Buying a repossessed property

TomSmith21

Hi all,
I am buying a repossessed property. The bank's solicitor has procrastinated with the procedure. After one month some fines were found, from the previous occupants. Is it not the bank's fault that these fines were not cleared, before putting the property in the market? The seller's solicitor would take action to clear those fines and because of this the completion deadline was extended. Now, after extending the completion deadline, a new buyer appears and offers cash for the same property. I am now being asked if I want to outbid the cash buyer. I am fuming because if they had done their job right and had cleared the fines beforehands, now I would be owing the property and would not have to outbid the cash buyer. Any advice please? Tomorrow I am going to contact my solicitor.

silvercar

The bank's role is to get the best price it can for the property.

Even with a cash buyer, there is still legal work to be done. You have to decide whether to hold firm or offer more.

davidmcn

What do you mean by "fines"?

TomSmith21

council fines for littering

PassingOutInTheParade

An honest estate agent actually put me off buying a property in similar circumstances.

She said it was to remain on the market even after offers had been accepted, and people had spent money on surveys etc.
In the event I didn't buy it and the advert on RM had increasing offers with the wording 'we are in receipt of an offer of £xxxx, anyone wishing to increase...........'.
To me, that is a long-winded auction with a lot of uncertainty attached.

It has been marked as sold since March this year and still doesn't appear to have completed.

Thank goodness for honest estate agents........

TomSmith21

Also, can I verify if the cash offer is genuine? If yes, then what course of action should I follow? I am going to ask the solicitor tomorrow anyway just need some opinions, thanks

eddddy

TomSmith21 wrote: »

Also, can I verify if the cash offer is genuine?

The EA would be breaking the law if they lied about the existence of another offer (but I guess some EAs do break the law).

Also, the EA has no reason to lie about another offer - in fact, 'pretending' that there is another offer might result in you walking away - so it would be a bad idea.


And do you have your mortgage offer? If so, that would put you in the same position (or perhaps a better position) than a cash buyer.

G_M

TomSmith21 wrote: »

council fines for littering

I'm unclear how a fine for littering can be made against a property. It is the person who gets fined.


Unless they failed to pay the fine and a Charge was registered against the property, in which case you and/or your solicitor would/should have sen this when you examined the Title.


Delays happen in all sales/purchases, for all sorts of reasons. And with repos, there is always a risk of being outbid up till Exchange.

RedFraggle

TomSmith21 wrote: »

Also, can I verify if the cash offer is genuine? If yes, then what course of action should I follow? I am going to ask the solicitor tomorrow anyway just need some opinions, thanks

You have 2 options. Stick to your guns or up your offer, perhaps get the house at a higher price and risk going through the same loop again.

BlackBird75

Does anyone know why mortgage lenders sometimes put repossessed properties in standard auctions, whereas other times they use estate agents (as in this case)?

Obviously a property without a kitchen etc is not suitable for a mortgage., but some properties in reasonable condition still go to auction.

davidmcn

BlackBird75 wrote: »

Does anyone know why mortgage lenders sometimes put repossessed properties in standard auctions, whereas other times they use estate agents (as in this case)?

Obviously a property without a kitchen etc is not suitable for a mortgage., but some properties in reasonable condition still go to auction.

Possibly just down to the state of the market - in some places properties can languish for a while on estate agents' books, which is expensive if it's lying empty.