Repo Question

casterweb

Hi All

I've been browsing through rightmove and spotted a house that looks ideal but has been sold subject to contract.

Reading through the description, the standard repossession statement appears "Public Notice - we are acting for the mortgagees and have received an offer of £XXX" etc. This statement appeared in early July 2012.

As I understand things, a repossessed property remains on the market (and open to offers) right up to exchange of contracts - so why have the estate agents put a sold STC on rightmove? Surely it's not sold as offers can still be made.

eddddy

casterweb wrote: »

Hi All

As I understand things, a repossessed property remains on the market (and open to offers) right up to exchange of contracts - so why have the estate agents put a sold STC on rightmove? Surely it's not sold as offers can still be made.

Rightmove provide their defintion of Sold STC here: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/stc.html


But... the legal notice is meant to protect the person whose had their repossed. I suspect the EA and mortgage co see it as an irritation.

For example, if an offer of £100k has been accepted, then someone else offers £101k two weeks later: the EA has to do more work, and wait an extra 2 weeks for their fee. Similarly, the mortgage co lawyers have to repeat a chunck of work.

(The extra commission the EA gets, if any, on an extra £1k, won't make this worth their while.)

So you may find that some EAs are unenthusiastic about letting you view repos that are sold stc - unless the sale is already looking risky.

(I'd be interested in any comments from EAs who might disagree with my opinion...)

casterweb

Thanks for the reply.

I'm going to go for a look around the outside of the property (it's empty), and if it's ok, may contact the EA and ask if if they are still prepared to do a viewing even though it's STC.

Theoretically the should still do this, as they should be trying to get the best possible offer for their corporate client (repo company) right up to exchange of contracts. I won't be surprised if they use every excuse in the book not to though.