HELP? What to do. Bank robbed me!

1DOLLHAIR

OK long story short, i bought a house about 6 years ago at a good price, the lady selling it got a survey done and it stated that the house need lots of work and was of non standard construction. We agreed on a price and i bought the house. About a year later i get a letter to say that the old owner had gone bank-rupt and owed £1000s and that i ad bought the house too cheap. They carried out a survey and valuation which said the house was worth more than twice what i had paid for it. I was ordered to pay £37k or i would loose the house.

Now ive sort of sold the house and the new owners have got a survey done which states that the house is of non standard construction and is barley worth what i paid for it. This means that i have been forced by the bank and courts to pay more than i had to for the house just because the bank was owed money by the previous owner. Now i cleared their morgage but they had credit cards ect not sucured on the house.

This is destroying me, my family and my mariage! Ive 2 disabled kids and have lost my job, my life is a mess and im in a bad way so if theres nothing i can do be gental please but if theres hope please point me in the right direction.

Thanks for any help...

1DOLLHAIR

Any qs please work away, its late and im tired so the above mite not make alot of scence and my spelling sucks. Thanks guys

roonaldo

I don't quite understand, did you purchase the house through a housing association? or was the a normal private sale?
Have you spoken to the solicitor/ conveyancer for when you bought the house? Sounds like you should be suing them too.
When you bought it why did previous owner have survey done? usually you get your own one done

magpiecottage

I do not understand either.

If you bought the house from somebody who had legal title to it, for whatever price, her creditors ought not to have any claim against it unless some kind of fraud was involved to which you were a party.

Alternatively, your conveyancer/solicitor failed to transfer the title to you - in which case you should complain to them.

terryw

Who sent you the letter stating that the house was too cheap?

Which court was involved?

Who did you pay the additional £37000 to?

zzzLazyDaisy

1DOLLHAIR wrote: »

OK long story short, i bought a house about 6 years ago at a good price, the lady selling it got a survey done and it stated that the house need lots of work and was of non standard construction. We agreed on a price and i bought the house. About a year later i get a letter to say that the old owner had gone bank-rupt and owed £1000s and that i ad bought the house too cheap. They carried out a survey and valuation which said the house was worth more than twice what i had paid for it. I was ordered to pay £37k or i would loose the house.

Now ive sort of sold the house and the new owners have got a survey done which states that the house is of non standard construction and is barley worth what i paid for it. This means that i have been forced by the bank and courts to pay more than i had to for the house just because the bank was owed money by the previous owner. Now i cleared their morgage but they had credit cards ect not sucured on the house.

This is destroying me, my family and my mariage! Ive 2 disabled kids and have lost my job, my life is a mess and im in a bad way so if theres nothing i can do be gental please but if theres hope please point me in the right direction.

Thanks for any help...

This isn't just a 'non-standard construction' - it is a non-standard purchase!

There are a number of holes in your story and without the full facts, no-one is in a position to comment.

Firstly the seller doesn't get a survey done, it is the buyer. If you relied on the seller's survey, you have no come-back against the surveyor if the valuation was wrong.

What was your relationship to the seller? This does not sound like an 'arms length' purchase. I say this because you mention that you 'cleared their mortgage' but that they had other debts not secured on the house. This is information that would not be known to a normal buyer, and is irrelevant to a normal property sale. Also (and more importantly) the Official receiver cannot trace funds from an 'arms length' transfer of property, but they can trace funds if there was some element of deprivation of capital or transfer at an under value. It is not enough to 'clear the mortgage', you have to have paid full value for the house at the time.

You say that the OR valued the house at more than twice what you paid for it and you had to pay another £37k. So 6 years ago you paid around £37k for a house? Where in the UK could you buy a house in 2006 for around £37k at full value?

House prices have dropped significantly since 2006. The market value is likely to be less today than its market value in 2006, that is just market forces.

You haven't 'sort of sold' the house. You have had an offer on the house, and the buyer has had a survey done. Most lenders will not lend on a house of non-standard construction so if they need a mortgage they will drop out, as they are entitled to at any time up to exchange. You need to find a cash buyer if you wish to sell the property.

You are not giving us the full facts, so at this point it is impossible for anyone on here to help you.

EDIT: On this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3689465 you say you bought your house from the council last year and got it at a good price. In order to get a good discount you must have been living in the house for some time. So it seems that the house referred to in this thread was not your primary residence. Which leads me to think that you bought the house from the seller, for enough cash to pay off her mortgage, but that she continued living in the property, and subsequently went bankrupt. That scenario is a dead ringer for the OR investigating, and seeking to recover funds.

roonaldo

The OP's other posts indicate he/she is in Northern Ireland and bought the house on the Right to Buy.

Sorry just saw that Lazy Daisy said the same thing.

The post is entitled 'Bank robbed me'. But I dont think that is the case.

1DOLLHAIR

OK to answer, it wasnt bought from the council, that was my wifes house i was talking about that she bought from the council about 2 years ago now.
About 6 years ago i placed adds looking to buy a property needing work, i was contacted by a lady who was trying to re-morgage her property but could not get a new morgage as she was retired. When she tryed to re-morgage she got a survey carried out which stated all the faults with the house and that it was non standard construction so the banks would not lend her any more money. Her daughter was also part owner of the house. They wanted to rent a house so just wanted their morgage cleared which i agreed to as it seemed a fair price. All went a head, about a year later the daughter went bank-rupt and i recieved a letter from the trustees saying that they had carried out a survey (without my permission) and a valuation that said the house was worth twice what i had paid for it and that since the daughter had went bank-rupt i owed her creditors x amount. I contacted their surveyor and he assured me that the house was worth this amount and told me to settle or i would face prision! The house transaction was at "arms length"

Now the house is sale agreed but the new buyers have had a survey carried out....now saying the property is non standard construction and would never have been worth what i paid for it never mind twice the amount!

Hope this clears things up a little.

zzzLazyDaisy

1DOLLHAIR wrote: »

OK to answer, it wasnt bought from the council, that was my wifes house i was talking about that she bought from the council about 2 years ago now.
About 6 years ago i placed adds looking to buy a property needing work, i was contacted by a lady who was trying to re-morgage her property but could not get a new morgage as she was retired. When she tryed to re-morgage she got a survey carried out which stated all the faults with the house and that it was non standard construction so the banks would not lend her any more money. Her daughter was also part owner of the house. They wanted to rent a house so just wanted their morgage cleared which i agreed to as it seemed a fair price. All went a head, about a year later the daughter went bank-rupt and i recieved a letter from the trustees saying that they had carried out a survey (without my permission) and a valuation that said the house was worth twice what i had paid for it and that since the daughter had went bank-rupt i owed her creditors x amount. I contacted their surveyor and he assured me that the house was worth this amount and told me to settle or i would face prision! The house transaction was at "arms length"

Now the house is sale agreed but the new buyers have had a survey carried out....now saying the property is non standard construction and would never have been worth what i paid for it never mind twice the amount!

Hope this clears things up a little.

Yes, it clears things up.

It appears that you purchased the house for the price of the balance of the mortgage, and not for the full market value of the house AT THE TIME.

This is a sale at an undervalue. If this was a transaction at arms length (that is to say you were not associated or related to the seller) then provided you did not have notice of the sellers impending bankruptcy, the OR would not have the power to recover that money. As this was a purchase at a significant undervalue, your solicitor should have done a bankruptcy search against the seller as a matter of course, so this would have shown up. If the bankruptcy search was not done, you would still be deemed to know about this. These protections do not apply to buyers who are related to the seller in some way.

More information is available here

http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room/room/view_article.asp?name=../articles/9210-IXA-Property-Transactions-at-an-Undervalue.htm

I presume that you sought legal advice before handing over a lump of cash to the OR, so you should have been advised of your rights at the time.