Seriously SCARY situation

shortcrust

BlessedNotStressed wrote: »

Those newspaper articles make me feel sick! My husband and I are completely blameless in this situation and, although we have every sympathy for the man, the fault lies with his ex or the various organisations (conveyancer etc) who have failed to follow the letter of the law. I just hate to think that we are now potentially going to be unwillingly embroiled in a lengthy (and costly!) course of litigation through no fault of our own.

Yes yes yes, but what about the locks?!

(sorry, trying to lighten the mood...)

BlessedNotStressed

The locks were changed yesterday but my husband is currently installing dead locks, bolts and a chain in the front & back doors - and double checking all the window locks! We have a young son to worry about, too! I must admit, as a FTB I have had all kinds of bad dreams about lightening striking the house and insurers refusing to payout - or someone ploughing their car into the house! But I never could have envisaged a situation like this whereby our entire house purchase could be in legal jeopardy. We lived in a grotty 1970s caravan for 3 years to enable us to save up for this place, so it would extremely distressing if we lost it!

shortcrust

I think everyone will be crossing their fingers for you. Horrible for it to happen at a time when you can't get quick advice. I really can't believe you'd lose your home because of this. It would be amazingly unjust.

I hope you can keep us all updated.

Marvel1

Hoping everything goes ok on Monday.

sputnik1957

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet. You know nothing about the chap. Chances are he has nothing to do with the deeds. Don't panic.

All this about lock changes, it only protects against unforced entry, hardly makes places fort knox. He could have had a locksmith out that would have made things more complicated !

Slinky

katejo wrote: »

Always the first thing to do. The previous owners may well be honest bods but you don't know to whom they might have given a key in the past. Perhaps a lodger or a workman doing a job on the house.

I went this week to look at the house we're in the process of buying to go round it with a workman for some quotes. Whilst there I introduced myself to a neighbour, who proceeded to tell me where the external keysafe is, and what the code for it is also........

Needless to say, locks will be changed promptly when we complete.

katejo

sputnik1957 wrote: »

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions yet. You know nothing about the chap. Chances are he has nothing to do with the deeds. Don't panic.

All this about lock changes, it only protects against unforced entry, hardly makes places fort knox. He could have had a locksmith out that would have made things more complicated !

Also what would he have done if he had arrived when the new owners were out?

katejo

Slinky wrote: »

I went this week to look at the house we're in the process of buying to go round it with a workman for some quotes. Whilst there I introduced myself to a neighbour, who proceeded to tell me where the external keysafe is, and what the code for it is also........

Needless to say, locks will be changed promptly when we complete.

I don't think I would give neighbours the code to such an external keysafe if I had one. However they do have a copy of my keys and I have theirs. We have helped each other out a couple of times.

00ec25

BlessedNotStressed wrote: »

Those newspaper articles make me feel sick! My husband and I are completely blameless in this situation and, although we have every sympathy for the man, the fault lies with his ex or the various organisations (conveyancer etc) who have failed to follow the letter of the law. I just hate to think that we are now potentially going to be unwillingly embroiled in a lengthy (and costly!) course of litigation through no fault of our own.

further to the articles, can i recommend that you sign yourselves up with the Government's Land Registry property alert service as that was introduced partly in response to such issues.

The alert is simply them sending you an e mail when or if someone tries to register a change to the title. In other word if someone tries to take over ownership of your property! It will cost you nothing to do, and will obviously pay you dividends in the future if you can then prevent such a change.

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk

robatwork

BlessedNotStressed wrote: »

We lived in a grotty 1970s caravan for 3 years to enable us to save up for this place, so it would extremely distressing if we lost it!

You're not going to lose the house.

Please keep the thread updated (with non-lock updates)