Buying a repossessed property.

Davesnave

Unicorn_cottage said:

Slithery said:

Of course there is. I meant that it doesn't look fresh, just old and unpainted.

As someone said above they ran out of money...therefore the plaster has been left untouched apart from ripping out the worktop.

It's fairly obvious they painted up to the units that are now missing. I'm not going to rip ours out to have a look, but I think we did similarly, by knowing where the units would be and painting just inside the area to be covered up. It wasn't because we'd run out of cash; just pragmatism.

blue_max_3

Would the lender actually enter the property to value? Might be worth just applying.
In any event, you could exchange and give yourself a bit of time to sort before completion and release of funds. Assuming you could raise the deposit. 

eddddy

FWIW...

• The property seems to have a current planning application for change of use to an 8 person HMO.
• See: https://www2.guildford.gov.uk/publicaccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=_GUILD_DCAPR_188965

• The application is being made by a property company - they may have only bought the property recently, so the transaction isn't showing up on LR transaction history yet.

• They may have ripped out the family kitchen with the intention of making it an '8 person shared kitchen'

• If it's been repossessed, it was probably security for some type of commercial finance. Maybe the property company has defaulted on its finance arrangements, and had a whole bunch of its properties have been repossessed. (Or maybe not.)

• The property has had at least one previous offer that fell through. Web caches show that the Rightmove text previously said: "Seymours (Worplesdon) are now in receipt of an offer for the sum of £475,000 for xx St Marys Way, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 8JY"

Edit to add...
You should ask the EA why the previous offer fell through. If it was because a mortgage was refused, because of the kitchen... that would be a 'material fact'... and the EA would be required by law to tell you.

davidmcn

blue_max_3 said:

Would the lender actually enter the property to value? Might be worth just applying.

I suspect the valuer will (because of this sort of thing). And even if they don't, they'll have the same access to Rightmove as we do.

In any event, you could exchange and give yourself a bit of time to sort before completion and release of funds. Assuming you could raise the deposit. 

The OP isn't going to get access to the property between exchange and completion, and they would be well-advised not to exchange without a mortgage offer.

davidmcn

eddddy said:

The application is being made by a property company - they may have only bought the property recently, so the transaction isn't showing up on LR transaction history yet.

Or they've contracted to buy it conditional on them getting planning (or are just taking the risk and hoping they'll be buying it once planning is granted).

katsu

We purchased a repossessed house (c.15 years ago).  Ours had no sink or cooker so wasn't a useable kitchen. 

We got a mortgage but the mortgage company held back some of the money until we'd installed a kitchen and resolved some other issues.  We had to send in receipts etc as proof the works were done. So we had effectively to pay more cash at the time of sale as they didn't release the full mortgage funds. 

A good broker might be able to help you get a similar deal sorted? 

Good luck!

eddddy

davidmcn said:

Or they've contracted to buy it conditional on them getting planning (or are just taking the risk and hoping they'll be buying it once planning is granted).   

Yep - although if it's repossessed, I doubt that a bank would agree to a conditional contract, and a repossessed property wouldn't normally hang around on the market long enough for a planning application to go through.

But I guess it could be very messy if the original owner signed a conditional contract to sell to the property company, then the house got repossessed. (I don't know if conditional contracts typically have 'back out' clauses for the seller, if the house is repossessed.) 

davidmcn

eddddy said:

davidmcn said:

Or they've contracted to buy it conditional on them getting planning (or are just taking the risk and hoping they'll be buying it once planning is granted).   

But I guess it could be very messy if the original owner signed a conditional contract to sell to the property company, then the house got repossessed. (I don't know if conditional contracts typically have 'back out' clauses for the seller, if the house is repossessed.) 

Not particularly messy, it just means the seller would be in breach of contract as they wouldn't be in a position to complete.

That's not going to be the position here anyway given the planning application went in after the lender started marketing the house.

eddddy

davidmcn said:
Not particularly messy, it just means the seller would be in breach of contract as they wouldn't be in a position to complete.

That's what I meant by messy. Having your house re-possessed and then being sued for damages for breach of contract.