Buying a property mid-eviction

Superclarkkent

Some advice needed:


I'm currently in the process of buying a property which is tenanted, but the tenant is being evicted. We are at the stage whereby the vendor has the possession order and has applied to the court to appoint a bailiff - so the final stage, however there is no way of knowing how long the wait for a bailiff will be (Hackney, London, so presumably there's a long waitlist).


This wouldn't present a huge problem as there's no chain - however I sold a property in June which was 4.5 years into a 5 year fixed rate mortgage, so have until mid-September to complete to avoid the £6k early exit fee.


This all looked very achievable a few months ago however the eviction is dragging on and with about 5 weeks to go I'm trying to consider other options.


Now that the eviction is pretty much at the final stage and presumably court costs have probably all been incurred by the vendor, is there any reason for me not to complete the purchase before the eviction takes place? Will new ownership of the property have any kind of knock-on affect to the eviction? Would the process have to start again for example?


I'm loathe to take a hit of £6k if for example the bailiffs get confirmed for a few days after the mid-September date passes.


Any advice gratefully received!

Lokolo

Clearly I am having a blond moment, but why do you have to complete by September to avoid the ERC?

Surely if your fix expires September you want to complete after to avoid the ERC?

Superclarkkent

5-year fix ends in December 2017.


Sale was completed in June 2017 and the lender charges a 5% ERC unless the mortgage is transferred (or I take a new mortgage with the same lender) within 90 days of the repayment of my original mortgage.

Cheeky_Monkey

If it were me, I would not complete until the eviction has physically taken place.

What does your solicitor advise?

00ec25

if you complete before the eviction has taken place then the current possession order is invalidated since you are then the new LL, not the person in whose name the possession was granted.

Superclarkkent

Thanks 00ec25 - I think that's all I really needed to know. The last thing I want is to go back to square one with the eviction and have to deal with it myself.

hazyjo

Superclarkkent wrote: »

5-year fix ends in December 2017.


Sale was completed in June 2017 and the lender charges a 5% ERC unless the mortgage is transferred (or I take a new mortgage with the same lender) within 90 days of the repayment of my original mortgage.

I'm still confused - so you sold in June. Deal ends in December. You have 90 days to buy another property/port the mortgage - so surely that's March-ish? Why do you think they mean before the deal ends? I'm taking to mean after - as is usually the case.

eddddy

hazyjo wrote: »

I'm still confused - so you sold in June. Deal ends in December. You have 90 days to buy another property/port the mortgage - so surely that's March-ish? Why do you think they mean before the deal ends? I'm taking to mean after - as is usually the case.

The OP's mortgage has an early repayment charge for repaying the mortgage within the first 5 years.

The OP sold their property after 4 years 6 months (yikes!!!)

The ERC is avoided if you port the mortgage to another property - so the OP wants to port the mortgage to another property.

To port the mortgage, the bank's T&Cs say the maximum gap between selling one property and buying the next is 3 months.

That 3 months runs out in mid september.

theartfullodger

Superclarkkent wrote: »

.... We are at the stage whereby the vendor has the possession order and has applied to the court to appoint a bailiff - so the final stage, however there is no way of knowing how long the wait for a bailiff will be (Hackney, London, so presumably there's a long waitlist)......

Overall, 40+ weeks is realistic see....

https://forums.landlordzone.co.uk/forum/residential-letting-questions/77351-time-to-repossess-statistics

Tenant can (quite rightly) apply to the court to chuck out or delay the eviction until the bailiffs are walking up the path.. ...

Don't make firm plans!

Superclarkkent

Thanks yes I've seen that link. The tenant is on housing benefit so basically is following Council advise to stay until the bailiffs turn up so that she is officially homeless and can be rehoused. She's not appealed anything at any stage and from what I can tell is on decent terms with the vendor - she's just playing the housing benefit game which is her prerogative.


I guess I've just got to assume I'll lose the ERC and if it goes through quicker, then its a bonus.


Offer was accepted in February - so this has dragged on about 25 weeks so far.

davidmcn

Your mortgage lender will require there to be vacant possession at completion anyway.