buying a part exchange property from a developer

marilynhayat

I have hit a stone wall
my solicitor cannot get answers to a multitude of questions relating to title and searches etc
he said i should pull out of the purchase due to high risk
i may not even be able to resell
i really want this house
and cannot understand why the developer cant get the info
if they cant sell to me the agents said they wont relist their property
can i get an insurance to cover all the potential risks?
anyone know what i can do ?

marilynhayat

sorry for bringing this up for the second time
but i went back and tried again with the estate agent
she couldnt get any more information either or assurances from the legal team at the developers
they simply said they dont know

davidmcn

It's easier for us if you continue your original thread rather than start a new one.

Unless you tell us what the questions are we can't advise you on the risks.

Your solicitor should be giving you more detail on the risks rather than simply advising you not to buy.

marilynhayat

sorry im a new user
i will in future use same thread
my solicitor outlined in detail the risks entailed to each question left unanswered
or as in many cases to most questions the developers legal team wrote " as we havent lived in the property we cannot provide further information and the previous owner has not provided answers"

marilynhayat

There are 44 questions
too much to write
but relate to title / protocol forms / miscellaneous

gettingtheresometime

When we bought our house which was being put up as a part ex we bought off the owners directly.

silvercar

The risks you are taking, in buying a property from someone who has never lived there, should be reflected in the price. Doesn’t sound underhand to me, it’s just an honest statement that they haven’t lived there so won’t know some answers. Eg if the question asks ‘has the property ever been burgled?’ they won’t know the answer.

davidmcn

marilynhayat wrote: »

There are 44 questions
too much to write
but relate to title / protocol forms / miscellaneous

Can't you give us some examples of the actual questions?

silvercar wrote: »

The risks you are taking, in buying a property from someone who has never lived there, should be reflected in the price. Doesn’t sound underhand to me, it’s just an honest statement that they haven’t lived there so won’t know some answers. Eg if the question asks ‘has the property ever been burgled?’ they won’t know the answer.

Few of these warranties are realistically worth a great deal though - easy to lie about, often fairly trivial matters, and even if you discover that the seller fibbed it's another matter to get cash out of them.

knightstyle

One thing to be aware of is that a builder is more likely to pull out of the sale just before exchange if they get a higher offer than a private seller.
They use multiple agents and the staff are instructed to accept the highest offer. I know of a case where this happened, the new sale eventually fell through but my friend had already agreed to buy an different house.

AnotherJoe

"Title" is a matter of law and public record. . There shouldn't be any questions relating to that that cannot be a answered, surely?
"Searches", the same, your solicitor does the searches.
As for the others, without examples it's hard to comment but thinking back to the questions I was asked last time I sold, I put "don't know" on many, because my recollection is they were ones I couldn't know the answer to, for example this sort of thing "Do any drains, pipes or wires serving the property cross any neighbour’s property?" - how would I know ?

SmashedAvacado

AnotherJoe wrote: »

"Title" is a matter of law and public record. . There shouldn't be any questions relating to that that cannot be a answered, surely?
"Searches", the same, your solicitor does the searches.
As for the others, without examples it's hard to comment but thinking back to the questions I was asked last time I sold, I put "don't know" on many, because my recollection is they were ones I couldn't know the answer to, for example this sort of thing "Do any drains, pipes or wires serving the property cross any neighbour’s property?" - how would I know ?

This is the same position when buying a repossessed property. the reality is that you should look at each question and work out if there is another way of getting comfortable with the non-answer - most things can be gathered by searches, inspection, survey and possibly speaking to the neighbours.

the reality is that the seller should make a bit of an effort to help, but the solicitor acting for you should be more pragmatic