Buying off someone in debt

SMW87

Met with Solicitor today who went over our searches and it turns out our seller is in 10s of thousands of debt, no payment of land rent, rates and other.

Solicitor says it SHOULD be OK as it SHOULD be linked to his name but it MAY be a small issue if we were to apply for loans in future and use that address.

Does anyone know how I should deal with this?

We dont intend to apply for much credit, but would guess we would need a new car in 4 ot 5 years time.

Thanks

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

I would find a new solicitor - debts have only been attributable to people, and not properties, for many many years.

http://www.moneywise.co.uk/cards-loans/cut-your-debts/can-someone-elses-debt-affect-my-credit-rating

SMW87

Thanks for your fast response! so on the blacklist side off things we should be OK? just need to question the competence of our solictor?

carefullycautious

You need to be careful that some of that 10s of thousands of debt are not showing as a charge against the property that he will need to pay off.


Make sure that solicitor is thorough.

AnotherJoe

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

I would find a new solicitor - debts have only been attributable to people, and not properties, for many many years.

http://www.moneywise.co.uk/cards-loans/cut-your-debts/can-someone-elses-debt-affect-my-credit-rating

I think that's excessively harsh. The solicitor is just pointing out the reality that inevitably debt collectors etc will be turning up to enquire about whereabouts of the previous owner and possibly also when looking at loans and credit cards there may be some issues due to poor behaviour by the lenders associating the address with a debtor, so there's some hassle involved with that you should be prepared for.

phatbear

AnotherJoe wrote: »

The solicitor is just pointing out the reality that inevitably debt collectors etc will be turning up to enquire about whereabouts of the previous owner

My previous home suffered with this issue.

The previous owner had run a haulage company from the house and sold up and sodded off to spain and within a month of us moving in we were inundated with debt collectors and letters for the previous owners for personal and company debts.

However none of that ever effected us getting personal loans and credit cards etc

SMW87

phatbear wrote: »

My previous home suffered with this issue.

The previous owner had run a haulage company from the house and sold up and sodded off to spain and within a month of us moving in we were inundated with debt collectors and letters for the previous owners for personal and company debts.

However none of that ever effected us getting personal loans and credit cards etc

And when you proved that you have purchased the house the visits stopped I assume? I guess they are selling it to pay off ASAP as they wanted a quick sale.

Thanks to everyone for the replies, it has put me at ease

Bob_Dean

If you do buy print a load of sticky lables with a sutiable message and "Return to Sender" on them and stick them on any post addressed to the previous owner. I brought a reprosessed property and they were very usefull in stoping letters from banks etc.

knightstyle

Hope this is reflected in the price as you may be subjected to a few years hastle from the people owed money and their collectors.

ThePants999

This is a very minor factor, but should you find yourself needing to chase the seller for some liability - e.g. an issue with completion causing you to incur costs, or an issue with the fixtures and fittings, or something they lied about on the SPIF - even if you get a judgment in your favour, you'll then go on the end of a long list of creditors and likely not get the money. This is, of course, a very unlikely scenario, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

SMW87

knightstyle wrote: »

Hope this is reflected in the price as you may be subjected to a few years hastle from the people owed money and their collectors.

We got it at a very good price, but do you think it will really be that much hassle?

Hopefully the purchase will encourage them to pay off debt and all be dandy