Buying repossessed house advice needed

Saiqaslam

I want to buy a respossessed house but the estate agent is only selling the house but not the garage. They have told me that the garage was not repossessed? So the bank cannot sell the garage only the house. The garage is about 500 yards from the house. They cannot locate the vendor for us to buy the garage separately either. I thought garage would be on the deeds so should automatically be for sale with the house? Garage was built same time as house and was bought originally with the house. What can I do to get round this as I would like the garage as well.

Tixy

Have your, or your solicitor, checked that the garage is not part of the title plan of the main house?

If the bank is only selling the house then that is what you can buy (or make an offer on).

If you can find the owner of the garage then you could separately try to negotiate to buy that as well.

G_M

If the garage is included on the Title of the property which has been repossessed, you will be buying both.

If the garage is on a seperate Title, and this has not also been repossessed, then the seller (the bank) does not have the power to sell it.

Only the registered owner can sell.

Check the titles!

Saiqaslam

Im getting titles checked but if garage is on separate titles how would I find the owner to purchase it? Estate agents dont have any contacy details at all.

Also does it make a difference that property is leasehold?

Tassotti

Saiqaslam wrote: »

Im getting titles checked but if garage is on separate titles how would I find the owner to purchase it? Estate agents dont have any contacy details at all.

Also does it make a difference that property is leasehold?

Land Registry

stator

Being a leasehold you will see both the freehold and leasehold listed on the land registry website, so it does make it a bit more complicated. If you use the land registry map tool you should be able to find the garage too.
Worst case scenario is that the owner of the garage is listed at the address of the respossessed house and so you can't find them.
If the garage is also leasehold you could also contact the freehold owner and see if they have an address.

Land_Registry

The class of title won't make any difference re the sale process but you may find that the property is leasehold and the garage freehold - rare but not unusual in some areas I suspect.

If the garage is registered separately and not under the same mortgage then it would not be part of the repossession. The owner of the property may of course have acquired both at separate times and not included the garage in the mortgage or they may have just rented the garage from someone else.

As others have mentioned though you can usually check online although pinpointing the garage accurately may be tricky and you have to go the postal route of a search of the index map - both are explained in our online guidance

davidmcn

Saiqaslam wrote: »

Im getting titles checked but if garage is on separate titles how would I find the owner to purchase it?

Try sticking a notice on the garage door?

Otherwise you could try instructing tracing agents.

The bank might know where their customer has gone but they won't give out details.

martindow

500 yards is a long way from the house to have a garage. I would be inclined to look for one that is closer.

Saiqaslam

Sorry 50 yards; probably less. It's basically right behind the house rather than next to it. The houses were built in 2005 and the garages were sold with the houses (I rented in that street a few years ago so know the layout and some of the neighbours...just not that one!)....the deeds that the bank have only state the house hence they can only sell the house (estate agent told me today). I am still waiting to see then legal pack and title deeds.

stator

You can just pay £3 and see the map for yourself on the land registry website. If the property is registered online then the land registry documents overrule the deeds anyway.