House sale possibly fallen through?

Annisele

darlopaul wrote: »

The vendor has said he is struggling to get a redemption figure from his lender due to him having a chain of properties that he owns and the bank are being difficult. I can only assume because the property is being sold 15,000 less then he paid. 5 years ago and maybe he's borrowed more on the house then the sale price.

It sounds to me as though the vendor might have one loan secured on multiple properties. If that's the case, he doesn't technically need a redemption figure, because he isn't repaying the whole loan - he'd want a release of property figure instead.

If that's right, he'll need to ask the lender how much it wants to release this particular property. That might well depend on how much the lender thinks his other properties are worth - and the lender probably isn't obliged to give a release of property figure that's less than the entire loan.

I think that right now both your solicitor and your vendor's solicitor are pretty upset with their clients! Anything you say to anybody involved from now on must go through your solicitor - the situation is already very messy, but it could get much worse. If you haven't already, you should also tell your solicitor what you've done in terms of gutting the house.

Thrugelmir

Annisele wrote: »

It sounds to me as though the vendor might have one loan secured on multiple properties. If that's the case, he doesn't technically need a redemption figure, because he isn't repaying the whole loan - he'd want a release of property figure instead.

If that's right, he'll need to ask the lender how much it wants to release this particular property. That might well depend on how much the lender thinks his other properties are worth - and the lender probably isn't obliged to give a release of property figure that's less than the entire loan.

Or that the vendor is attempting to dispose of a property within the portfolio that has equity.

dancingfairy

It sounds like a complete mess.
One of the solicitors seems to have messed up somehow.
Unfortunately from here we can only guess whether your solicitor has messed up by realeasing keys to you when you hadn't actually completed or whether your solicitor completed and the other solicitor has messed up.
You don't have the keys to the house so can't do any more work/damage on that front at the moment. At the moment from the information we have to go on, it's not actually clear whether the house technically belongs to you or not.
As said, the only person who can actually tell you is your solicitor.
I hope you can get this sorted soon.
df

cwcw

G_M wrote: »

My suspicion isoneof these. Either

1) Completion took place but the seller's solicitor messed up and the seller now can't pay off his mortgage

or

2) Completion did not take place and the OP messed up by gutting the house before owning it

OP stated the seller works for the estate agent selling the property. OP also stated the house was a wreck. Is another possibility that the seller had no intention of selling but wanted someone gullible enough to renovate his house for free by releasing the keys, waiting for buyer to do some work, and then claiming them back again, all via his mate in the estate agents office? Sounds to me OP's solicitor doesn't know much about the alleged completion which adds more weight to the theory. Far fetched maybe, but I've read stranger things that have happened on this very forum! OP should deal with this through his solicitor in any case.

kingstreet

It's hard to see what the OP has done wrong here.

He has paid his total purchase monies to his solicitor.

He has been provided with keys to the property, so someone else obviously believes completion took place.

He has begun to alter what he believes is his property.

The vendor's solicitor gives an undertaking to the purchaser's solicitor that the property will have unencumbered title on completion day. I suspect the vendor's solicitor has not completely investigated the encumbrances, leaving the OP in a situation where he now owns a property with someone else's mortgage still in situ.

The two solicitors need to sort this out between them. One made a promise to the other and the other accepted it. The promise now appears to have been broken.

If I were the OP I would want to know the whereabouts of my money.

dancingfairy

If you suspect your solicitor is at fault then you may need to get a new solicitor to investigate and find out what's going on.
Oh I agree with Kingstreet, it doesn't seem to be anything that the OP has done wrong (apart from clarify that he had actually completed, but being a first time buyer it wouldn't be unreasonable to accept the keys and think you have actually bought the house).
df

cootuk

The keys may have been handed over on the understanding that the OP needed to measure up and get quotes for work. The seller may have expected the keys back.

I_have_spoken

OP, there's been a run of bizarre 'bad luck' of late, just look at HELP Vendor Pulling Out After Exchange of Contract and Our Own solicitor Quit and Survey failed to find major fault. What can I do?.

You should form a self-help group.

Halle71

I_have_spoken wrote: »

OP, there's been a run of bizarre 'bad luck' of late, just look at HELP Vendor Pulling Out After Exchange of Contract and Our Own solicitor Quit and Survey failed to find major fault. What can I do?.

You should form a self-help group.

Hmmm. That's what I was thinking.
Certainly the two exchange/not complete cases seem remarkably similar and the OPs fail to answer some simple and direct lines of questioning and are on here instead of talking to (new?) solicitors.
Apologies if I am wrong.

Halle71

Why didn't the OP call his solicitor yesterday and come back with the conclusion?