Voluntary surrender of house

diggingdude

What is the feedback from viewers? Is it something you can change(price, decor) or something you can't (rough area, nightmare neighbours). Maybe auction?

JaneyLouWho

My strong advice is not to go down the voluntary repossession route. It is harder to get a mortgage in the future having had a historical repossession, voluntary or not, than it is to get one after having been declared bankrupt. Having been both bankrupt and having had a repossession is going to make it nigh on impossible (unless the repossession and bankruptcy happened at the same time for the same reasons). Much less stress to reduce the price further until you get some interest. The bank will do the same to sell quickly, so you will still owe the same but you will have the repossession hanging over you always. When we recently applied for our mortgage lots of criteria accepted discharged bankrupts after a certain period of time but would not ever accept repossessions.

Good luck, I feel for you!

CIS

Assuming England or Wales - Once an unoccupied property has been repossessed then a Class L exemption can apply however it should be noted that you would remain liable for the council tax charge, even where you have no access to the property, until such point as it is sold or re-occupied.

happyhelston

Thank you for taking the time to reply with constructive advise - many thanks

happyhelston

We have phoned Landmark as we had an offer which was below our debt and they instructed us they would take up to 12 weeks to decide to accept the offer and they could still reject it, at this point the offer was retracted by our buyer and upon phoning Landmark they had begun repossession - we have therefore requested a voluntary surrender of the property to bring the matter to a conclusion even though it is a very sad one and not what we had ever planned for our family home. Many thanks for replying with good advice

happyhelston

Bizarrly the house is too big for a lot of people to take on !! Spent years doing it up and it looks lovely just now needs some money spending on the roof and bits - its just not what people want for the money. Its an older property and I think for the same money you can get one that is ready to go. Breaks my heart but the matter is now firmly out of our control as much as repossession has begun and so we are surrendering the house with all the problems that come with that. I do really appreciate the reply. Regards

happyhelston

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Sadly it is now out of our hands and we are going to be officially silver sofa surfers for a time being.
Looking back with hindsight (such a great thing) we borrowed to buy the house and unfortunately were at a time where lenders lent money against the house - it was far too easy and borrowed far too much - the house has depreciated in the years we have lived there by a strong 75k - so ten years ago we would have been laughing.

It has been an amazing family home and I wished better for it but thank you so much for taking the time to reply

normanna

Would Landmark reconsider if the buyer could act quickly? Seems an awfully long time for them to decide on the offer but I guess they must have their reasons but you could maybe argue the point of them treating you fairly in this regard - although to be fair to them I wouldn't expect them to consider further low offers if the buyer pulls out which drags out the process further

Could you move back into the property if you can start paying any arrears back? Then hopefully you might find another buyer as 2 buyers have come forward so far

Good luck

Thrugelmir

normanna wrote: »

Would Landmark reconsider if the buyer could act quickly?

Landmark will have very internal procedures to follow. Nothing to do with the OP. As the property is in negative equity. The bank is the one losing money.