Previous owner appealing reposession after I've exchanged contracts!

vivatifosi

Interesting point 're your being responsible for the service charge. It may be worth going back to solicitor and challenging this and asking to show you how it works. This will be very much down to the wording of the deeds, which hopefully your solicitor will know.

I am a director of a Residents Management Company and we've had this issue with repossessions. In those incidents under our deeds the payments need to be up to date before the house could be sold and the bank made that payment rather than the new purchaser.

Additionally, I would check if there are any restrictive covenants on the property that affect you. If your solicitor hadn't noticed that there was a service charge then I'm afraid that they probably didn't notice these either. Some covenants aren't enforced, but it is still better to know about them.

princeofpounds

I'm VERY disencouraged by your own solicitor's opinion on this situation.

It sounds to me like they are either uncomfortable handling a failure to complete situation against the bank (probably because they are on their panel or afraid of their lawyers of something), or they simply want an easy life.

To simply advise you to roll over and accept a three month (minimum!) delay when you have exchanged contracts is not really great advice. You are in a position of huge power here.

I'm not a solicitor, so maybe there are good legal reasons for being so flexible, but I really doubt they are coming from any such position given that they seem unable to give you basic legal advice about your alternatives.

You need to do a bit of reading and maybe be more insistent about getting advice; it's what you are paying them for.

If completion is not delivered, then the process starts off with serving a notice to complete and you move on from there.

Jenniefour

Your solicitor has not done his job properly in any event. The issue concerning service charges and possibly other matters, is entirely unconnected to the issue with bank. Try and make sure he gets this done now, before completion. He needs to ascertain how much the service charges are, when they are to be paid, are there are major repairs planned for the near future and is there a sinking fund to cover repairs and so on.

You say you are buying freehold - I am taking it that you are buying a flat with a share of the freehold where the flat owners have joint ownership of the freehold, probably through a company set up for that purpose, and manage the building themselves. So you are going to need a share certificate as well. You may not know this, and there is no reason at all why you should, but your solicitor is being paid to get all these things in place and advise you accordingly.

Your solicitor is clearly not up to the job of conveyancing (for which you can take out a complaint afterwards, if you wish) so I would be reluctant, as princeofpounds has pointed out, to trust any advice concerning the repossession offered by him.

Wishing you all the best with this, OP, and hoping you are in your new home soon.

All the best, OP, and hope you're in you new home soon.

moneyistooshorttomention

Personally, I'm focusing on the fact that you used the word "asked" and not the word "told" or "informed".

If I was "asked" to choose one of two options, then I'd say "I note your request, but I don't wish to grant your REQUEST, so I wont".

If they've TOLD you you MUST choose one of those two options, then you have to do so.

So, is the word "asked" what they actually used? In which case...surely you can refuse the "request".

So "Dear Bank...I note your REQUEST....but I am not prepared to agree with this request. Both options you present are unacceptable to me and I insist the contract we have made is adhered to" (with a hint of a threat to head off to the newspapers if they try to force you into choosing an option).

xylophone

I exchanged contracts on my first home a few days ago. It was a repossessed property so I'm buying it from a bank. Our completion date is next week.
Yesterday my solicitor called and told me the registered owner has lodged an application at the County Court challenging the bank's entitlement to possession of the property. So the bank will be unable to complete on the agreed date.

Presumably the bank had obtained an outright possession order from the court?
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repossession/going_to_court/what_the_court_can_do#outright_possession_order

How could the bank's solicitor have agreed to exchange if he was uncertain whether his client had the legal right to sell?

Can you not sue for "specific performance' of the contract?

A poster called Richard Webster might be prepared to comment - try a PM? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64686837#Comment_64686837

pimento

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I hope that you will "name and shame" the solicitor in question.

Quite! I'd probably be asking to see a copy of your solicitor's qualifications. Blimey!

silvercar

How could the bank's solicitor have agreed to exchange if he was uncertain whether his client had the legal right to sell?

Assuming the bank employs competent solicitors, the course of events probably went:

1. bank repossesses
2. bank exchanges contract on sale of property with OP
3. previous owner files to have repossession over turned
4. bank's solicitor decides to test the water on overturning contract.

Thrugelmir

silvercar wrote: »

Assuming the bank employs competent solicitors, the course of events probably went:

1. bank repossesses
2. bank exchanges contract on sale of property with OP
3. previous owner files to have repossession over turned
[STRIKE]4. bank's solicitor decides to test the water on overturning contract.[/STRIKE]

4. Banks solicitor is unable to complete exchange pending outcome of court case.

jamesd

Will you suffer any loss as a result of not being able to complete on time? Say paying more in rent than you'd pay in mortgage costs or having to make a new mortgage application with associated costs?

Since you're a first time buyer this paragraph won't really apply to you, just including it so you know how this part works. Are you part of a chain where you have exchanged on a sale and failure to complete your sale would cause you to become liable for the costs of all others in the chain who are waiting for you? If you are, don't delay, tell the lender who can't complete that you want them to pay for temporary accommodation of comparable quality.

Ask your solicitor to explain the "notice to complete" process. A seller who is not able to complete on time after exchanging contracts becomes liable for the losses incurred by the buyer. If standard forms were used there should be a provision in the sale contract which covers this process.

Naturally the selling lender will want to get you to agree to a delay at no cost to them if they can manage to do that.

You don't have to rescind the contract or accept a delay at no cost to them, particularly if you have real costs and losses that you will incur. You can instead have your solicitor tell them that you intend to serve a notice to complete and expect them to bear all of your additional costs as a result of their delay in completing.

If you are willing to delay, put together an initial estimate of your losses and ask them to pay that initially, with more based on whatever your eventual losses turn out to be.

One thing you may not be able to do in this situation is seek specific performance, because the lender may be prohibited from selling - may be because I don't know if they are at this point or not - an appeal may not be something that frustrates the contract with then not having liability.

However, the bank may have used a contract form that provides them with some protection in this case. Your solicitor would have to advise you about that. Use some caution with this reply because there are some specific cases where the notice to complete process doesn't apply.

Besides all that, since you have exchanged contracts you can expect that somehow you will get the property at the agreed price.

FirstTimeBuyer99

Thank you. It's a freehold house, but was previously owned by the local authority. The service charge is annual, and I guess it is just for upkeep of some small bits of green around the estate.
Thank you for your help.