WeBuyAnyHome Scam

Proudlovej

Good Morning team

                I have a quiet desperate situation where my mother and father in law have engaged with an online house buying company (WeBuyAnyHome.com) in the pass few weeks they have had the house valued and agreed a price that is less than half of its market value. They have signed a contract for the sale on Friday (21//11/25) at 10:30.

They then told the family afterwards, at this point we found out that the Mortgage company had been writing them letters explaining they still had outstanding debt on the property of £81,000 this had scare them into taking this unnecessary action of trying to sell they house. Mother is 69 and farther is 79 and is just starting assessments for dementia. We have contacted the company (WebuyAnyHome) on Sunday and again yesterday and they have refused to cancel the sale as they have exchanged contracts. We have explained they did not have the financial skills or understanding to make these decisions and this action will leave them homeless on Friday (28th Nov) proposed completion date. We have also learned yesterday that the agreed sale price(£72,000) is less than the outstanding debt on the property this seems to be our only way out of this mess. The Halifax have confirmed they are not looking to repossess the property and are prepared to work with the family to come up with a payment method or plan.

 The soliciotors working on the sellers behave have indicatied that contractors have exchange and there is no way out of this deal (We dont believe this to be the case)

Can somebody please help ?? (How do we stop this company taking their home)

born_again

I would say that you need to get a copy of the contract & take it to a local solicitor to see if there is any way out.

la531983

Where is the scam? Yes doesnt sound ideal but these companies never pay market value..

Ayr_Rage

Proudlovej said:

Good Morning team

                I have a quiet desperate situation where my mother and father in law have engaged with an online house buying company (WeBuyAnyHome.com) in the pass few weeks they have had the house valued and agreed a price that is less than half of its market value. They have signed a contract for the sale on Friday (21//11/25) at 10:30.

They then told the family afterwards, at this point we found out that the Mortgage company had been writing them letters explaining they still had outstanding debt on the property of £81,000 this had scare them into taking this unnecessary action of trying to sell they house. Mother is 69 and farther is 79 and is just starting assessments for dementia. We have contacted the company (WebuyAnyHome) on Sunday and again yesterday and they have refused to cancel the sale as they have exchanged contracts. We have explained they did not have the financial skills or understanding to make these decisions and this action will leave them homeless on Friday (28th Nov) proposed completion date. We have also learned yesterday that the agreed sale price(£72,000) is less than the outstanding debt on the property this seems to be our only way out of this mess. The Halifax have confirmed they are not looking to repossess the property and are prepared to work with the family to come up with a payment method or plan.

 The soliciotors working on the sellers behave have indicatied that contractors have exchange and there is no way out of this deal (We dont believe this to be the case)

Can somebody please help ?? (How do we stop this company taking their home)

What you believe and what are the legal facts may be different.

You need urgent professional legal advice.

See a solicitor as soon as possible.

EssexHebridean

The simple answer is that it may not be possible to stop things now - the exchange of contracts has left your parents legally bound to sell the property.

Are they actually lacking in capacity to act on their own financial matters now? If so then have they both made lasting Powers of Attorney which should have been activated by now? If the lack of capacity is obvious, it certainly could be worth questioning the solicitors that acted about their due diligence.

The companies that purchase homes in this way aren't a scam - they provide a service for people who wish to sell a property fast and are less interested about obtaining a regular market value. In most cases a sale by auction will be every bit as fast and will probably get a better price, but that doesn't affect the legitimacy of those business types. In this case it sounds horribly as though they've sent a standard marketing letter out and your parents have followed up on that. The company have then proceeded in good faith. 

elsien

Presumably they had the financial skills to buy the house in the first place, which would seem to imply they also have the financial skills to be able to sell it, all else being equal. 
Having a dementia assessment does not automatically follow that someone lacks capacity around finances, and poor decision making does not equate to a scam,

What  is their plan for when the sale goes through? What did they expect to happen then? Have they misunderstood something and expected to be able to stay there in some sort of sell and  rent back arrangement? 

What makes you think that the sale price be less than the mortgage is a way out of this mess? The sale would go through and they would still owe the remaining money to the mortgage company. 

As above, they urgently  need to see a solicitor about this. 

EssexHebridean

born_again said:

I would say that you need to get a copy of the contract & take it to a local solicitor to see if there is any way out.

The OP's in laws need a specialist firm I suspect - very few high street firms are going to have the expertise. 

elsien said:

Presumably they had the financial skills to buy the house in the first place, which would seem to imply they also have the financial skills to be able to sell it, all else being equal. 
Having a dementia assessment does not automatically follow that someone lacks capacity around finances, and poor decision making does not equate to a scam,

What  is their plan for when the sale goes through? What did they expect to happen then? Have they misunderstood something and expected to be able to stay there in some sort of sell and  rent back arrangement? 

What makes you think that the sale price be less than the mortgage is a way out of this mess? The sale would go through and they would still owe the remaining money to the mortgage company. 

As above, they urgently  need to see a solicitor about this. 

Doesn't necessarily apply - for all we know they could have bought it decades ago!

My Mum has had a dementia assessment - at her own instigation. She's still sharp as a tack however and perfectly capable of dealing with everything. That said, she also has an LPA waiting in the event that she can't cope any more, and I keep a very close eye to be sure nothing is beginning to slip. 

elsien

Part of the trade off and the USP for these companies as well there is they are quite clear that they offer less than the market rate but that is to enable a quick sale. 

Ayr_Rage

The only odd thing I can see in this scenario is that agreed price of £72,000 is less than the outstanding debt of £81,000.

Is that debt owed to The Halifax a repayment mortgage, interest only mortgage or something else?

What exactly have your parents told The Halifax regarding this matter?

It certainly isn't in any way a scam but quite frankly a right old legal mess.

Edit : What legal advice did your parents take before entering into the contract.

loubel

It doesn't sound like your issue is with the buying company - it is common knowledge that they won't pay the market rate for the property. Usually the "scam" with these sort of companies is that they lower the price last minute before exchange. 

Your issue is that you say your in-laws did not need to sell their house, did not know how much they needed to sell it for to pay off the mortgage and appear not to have understood that they would have to move out once sold. If their level of understanding of the sale is this low then they definitely need some help. 

LPAs would be recommended before they lose capacity to grant these (assuming they aren't already there?) but won't help with their current predicament, which is that they have contracted to sell their home for less money than their mortgage at the end of this week. If they refuse to complete they will be in breach of contract and the buyer could take them to court to enforce. They should take legal advice on this from a litigator, not their conveyancer, although it may be more cost effective to find the money to cover the shortfall and go ahead with the sale than to allow it to go to court. The first thing the buyer will do is serve notice to complete, which will give your in-laws 2 weeks to complete, which can be used to look into their options.

You say that they didn't tell the family until after exchange which is odd behaviour. Did their solicitors have no concerns that they understood what they were doing? Capacity is a complex thing but presumably they discussed that they were selling at an undervalue. How much had they said they owed on the mortgage? Where did they say they were planning on moving to? 

GDB2222

The obvious starting point is to get paid for legal advice. 

Did the elderly couple get legal advice, and did they simply sign the contract at home?