Buying a house with possible repossession

sinceretra

Help.
I've sold my house, completion should be in about three weeks and I have found my dream house. In August I put in an offer and it was turned down. The house was initially up for £280,000, way out of my league, but then it reduced to £260, then one week later offers over £255,000. So I kind of expected my offer to be rejected. Anyway I upped my offer by £10,000 and didn't hear back from the estate agent and he didn't answer any of my calls. I waited 8 days until they rang me back and rejected it.
I said I wanted another viewing before making a further offer, again no contact for days until on a thursday evening the estate agent rang me and said if I wanted a viewing it would have to be on the Saturday morning at 9am as the house was possibly going to be repossessed on the Monday. He basically said if you view and still want it you need to get proof of the sale of your house and a mortgage offer in principle to me before Monday. He arranged to ring me the following day as he was working all weekend.
I went along to the viewing. Discussed the house and various works with owner. It is in need of lots of work, its a big project. The owner told me if i wanted the house at the original offer price I could have it. I agreed.
The estate agent did not ring me back and did not answer the 20+ calls I put in over the weekend. Therefore I emailed the head office with my documents and my confirmed offer to buy the house.
Monday morning came and i was called at work to provide proof of identity documents before 11am (the repossession hearing time). I did this through email.
After work i tried to contact the estate agent again only to go through to voicemail.
Two days later I had an email from him saying the case had been passed onto his manager and they thought the repossession had been postponed for 60 days and when they had full confirmation of this they would be in touch. The estate agent has not confirmed that my offer has been accepted. I'm in contact with the owner does not know how the hearing went as she didn't attend. She still wants me to buy the house and possibly rent it during the time the sale goes through. I'm in a good position as I will be have £210,000 and need a small mortgage of £40,000. My offer of a mortgage from the bank is triple what I need.
My questions are:
Does this all seem a bit fishy to you guys?
Could I still lose the house if repossession goes through and the sale has not completed within 60 days?
If the offer goes through and I start the ball rolling, is there any reason I should not rent the property in the meantime? I'm due to have to move out in 3-4 weeks and have not rented another property yet as I've not got a completion date and I'm hoping to get this house.
Any advice would be so gratefully received.
THanks all, Tracy

davidmcn

sinceretra wrote: »

is there any reason I should not rent the property in the meantime?

Because there's a high risk of you being kicked out almost immediately by the bank when they repossess?

da_rule

What do you mean about renting the house? Rent it to who?

You just need to make sure that your solicitors are aware of the 60 day deadline.

Your offer has been accepted, by the seller. The agents are exactly that, agents of the seller, they have no power to override the sellers agreement to something.

warby68

So close to repossession, the mortgage lender will be calling the shots.

It sounds as if your offer might be enough for them to let the owner have a go at concluding the deal but you won't know until you know. That's not fishy, just takes time while everyone consults and decides. What might be fishy is the vendor saying they don't know the outcome and trying to rent to you. Vendor can't rent to you without mortgage lender's consent which is unlikely to be forthcoming in the circumstances.

sinceretra

I would only be renting if the sale is going through so I don't have to move my furniture twice. Thanks for the input though.

PasturesNew

If it's under repo then to all intents and purposes the owner's the mortgage/repo company and the current owner has a voice, but isn't a main player in the decisions.

You need to listen to the monkey, but only deal with the organ grinder.

Somebody in such a position might see an opportunity of misleading you and pocketing some cash in their back pocket before doing a runner and leaving you in the mess.

G_M

sinceretra wrote: »

I would only be renting if the sale is going through so I don't have to move my furniture twice. Thanks for the input though.

You won't know if " the sale is going through " until you Exchange Contracts, by which time there's no point renting.


The seller would be mad to rent to you anyway (what if you pull out and then refuse to leave?).
If the bank repossesses they could evict you either
* immediately if they have not agreed /authorised the tenancy (which they won't),or
* with 2 months grace if they have authorised it (which they won't)



This deal could fall apart at any point if the bank decides to repossess. So get to exchange with the owner/seller asap and hope the bank holds off from any action.

davidmcn

sinceretra wrote: »

I would only be renting if the sale is going through so I don't have to move my furniture twice. Thanks for the input though.

I'm not sure what stage in the process you mean by "going through". Are you?

In theory the lender could repossess at any point up to completion - though in practice they're likely to hold off if a sale by the borrower seems to be proceeding at a reasonable pace (rather than deal with the risks and costs of a repossession).

Silvertabby

Have you had a survey done? A house with a lot of visible problems is likely to have many more invisible ones.

sinceretra

Hi all,
thanks for the replies. In response to comments made here goes: The repossession has been halted for 60 days. This could be because she has a buyer in place (me), the estate agent needed my proof of ability to buy, to show at the repossession hearing.
The credit agency (I know which agency) would have to be informed about the vendors intention to rent the property to me before I went through with it. It was my suggestion to the vendor as I will need to move out of my sold home in 3-4 weeks and I just thought it would be easier if I could rent a house I'm in the process of buying. It is standing empty and has been for some time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assumed the credit agency would encourage an extra payment towards the debt from the vendor, assuming she agrees to pay some towards her debt.

'You need to listen to the monkey, but only deal with the organ grinder.'
I am in contact with the vendor and the estate agents. Are you suggesting I should be in contact with the credit agency whom the debt is owed to?

'I'm not sure what stage in the process you mean by "going through". Are you?'
The process I mean is my solicitor has been instructed to start proceeding to buy the house, land searches, legal process. My survey would be booked but I've had a builder in twice to look the house with me, looking at structure and advise on works required.

In 3-4 weeks I will have the money from my house sale which covers the majority of the house price. I will need a mortgage of £30,000. The credit agency have seen these figures at the repossession hearing.

The points you have all brought up are great as I'm kind of a little out of my depth here. If as many of you seem to be saying, renting before buying the property is a risk, I will take your advice and rent somewhere else temporarily.

Please keep the advice coming if you have more to offer. I do really appreciate it.

Mrs_Soup

Check that you will be able to get a mortgage for as little as 30K as I have read on here that there are minimum amounts a mortgage lender will consider. Just checked nationwide and they will do 25K so other lenders probably similar.