My sisters mortgage hell

Lookingforanswers

Hello all,

I am looking for guidance or advice on the situation my sister is currently facing with regards to her mortgage. My sister decided last year that she needed to move home as her two children are sharing a room and are currently in their teens, so space is an issue at present. She found a house and had a mortgage agreed in principal along with a £6000 retention after the survey was done for the bank.

Now the problem is this - The current owner of the property has now found out that there is a mortgage amount of £850 outstanding on the property from the previous owners to them, also the mortgage offer has been extended twice and is set to run out on 07/8/15 and there is not enough time to have the works carried out and to get it checked off so that the retention may be lifted! this means she now has to re-apply for the mortgage and all other costs she has already laid out, which is in the thousands!

To top it all off, the buyer who is buying her house is now getting itchy feet, as well as her having to still pay the mortgage for the past 3 months.

The whole thing has physically and mentally exhausted my poor sister and any advice as to what to do next would be appreciated. I was hoping that even at this stage she may be able to get a reduction at this stage or if anyone else is liable for any further costs which may occur.

Thanks in advance

HappyMJ

Pull out and move on. There's other houses to buy. If the seller agrees to a reduction then continue if you wish but what if there is another delay...what if your sisters buyer pulls out. It's all going to turn messy so I'd just give up and move on.

Why has it taken 3 months so far? What you've said doesn't explain away 3 months.

Hoploz

Surely the only additional cost is the mortgage application fee? That can't be in the thousands?

If she pulls out and tries to buy another house then her solicitor will charge for the work so far on top of starting all over again on the new one, so she would be out of pocket.

The best thing to do is stick with it. I would think for the sake of £850 the seller could consider paying it off himself and getting this done. Or go halves or something? But to get it removed would probably only be a few weeks delay, so if everyone keeps their eye on the bigger picture, it should still come together. Try not to get bogged down in the detail, take some deep breaths and calm down. Which I realise is damned hard. But it's the right thing to do.

Lookingforanswers

Thanks for the response.
The reason it has took 3 months is because of a land registry issue. The current owner is selling on behalf of his mother who is in a care home and he has only applied for probate in the last 4 weeks. The whole thing has been a nightmare from the start

getmore4less

There is something very fishy with the story, looks like the "owner" may not have been all along.

Lookingforanswers wrote: »

Thanks for the response.
The reason it has took 3 months is because of a land registry issue. The current owner is selling on behalf of his mother who is in a care home and he has only applied for probate in the last 4 weeks. The whole thing has been a nightmare from the start

Not a land registry problem.

It's because the person selling the house does not own it.
(this should have come up very early and is a warning sign this could take ages)

You can't get probate for people that are still alive.

If there is no EPA/LPA in place this could take weeks to get the court of protection to approve a deputy.

IF the owner dies during the process then Probate will delay further.


£850 mortgage probably the mothers who still owns the place.

Hoploz

Yes, I was just going to say about the probate thing - perhaps the mother was in a care home, but has since died?

Not the seller's fault if this is the case. It could have been that the son was dealing with it for his mother but she was compus mentus and still able to make decisions and sign papers. I helped my mum sell her house in this way.

If she has since died it would of course take time to get probate. The seller would I'm sure still want to keep the deal together so will do his best. Minimum a few weeks / maximum as long as a piece of string - it depends how complex her affairs are.

Lookingforanswers

Getmore4less- The first owner of the property never registered the property and still owes £850 on a historic mortgage. They then sold the property to the lady now in a care home and her son is facilitating the sale. Her son has not applied for probate on her behalf until recently, which has lead to these delays. As well as dealing with 2 solicitors and 2 estate agents who are clearly not in any rush to notify of any development's, it has all added to this. Hopefully the helps you with you "Fishy" issue

Lookingforanswers

I forgot to add, the first owners have passed and they owe the outstanding mortgage, the father of the current owner has also passed away and the probate application is for him as his mother is in no fit state to deal with the sale. Both me and my sister have only been made aware of these issues the past month or so

chris_m

Who is the current owner?
At a guess, not the person who's trying to sell it. If probate hasn't been granted for his father's estate then I suspect that the current owner is either the father's estate or jointly between the father's estate and his widow. Either way, the "current owner" as you describe him is not the current owner at all but is acting for the real current owner and needs to follow the correct legal processes.
If there's a probate application pending AND from the sound of it involvement with the Office of the Public Guardian and/or Court of Protection to get Power of Attorney this could drag on for quite some time.
Personally, I'd be looking for another property.

dodger1

Lookingforanswers wrote: »

Now the problem is this - The current owner of the property has now found out that there is a mortgage amount of £850 outstanding on the property from the previous owners to them, also the mortgage offer has been extended twice and is set to run out on 07/8/15 and there is not enough time to have the works carried out and to get it checked off so that the retention may be lifted! this means she now has to re-apply for the mortgage and all other costs she has already laid out, which is in the thousands!

I don't get that bit, what have the "thousands" been spent on?

getmore4less

This should have been stopped early, as soon as it was clear the person selling did not have clear title, there should have been no more costs.