Are vendors obliged to pass all repossession offers to banks?

robert32

Hi there,


I am in the process of trying to buy a repossession, but am currently struggling to agree a price with the vendor.


The vendor is an intermediary between the bank and the estate agent. I have offered £440k, and the bank have previously accepted an offer at £450k. The vendor is telling me that they bank won't listen to offers below £450k, so won't communicate the offer to them.


Given the regulation around repossession, is the vendor obliged to pass through the offer to the bank? I really don't trust anyone in the process, as they are all after maximising their chunk of commission. I know the name of the bank who repossessed the home, so have thought about trying to contact them directly to communicate the offer. Is it worth a try?






Rob.

HouseBuyer77

The bank have to secure the best offer possible so I'm not sure if they could even legally accept a lower offer unless they could show the higher offer was false or not possible for the person who gave it to carry through.

davidmcn

No, assuming this is an asset manager employed by the bank then they are the bank's agents and any negotiation will be referred to them.

robert32

Thanks.... but in terms of my specific scenario... what if I contacted the bank with my offer and they actually found this acceptable; contrary to what the vendor was saying (i.e. the vendor was lying to me to maximise their commission)? In that scenario, the bank would surely be keen to hear, even if it was the responsibility of the vendor. A vendor not doing as instructed...

HappyMJ

I don't understand this. If the bank has accepted an offer of £450k then your offer must exceed that...not be £10k lower.

Dan-Dan

robert32 wrote: »

Hi there,


I am in the process of trying to buy a repossession, but am currently struggling to agree a price with the vendor.


The vendor is an intermediary between the bank and the estate agent. I have offered £440k, and the bank have previously accepted an offer at £450k. The vendor is telling me that they bank won't listen to offers below £450k, so won't communicate the offer to them.


Given the regulation around repossession, is the vendor obliged to pass through the offer to the bank? I really don't trust anyone in the process, as they are all after maximising their chunk of commission. I know the name of the bank who repossessed the home, so have thought about trying to contact them directly to communicate the offer. Is it worth a try?






Rob.

Which bit are you struggling with?

G_M

There are no 'regulations' around reposessions that I know of. can you point me to them?

The bank will have an internal process for dealing with repos. If (as seems to be the case here though you have not explained who/what the 'vendor' is) the bank has employed an agent to act for them, then...... the agent is acting for them. They will therefore direct your enquiry to the agent they have appointed and instructed.

davidmcn

robert32 wrote: »

Thanks.... but in terms of my specific scenario... what if I contacted the bank with my offer and they actually found this acceptable; contrary to what the vendor was saying (i.e. the vendor was lying to me to maximise their commission)? In that scenario, the bank would surely be keen to hear, even if it was the responsibility of the vendor. A vendor not doing as instructed...

Unless there's something unusual going on here, the vendor is the bank, and the company whom you are calling the "vendor" is their asset manager, which is effectively just an outsourced department of the bank (rather than the bank having their own employees negotiate offers, clearing properties, changing locks etc). If you contact someone at the bank they'll refer you to the asset manager, like I said above. They are not going to be withholding information from the bank - there's no advantage to them in doing so. They may well be working for a fixed fee anyway.

robert32

Not to my knowledge. As I understand the vendor is a separate entity to the bank. Certainly that is what I have been told by the estate agent... their view is there is only a small handful of vendors who deal with repossessions in the UK, which all the banks use. Why would their bonus not be based on the final sale price?

davidmcn

robert32 wrote: »

Not to my knowledge. As I understand the vendor is a separate entity to the bank. Certainly that is what I have been told by the estate agent... their view is there is only a small handful of vendors who deal with repossessions in the UK, which all the banks use.

Yes, that what I mean by outsourced, they're a separate entity. Not all banks use asset managers, some deal with it in-house. But they're just agents for the bank, they don't own the property.

Why would their bonus not be based on the final sale price?

Because that's what they (might) have agreed with the bank. The local agents are more likely to be on a percentage-based commission.

But in any event, everyone involved wants to sell the property quickly for a reasonable price. Trying to contact somebody else at the bank is only going to irritate them rather than help your case.

csgohan4

robert32 wrote: »

Hi there,


I am in the process of trying to buy a repossession, but am currently struggling to agree a price with the vendor.


The vendor is an intermediary between the bank and the estate agent. I have offered £440k, and the bank have previously accepted an offer at £450k. The vendor is telling me that they bank won't listen to offers below £450k, so won't communicate the offer to them.


Given the regulation around repossession, is the vendor obliged to pass through the offer to the bank? I really don't trust anyone in the process, as they are all after maximising their chunk of commission. I know the name of the bank who repossessed the home, so have thought about trying to contact them directly to communicate the offer. Is it worth a try?






Rob.

Just offer 450k if you want it badly, otherwise wait for them to drop price if it's a low interest area or move on.


Is it worth skimping on 10k and risking someone else buying is your choice.