Previous Owners in Negative Equity

pcd87

Hi There,

We put our formal offer in back in Feb.

Our solicitors have called us today to say the previous owners are in negative equity and need to sort this out before they formally accept?

Where do we stand now? Will this just delay things? We are in Scotland.

Any advice is appreciated.

thanks

amnblog

The vendors will need to liaise with their lender. Nothing you can do about it one way or the other.

Yes it could delay matters.

pcd87

would they maybe have to reject our offer on this basis?

Keekles

In simple terms, it's very likely to delay things and may even be a reason not to exchange / complete.

Assuming your offer isn't enough to cover the current vendor's debt to their lender, they will either have to find additional funds to pay back the lender (and if they have this arranged, it shouldn't cause a delay necessarily) or you might find they'll be holding out for a higher offer.

pcd87

Yeahh! We put our offer in back and February and our solicitors still havent received their formal acceptance, which is worrying me as its now almost april and if they knew they had it covered why arent they formally accepting our offer?

I guess these things never go smoothly eh?

pcd87

Just been advised by our solicitors due to the mess the other owners are in we should back away! So back to the drawing board and looking at new houses!

thanks for all the advice above.

amnblog

will they want another set of fees?