Buying house from divorced couple through court order sale...

TBagpuss

GDB2222 said:

You say that, but consider what a seller normally has to do in order to sell the house:

F&F form - well, he has to liaise with the ex- to find out whether she wants to take the curtains. Or, he just says that nothing is included, and he's taking it all.

TA6 form - that's pretty onerous. What if he just answers all the questions "don't know"? If he hasn't been in the house for ages, how can he possibly know whether there's Japanese Knot Weed. It wouldn't be prudent to answer that there isn't. And, no judge can require him to have that knowledge.

There's plenty of scope for this to take ages. 

Yes, it's got scope for delay but as I said, not  as bad as if they hadn't yet got an order in place.

Regarding forms - yes, he may say he doesn't know - that's not really any different than if OP was buying on a probate sale where it's pretty common for replies to be along the lines of 'buyer must rely on their own enquiries', as the executors don't have the details.  F&F - it's likely that the court order provided for division of home contents so while the seller can tell his solicitors not to refer to the wife, there's nothing to stop her liaising directly with the estate agents - which may well enable you to get the relevant information even though if she is not the named seller her replies won't be legally binding the way information on the official forms would be.

However, you can keep in contact with her via the agents to ensure that she's kept informed about any delays, so she can take action if appropriate to enforce the order. 

Pelo4Life

TBagpuss said:

However, you can keep in contact with her via the agents to ensure that she's kept informed about any delays, so she can take action if appropriate to enforce the order. 

Thank you, that’s reassuring. We actually have the ex-wife’s phone number as we both agreed to exchange contact details through the estate agents, so if we do have questions we should be able to communicate and sort it out that way.

Really appreciate your support 

GDB2222

TBagpuss said:

GDB2222 said:

You say that, but consider what a seller normally has to do in order to sell the house:

F&F form - well, he has to liaise with the ex- to find out whether she wants to take the curtains. Or, he just says that nothing is included, and he's taking it all.

TA6 form - that's pretty onerous. What if he just answers all the questions "don't know"? If he hasn't been in the house for ages, how can he possibly know whether there's Japanese Knot Weed. It wouldn't be prudent to answer that there isn't. And, no judge can require him to have that knowledge.

There's plenty of scope for this to take ages. 

Yes, it's got scope for delay but as I said, not  as bad as if they hadn't yet got an order in place.

Regarding forms - yes, he may say he doesn't know - that's not really any different than if OP was buying on a probate sale where it's pretty common for replies to be along the lines of 'buyer must rely on their own enquiries', as the executors don't have the details.  F&F - it's likely that the court order provided for division of home contents so while the seller can tell his solicitors not to refer to the wife, there's nothing to stop her liaising directly with the estate agents - which may well enable you to get the relevant information even though if she is not the named seller her replies won't be legally binding the way information on the official forms would be.

However, you can keep in contact with her via the agents to ensure that she's kept informed about any delays, so she can take action if appropriate to enforce the order. 

It does seem really odd that most sellers have to complete the TA6 in a more or less helpful way, but executors do not do so and yet the properties still sell perfectly well.

There was a book, now sadly out of print, called The Conveyancing Fraud that showed that most of the conveyancing rigmarole is completely pointless.