repossessed house

Sparkpea

Last Tuesday I arranged to view a repo property for the second time and went to view it last Friday. When the Agent met me he said "you know an offer of 36k has been accepted?". I said no I didn't when was it accepted? He told me the previous week and I asked why his staff hadn't updated me about this and told me when I was booking the viewing appointment.

It seems the bank relucantly accepted 36k for this house after about 2wks of holding out - I was hoping to offer around 40k but the agent now won't even put my bid to the bank/lender who surely would want the higher bid?

My question is, is there anyway for me to find out who the builder/lender is so I can send them a letter whether its about my bid or a complaint as to why their agent didn't act in their better interest and put my bid to them etc. The agent wont tell me who the lender/bank is.

Cheers

jimpix12

Do you genuinely want to make the complaint in the hope that they sell to you instead, or just so that others can avoid the same disappointment in future?

Look at it from the other buyer's perspective... if someone came along and went straight to the lender after they'd had their bid accepted. They'd probably also write a letter of complaint!

RabbitMad

put your offer in for £40K and the EA has a duty to pass it on - if it is not accepted you could (to cause trouble) inform the mortgagor who will be able to use the information to reduce the amount they will end up owing the bank

Uk_Lover

I've had similar problems where a bid has been placed. What I was told was, if they are very close to completion (likely with a repo) the seller is unlikely to entertain another bid unless substantially more. But they should still put your bid in, probably one of the EA mates with the bid !

GAH

OP, From what you have written here we don't know the full story, but from the information you have provided, I would suggest doing this.

Put your offer in writing to the manager of the estate agency, also do a copy of the letter send to the director of the company as well.

The Estate agent has to pass on any offers to the assett management comapny/lender, even if other offers have been accepted.

It could well be the lender has told the agent we are happy and we don't want any other offers passed to us, which would be very unusal and especially if their is a potential to receive a higher offer.

£4,000 does not seem a huge amount of money in house buying, but in this case it is a 10% increase on previous offer.

You will probably find it very difficult to find out who the lender is, but if you want a shot at this property I would seriously suggest contacting a Director of the estate agency.

If you still think something fishy is going on, you could report the agent to the Property ombudsman. This won't help you secure the property though, but maybe help to uncover any foul play at the agency if that is what you suspect.

budgetdiyer

Seems very strange, with reposessions the mortgage company has a duty to achieve the highest possible price for the property.

Thats why you see adverts saying something like:

We are in receipt of an offer on 123 XYZ street, ANY TOWN of £XXXXXX any parties interested should contact us before exchange of contracts.

aralkaa

I've been in a very similar situation myself, only difference being that I'm up north in Scotland. I would think that a letter (recorded/signed for) is a way forward. Even better, if it's written by Your lawyer.
Because the offer has only been accepted recently they can't be close to completion, so cannot see why they wouldn't want to consider £40,000. Good luck!

eddddy

Hi Sparkpea

As others have said, if you put an offer in writing the agent will almost certainly put it forward. (He wouldn't risk being sued for the £4k loss, and losing all the future repo business, if he was found out.)

In your post, you seem to say that the EA turned up for the viewing, but then told you not to put in an offer. Did he ask you things like how much deposit you had, whether you have a mortgage arranged etc? Could it be your answers that worried the EA?

For example, the person offering £36k may be a developer with cash who can exchange within a couple of weeks (no survey etc), whereas perhaps you need a survey, mortgage etc - which takes longer, and introduces uncertainty. (Or even worse, you have a property to sell first.)

If this is the case, even if the EA puts your offer forward, the mortgagee might reject it for the same reasons.

Of course, there could be many other explanations as well!