What is a corporate sale?

HariLoss

Hi, I am considering an offer on a house and have been told by the agent that "The property is being sold via a corporate company. With a corporate sale we get instructed to sell the property on a ‘sold as seen’ basis, we have no background information or any history of the property nor do the corporate company who instructed us, as they in turn will have been handed the property to sell under similar circumstances. The property would also remain on the market until contracts were exchanged."

The house is only a 3 bed Victorian terrace in a working class area so am surprised that it is a corporate sale. I have not come across this before, is there anything I need to be cautious of in this situation?


Thanks

[Deleted User]

Could be all sorts. Might be:

a reposession (corporate company selling on behalf of bank)
a house swap (corporate company selling on behalf of new build house developers who have already bought it off the owners)
an assisted sale (vendors have reserved a new build and corporate company help the builders offload their old house)

Given the wording and staying on the market my money is on it being a repossessed property

HariLoss

Thanks Deleted_User,


I have found on Google a search result on the address that points to a property repossession site though the page could not be found when I clicked the link, so it looks like a re-posession.



However, when I search the land registry database it tells me "Sorry, we do not have a record of any titles for this property. This does not necessarily mean that the property is unregistered."
Do you know if that is unusual?

G_M

Could be unregistered.
Could be an error in the address - either by you or the land registry

Try doing a 'map enquiry' of the immediate area.

But whatever, this willall be dealt with by a decent conveyancer in due course. What you need to decide is whether you are happy to proceed, knowing that
* you will get limited knowledge of the property prior to buying (other than confirmation of ownership)
* you may be gazumped right up to date you Exchange Contracts - so quicker you get there the better.

RelievedSheff

Possibly a property that has been part exchanged against a new build.

Slithery

HariLoss wrote: »

However, when I search the land registry database it tells me "Sorry, we do not have a record of any titles for this property. This does not necessarily mean that the property is unregistered."
Do you know if that is unusual?

Not unusual at all. It just means that it hasn't changed hands since 1990 when LR registration became compulsory.

HariLoss

Thanks G_M, the gazumping is a worry unless I can find a no sale no fee solicitor but if the vendor will not take the property of the market I doubt a solicitor will offer a no fee agreement. Similar problem with house buyers insurance I suspect.



If it looks to good to be true.....

HariLoss

Much to my surprise, being a Saturday, the Land Registry replied to an email sent this morning: "The property is an unregistered property which means that the deeds and documents in connection with the property have never been lodged at HMLR for us to create a registration for the property."

HariLoss

Thanks Slithery, will bear that in mind.

getmore4less

Check planning and building regs portal.

Is it empty how long?

[Deleted User]

HariLoss wrote: »

Thanks G_M, the gazumping is a worry unless I can find a no sale no fee solicitor but if the vendor will not take the property of the market I doubt a solicitor will offer a no fee agreement. Similar problem with house buyers insurance I suspect.



If it looks to good to be true.....

Never met a solicitor who has conditions like that attached to the no sale no fee. Its usually either they offer it, or they dont.