The ethics behind repossession

Running_Horse

It's hard, but with record low interest rates for a number of years, most repossessions will have been avoidable with careful planning. We could have borrowed a lot more for our last move, but chose a more modest home and have easily survived a couple of unexpected financial problems.

Red-Squirrel_2

My repossessed flat was owned by a BTL landlord who ended up with non paying tenants at the height of the financial crisis, and was in huge negative equity.

I feel bad for people who have their properties repossessed (more so if its their home rather than their investment, people who invest know there are risks) but I didn't do it to them. I didn't cause house prices to crash, or the economy to go t**s up, I didn't tell their tenants to stop paying rent.

Those people lost their properties long before any involvement from me, and I was a low paid single person who needed a secure place to live and a repo was a way for me to have that. Nobody would have benefitted from me not buying those places, and nobody was willing to pay any more than I could pay.

Its one of those things, it might feel a bit like you're benefitting from somebody else's misfortune, but a house/flat is not going to disappear just because its owner couldn't afford to pay for it, it will always need a new owner one way or another.

moneyistooshorttomention

A very difficult situation to be the buyer of such a property all round. I'm only too glad the situation never arose.

Personally, I would be wondering why it had happened to the previous owner - but I guess there is no way of knowing which of the following two basic scenarios it was:

a. People who were useless with money and forever overspending and were going to come to grief at some point somehow

OR

b. People who were good money managers and paid their mortgage promptly etc etc - but unemployment hit and went on too long and they weren't being given enough benefit to cover the payments and there was no way out.

I've only ever come across one person who has been repossessed and they were, quite definitely, in category a. They were totally useless with money/deliberately gave up paying the mortgage payments as normal/all round a very self-destructive person.

I didn't feel the slightest bit sorry for them - because it was clearly their own fault.

I would feel very sorry for someone in category b. - as that could happen to the best and most careful of people.

The truth is, though, that you aren't likely to ever find out which category they come in of those two.

Dird

AdrianC wrote: »

Because it's being sold by the lender, who has vacant possession of the property, whose sole aim is to get the maximum possible price, and will continue to actively markete it right up until the very last second before exchange of contract.

That doesn't really answer the question. Can I go into Lloyds and ask them if they have any houses for sale? I've not seen properties listed by Barclays on rightmove

Innys1

Dird wrote: »

That doesn't really answer the question. Can I go into Lloyds and ask them if they have any houses for sale? I've not seen properties listed by Barclays on rightmove

Barclays and Lloyds will appoint an estate agent to sell repos on their behalf.

silvercar

Difference between someone who comes along and finds a property they like that has been repossessed and one who goes round searching for repo's in the hope of getting a cheap deal and making a killing.

The latter are vultures feeding on carcases.

Dird

Innys1 wrote: »

Barclays and Lloyds will appoint an estate agent to sell repos on their behalf.

And do the EAs tend to say "repossessed" home or something?
Or is it one of the ones that says "received offer of £120k, get in best offer by July 10th"? I thought this was just an EA trying to gazump :f

Innys1

Dird wrote: »

And do the EAs tend to say "repossessed" home or something?
Or is it one of the ones that says "received offer of £120k, get in best offer by July 10th"? I thought this was just an EA trying to gazump :f

They aren't hard to find - look on Rightmove and repos are listed under the description tab

Old_Git

my first house was a 2 bed terrace .It just happened to be a repo .
The agent told me it was a repo ,If it hadn't have been I couldn't have afforded it .
The previous owners (a couple with a 3 year old ) had bought another house .I don't know how they did that . My sister in law knew the couple and they told her the child's bedroom was to small .No mention of it being a repo .

I viewed a repo two years ago .The agent had arranged block viewings .The missing fireplace was an indication it was a repo

Dird

Innys1 wrote: »

They aren't hard to find - look on Rightmove and repos are listed under the description tab

Either there's no repos in the West Midlands or I don't see it