Buying from an Bankrupt vendor

shall78

Hello I am new to the forum; I have read many of the posts here and found them useful.

In Feb I Put an offer in on a nice house which the Girlfriend and I fell in love with, we are moving out of a shared ownership property which we made a small loss on, but it was only a small loss as I only owned 30% of the Property.

I managed to get a reasonable 95% mortgage deal and put an offer in on the property, based on the research we had done on various websites looking at the comparables of similar properties on the same road, the offer was accepted.

After the offer was accepted we had not heard anything from the vendors solicitors for 3 weeks despite constant hassling by the estate agent and my solicitor, a few weeks ago the estate agent told me they had contacted the vendor and one of them had gone bankrupt, they still want to sell the house to me but due to them remortgaging last year they are in negative equity and now are seeking permission to sell from Northern Rock.

The Insolvency company helping the couple manage the debt have recommended to Northern Rock to let the vendor sell the house as our offer is fair but after several weeks they have not come back with a firm decision has any one else had a similar problem or have any suggestions as to where to go from here?

Captain_Mainwaring_2

There is no such thing as "an insolvency company helping" - it will be the jib of the OR or possibly a trustee if the case has moved on. NR have the say in this, they hold the first charge and if there is neg equity then nothing anyone can do could force NR to do anything. It may well be in NR's interest to not force a sale if there is any prospect of them getting interest paid. If there is not significant arrears then almost certainly NR won't allow a sale in the case of NE, if there is any equity (I think it is 25% before the OR will take action) then obviously NR doesn't have a say (they get their money) and the OR is in control.

I wouldn't expend much time on this.

shall78

thanks for that, the property is also empty as the vendors have relocated for work reasons so they need to off load the property

Captain_Mainwaring_2

shall78 wrote: »

thanks for that, the property is also empty as the vendors have relocated for work reasons so they need to off load the property

See if you can talk to NR, you could negotiate a bargain as they have effectively dumped it.

Neillgb

shall78 wrote: »

thanks for that, the property is also empty as the vendors have relocated for work reasons so they need to off load the property

Northern Rock!? Empty!?

Just move in then, as a tax payer you own Northern Rock so why not?

Seriously though I would put this property to the back of your mind and look elsewhere. The vendors are in a mess and not in a position to sell. Tell them to contact you when they are ready as you may still be interested. Truth is that the place is probably worth less now than when you put your offer in and by the time they sort out their finances with NR etc the place will be worth even less!!

Sounds like you have 'fallen' for this property. There will be others.

silvercar

The vendors have moved out, at least one of the owners is bankrupt....

Chances are there are arrears and there is no equity in the property.

I would say that NR have (or soon will) repossessed.

NR will go through processess to get, and be seen to get, the best price in a short time.

One way or another you would be buying from NR. Try and contact them through the EA (or direct if you can find someone to talk to you). Forget the sellers, they are no longer in the picture.