Buying a property from the Church of England / local diocese - advice?

chaotic_j

Hi,

In our quest for somewhere to move to, we've recently viewed a Victorian villa near to where we currently live. Whilst we wanted to move out of the area it would be a big upgrade on our current home and ticks a lot of boxes.

It is down as OIEO of £230K has never previously been for sale since it was constructed, probably in the latter part of the Victorian era - it's being sold by the Church of England / local diocese.

I was just wondering if anyone has some advice to give having tried to or bought a property from the church before?

The offer form states at the bottom 1. The vendors do not bind themselves to accept the highest, or any offer, received. 2. Any escalating of non-fixed sum offers will not be considered.

My understanding from the wording of point 2. is that this is a 'best and final offers' type affair? Also their agent said once an offer has been put in, it might be a couple of weeks before there is a parish meeting to decide who to go with.

Do you think the selection would be purely based on the monetary amount offered and also avoidance of any potential conflicts of interest etc? It also stipulates that you have to remove all references to the previous use, would that be taking down the plaque on the gatepost, not using it in correspondence etc. or something more?

In terms of the house itself, it's all safe and very neutral but is chock full of original features, doors, architrave, skirtings, ceiling cornice etc. everything seems pretty sound and well looked after. Almost fully double glazed with a reliable, modern boiler, modern kitchen etc. and a lovely big garden.

A few searches on planning revealed some of the neighbours had complained about large trees to the rear of the garden resulting in pruning a couple of times and eventually, removal.. as long as we didn't start growing 50ft Leylandii I'd hope we wouldn't have too much aggro from them?

Thanks in advance,
chaotic_j

Robin9

Be very patient !

The CofE doesn't do anything in a hurry.

G_M

chaotic_j wrote: »

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone has some advice to give having tried to or bought a property from the church before?
I'd expect a lot of interest and possibly highish offers in relation to the size & location.

The offer form states at the bottom 1. The vendors do not bind themselves to accept the highest, or any offer, received. 2. Any escalating of non-fixed sum offers will not be considered.

My understanding from the wording of point 2. is that this is a 'best and final offers' type affair? starnge wording but sounds like it, yes.

Also their agent said once an offer has been put in, it might be a couple of weeks before there is a parish meeting to decide who to go with.
Indeed - it's not like dealing with an individual owner who can say yes or no quickly

Do you think the selection would be purely based on the monetary amount offered
No - see 1) above!
and also avoidance of any potential conflicts of interest etc?
Yes, or any other criteria they consider relevant eg only sell to practicing christians (though this would proably be illegal); or families with kids; or ... whatever

It also stipulates that you have to remove all references to the previous use, would that be taking down the plaque on the gatepost, not using it in correspondence etc. or something more?
as I don't know what the plaque says I cannot comment!

....

A few searches on planning revealed some of the neighbours had complained about large trees to the rear of the garden resulting in pruning a couple of times and eventually, removal.. as long as we didn't start growing 50ft Leylandii I'd hope we wouldn't have too much aggro from them?

No different to anywhere else. Neighbours sometimes complain about things. Trees is a example.

Rambosmum

Robin9 wrote: »

Be very patient !

The CofE doesn't do anything in a hurry.

This with bells on. It's been 4 weeks since we had our offer accepted and they have done exactly nothing. No title deed, nothing. So we haven't done searches or had a draft contract.

Owain_Moneysaver

chaotic_j wrote: »

It also stipulates that you have to remove all references to the previous use, would that be taking down the plaque on the gatepost, not using it in correspondence etc. or something more?

You won't be able to call it The Old Vicarage etc. If the house doesn't have a house number and a street name, i.e. if it's currently The Vicarage, Snodley Parva, Chavshire, you will have to get the local council to register a new identifying name for the house and transfer that to the Land Registry, and get all the utilities' records updated to the new address.

chaotic_j

Interesting, thanks for the advice!

I think we will probably arrange a second viewing having sufficiently mulled over the first, with a view to then putting in an offer without much expectation and look at any other interesting properties in the meantime.

In the past I've been advised not to put anything down other than factual/monetary stuff regarding the offer. In this instance we are actually a family and my son attends the school associated with the church this property was previously used as a vicarage for..

We are not practising Christians however.. ! I was baptised and raised Roman Catholic and my partner (unmarried, living in sin, ooh err) was baptised Methodist, but neither of us is a 'believer'..

The other questions on the offer form I guess are for assessing the strength and proceedability of the offer:

- Is your ability to proceed subject to obtaining a mortgage or bank loan? YES/NO
- If yes, has the mortgage been agreed in principle? YES/NO
- Is your ability to proceed subject to the sale of any property which you own? YES/NO
- If yes, is the property on the market? YES/NO
- If so, at what price? £______
- Is the property - 1. Under Offer? YES/NO 2. Sold, subject to contract YES/NO

Note: This information will be used by the vendors in assessing all offers received, but for no other purpose whatsoever.

We would need to get a mortgage, I had one agreed in principle last year but I've not decided yet which provider or mortgage to go with.. I don't need to sell my current property, but due to the 3% stamp duty etc. I probably will fix it up and sell it if we're successful on the new place.. but don't need to do so in order to purchase if that makes sense.

I guess this means if there was a cash buyer with a similar offer, we would probably lose out..

eddddy

chaotic_j wrote: »

In the past I've been advised not to put anything down other than factual/monetary stuff regarding the offer. In this instance we are actually a family and my son attends the school associated with the church this property was previously used as a vicarage for..

They will be selling because they can't afford to keep the property - and they need the money.

So they will almost certainly just go with the highest viable offer - irrelevant of the background of the bidder.

And they also know that some people might exaggerate (or fib) to them about their credentials, in order to get a property cheap. (For example, they also know that some people lie to them about Church attendance, in order to secure places at Church schools.)

So I suspect they would just ignore any comments about bidders' backgrounds.

martindow

Are there problems with this house that could make it unmortgageable? If so the questions in post 6 would be very relevant.

Better_Days

I'd echo that the CofE don't do anything in a hurry. When we sold a few years ago the CofE were at the bottom of the chain of 7. They were incredibly slow and didn't give a fig if the chain collapsed. They didn't take any action until the chain was complete so no searches etc had been done although their transaction was agreed first.

It is also difficult to find out who is actually making the decisions regarding the sale, in our case it appeared that the EA was as much in the dark as everyone else. IIRC the decisions were delegated to a committee who only met once a month, but there didn't appear to be any 'lead' on the process.