won't be removed so they can't pas clear title to the buyer.

silvercar

bouncing_bubbles wrote: »

Hi thanks for all your replys.

Can i just check what:
ORs interest in the property means?

I havnt heard from EA since friday - dispite being promissed redemption figures. Has anyone got any ideas to move this forward? I will call solictors and ask them to check land registry docs, but then what?

When bankrupt the OR takes control of the equity in the property that is not covered by the mortgage. This is not a fixed amount but varies depending on the value of the property and the size of the outstanding mortgage. Often this is negative if the mortgage is larger than the property value. In these cases the OR often offers it back to the bankrupt, usually for the cost of the legal work in doing the transfer. If there is a chance that the property will increase in value then the OR won't deal with the buy back so quickly.

Until the property has been bought back by the bankrupt or sold, the OR has an interest in the property and has to be consulted (or a trustee appointed by the OR) for a sale to go ahead.

However frustrating this is for you, you won't have that much influence over the speed of the transaction. The EA probably hasn't got in touch because they have nothing to tell you.:(

bouncing_bubbles

Thanks everyone.

I think fate maybe trying to tell me something and that thing is to cut my losses and run, save up a bit more (while living at home with mum) and keep my eyes open.

I feel gutted that it hasnt come off and soo annoyed about being £1600 ligher yet having nothing to show for it. I work damm hard and live as cheeply as possible - why is conveyancing law so week?