Buying a repossession - missed deadline

tfidonnie

Hi,

I realise there are existing repossession threads, so apologies if this should have been in one of those.

Our 28 day deadline was Friday. This has been missed due to the sale of our current property dragging on. We have now been told that our buyers won't be ready for the revised exchange / completion date of this week. So we now have to go back to the EA and tell them we're going to miss it again.

The hold up seems to be that everyone is trying to avoid paying stamp duty and so there is a backlog at the mortgage company and / or the solicitors because of this.

I'm hoping the lenders selling the property can relate to this and will understand.

In terms of the purchase and sale we have done absolutely everything we can. Everything signed. Mortgage application approved and signed. We're just waiting.

The two concerns are either the lenders pulling the plug and putting it to auction (or something else) or someone else coming in with another bid.

Has anyone else been in this position? I just don't know how to judge the situation and how to handle the lenders that are selling or what we can expect from them / what they will do.

Thanks in advance.

inmypocketnottheirs

Communication is the key here. Have you informed the selling agents?

tfidonnie

Sorry - by selling agent do you mean who we are buying from or selling through?

We have informed the lender's solicitor tonight that we will miss it, stating the reasons why.

Our flat is a shared ownership, so whilst the housing association is technically the agent, they don't really have much to do with it so we have been communicating directly with the buyer and attempting and trying to get everyone chasing.

The EA knows how much we want the house and that all our paperwork on both sides is done.

G_M

You are concerned about losing your (repossession) purchase. So communicate with the seller (bank?) or their agents!

But the deadlines are symbolic. If you are close to Exchange the bank is unlikely to pull the plug (though you could still be gazumped!)

littlemonkeywolf

Same postition as myself then. However im onto week 7 of the drama... and still waiting for exchange so well over the 28 day deadline. So far no problems with the delay.. but its the dred of the phone ringing and saying something like better offer, auction etc even though unlikely it still crosses your mind.
We have been told its fine that it has run over as the delay isnt from our side... but still nervous wreck and want that message to say exchange complete... however its still likely to be a couple of weeks thanks to Countrywide.:mad:

So hang in there and keep strong!

sonastin

The deadline is to make sure you pull out all the stops to get the purchase through. Provided you let the mortgagee know that you are doing everything you can to be in a position to exchange instead of sitting on your hands waiting, and providing they don't have any realistic prospects of selling to anyone else for a higher price before you are ready to buy, they'll still sell it to you.

Auction is a big risk for the lender as they might not (read probably won't) make a good price for the house. If they pull out of selling to you without strong justification and don't achieve an offer as high as yours in the auction, the guy who was repossessed can challenge their decisions as they haven't done all they can to mitigate his debt.

So just make sure they know you're working on it by telling the EA you're buying from and getting your solicitor to tell their solicitor. Unless another buyer comes along with a higher offer or your sale falls through completely and you have to go back on the market, you should be OK.

To give you a little comfort, I was given a 21 day deadline. Took me about 25 days to be ready to buy. Last minute hold up on the lender's side stopped exchange from happening and the whole thing ended up taking 9 months to resolve!

tfidonnie

Thanks for the replies - much appreciated. My concern about auction comes from the fact that the end of the financial year is approaching and they may want it completely off their books before then. They may not make as much, but then at least they would have got rid of it.

Does anyone know how long it takes them to get a property to auction?

G_M: We sent a long email to the EA yesterday explaining the situation, saying that we have done everything we can do on both the sale and the purchase, but continue to chase our solicitors and the buyer (who is trying to get it done asap). We have also asked if they have any suggestions on how we culd speed things up, just so we look pro-active.

littlemonkeywolf: Thanks for the post. When you say the delay isn't from your side, do you mean it's from the seller's side, or from someone buying your place that is causing a hold up?

sonastin: As above, we have given them a long email to the EA. We're not too concerned about someone coming in at a higher offer. Although it's entirely possible this could happen (the property is in a very popular location) we offered £4k below the asking price and there is a hell of a lot of work to do on it, so I think that has, and will continue to, put a lot of other people off.

Thanks again all. It's been an incredibly stressful couple of months and I don't want to be doing this again anytime soon! We're desperate for this house, it's a perfect fit for us. But obviously banks don't think like that!

littlemonkeywolf

There is something wrong with the current title deeds according to our solicitors. Not really sure what but at some point some form was filled in wrong from the sellers side. However we still have no news if this has been sorted. We viewed the house again last night and the estate Agent had no idea what was going on and the owner who is still living there (voluntary repo) had no idea as its nothing to do with him now so still clueless and noone has had any answers today.

I so agree with you about not wanting to do it anytime again soon. Just lucky for us I guess is that it is under the stamp duty price so not got that deadline to meet also.