House repossesed on morning of completion!

joeblack066

In the continuing saga of my house purchase, completion was set (again) for today at 1pm. At 10.30 am it was repossesed by the vendor's lender!!! Effectively this has meant that the locks have all been changed and the central heating system drained. My sol's have got the keys now, everything has gone through, but I will have no heating ubtil a plumber comes on Monday to sort it out! And this leaves ME with the bill! Also I believe that there is still a load of the vendor's belongings in the house as they were refused re-entry after 10.30 am. Does anyone know if I can get the plumber money back from anywhere, and what I should do with the vendor's things? We have no operating contact details for them and are at a bit of a loss!!

jackomdj

Personally I would keep them for a while, then sell them to make back what you have paid out. Or if they are not anything you would/could sell use frecye to get rid of them.

Do any of the neighbours have contact details?

Good luck in the new house.
Nicky

joeblack066

Thanks. They could be a pile of rubbish, as if the vendor knew what was coming, maybe he had already removed all the stuff he wanted! I will know more tomorrow when I get the keys! Good idea about the neighbours too!

SquatNow

You may not actually own the property as the vendor had no legal right to sell it.

He lost that right at 10:30am

joeblack066

Yes, I do, everything has gone through as the solicitor's managed to sort it out with the vendor's lender, but it was touch and go for a while!!

PasturesNew

Blimey. Good job you weren't parked outside with your van full of goods, 6 kids and last house sold/handed over!

Good luck!

SquatNow

So the mortgage company was the vendor then?

Once a repo order has been "done" as it were, it cannot be reversed.

silvercar

Repo's can be reversed, needs to be done within a few days of the repo.

I bet in this case it will be reversed. How is the lender going to justify repossessing in the knowledge that the buyer was iminently completing.

I would bet the contract on which you exchanged was based on an exchange with the vendor not the mortgagee.

The mortgagee will reverse the repo to allow the contract to proceed (as they have done, the paperwork will follow in retrospect).

Your contract, presuming you exchanged with the seller, will specify vacant possession which means you can pursue the seller for the cost of removing anything left behind. Ask your solicitor to contact the sellers solicitor with a view to them paying for this. If no money is forthcoming, it may not be worth taking them to the small claims court as they look to be short of money, your judgement.

Similarly, you could take action against them for the central heating system being drained. You were buying from the seller and so this shouldn't have happened. They would claim for the costs off the lender but that is their issue.

Or you could shrug and be grateful you got the house in the end.

dekh

Can't you just refill the CH system?

For ours there is a drain on the pipe near the front door. To drain, stick a tube on, lead it out the door, open the valve. Possibly opening one of the little nuts at the top of an upstairs radiator to allow air in.

To fill - make sure the drain valve is closed. link the pipe from your cold water pipe to the CH pipe open the valve, check the dial on the CH it should read 1 bar when cold !! check the manual or specs here this may differ for your boiler. There should be a pipe nearby for this (sometimes on top of the CH box) otherwise check the size of the connectors and buy the pipe with tap from a plumbers merchant or Wicks or B&Q.

Do it slowly and have someone ready to close the nut on the upstairs radiator as soon as water dribbles out.

Check all the radiators for air locks by undoing the little nut, wait for air hiss then dribble of water, then tighten.

Go back and check boiler is at 1 bar cold, top up if not.

You are suppoesed to disconnect the pipe between cold water and CH but mines been connected for over 10 years

Improvements or criticisms to this procedure required!

PS your solicitor should be able to contact the sellers solicitor so they can come pick their stuff up. They must be in a right state, poor soles.

teabelly

What a pain in the bum! Did you pay full market price for the property? If not you might find the mortgage company come after you for more money if they think they can get more. Did you take out insurance against the vendors going bankrupt as this can also trigger requests for more money if they think the vendors sold for less than market value to avoid repossession and bankruptcy. They can get you for any time up to 4 years if the original vendor goes bankrupt within that time.

Did your price pay off all their outstanding secured debt? If so, you may be ok as far as the lenders are concerned as they are only interested in getting what they are owed as any profit goes back to the repossessed person I think.

I've just bought a repo. Don't let them cut off all the services either as it is a pain in the posterior to get them all reconnected. Gas wasn't too bad but we still have no electricity after a week of asking BG to reconnect. Because BG haven't pulled their finger out it could be next week before we get reconnected which is disgraceful. Also watch out if they have cut the gas pipe and taken the meter as it means you have to go to national grid to get the supply reinstated depending on how they have left things.

Good luck with getting everything sorted

silvercar

What a pain in the bum! Did you pay full market price for the property? If not you might find the mortgage company come after you for more money if they think they can get more. Did you take out insurance against the vendors going bankrupt as this can also trigger requests for more money if they think the vendors sold for less than market value to avoid repossession and bankruptcy. They can get you for any time up to 4 years if the original vendor goes bankrupt within that time.

All this only applies if the sellers end up bankrupt, repossession doesn't mean bankruptcy.

Even in bankruptcy, it only applies if either you are related to the sellers or you were knowingly buying the property at less than market value (ie you are a sell-my-house-quick sort of company). Any arms length transaction ie unrelated parties at market value will not be investigated by the official receiver.

Did your price pay off all their outstanding secured debt? If so, you may be ok as far as the lenders are concerned as they are only interested in getting what they are owed as any profit goes back to the repossessed person I think.

Clearly the lender was aware of the transaction, if it didn't clear all debts they would chase the seller not the buyer.