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Buying a repossessed house

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  • wymondham
    wymondham Posts: 6,354 Forumite
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    Our house was a repo when we bought it. The only advice I can offer is never assume anything!! - get all electrics/plumbing checked before turning on any switches etc.... The previous owner of ours loosend all the radiator valves so water pi**ed everywhere when we switched on and also shorted out the immersion heater with tin foil!!

    Check the attic for nasty surprises. Hopefully it's just us who found unmentionables here!!

    Also get new locks for the doors immediately. Remember the last person almost certainly did'nt want to leave and would have been angry/upset/vindictive etc....
  • Premier_2
    Premier_2 Posts: 15,141 Forumite
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    wymondham wrote: »
    ...Also get new locks for the doors immediately. Remember the last person almost certainly did'nt want to leave and would have been angry/upset/vindictive etc....
    When a property is repossessed, the locks are normally changed by the bailliff/locksmith at time of repossession to prevent the previous owners rentering the property ;)

    Having said that, changing the locks was the first thing I did when I bought a repo! :D
    (but that was because I fell out big time with the EA who sold it - I'm still sure he wanted it for himself)
    "Now to trolling as a concept. .... Personally, I've always found it a little sad that people choose to spend such a large proportion of their lives in this way but they do, and we have to deal with it." - MSE Forum Manager 6th July 2010
  • pickles110564
    pickles110564 Posts: 2,374 Forumite
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    markvirgo wrote: »
    I have found a repo house and have 28 days to complete but have not even put my house on the market yet. will it be possible to get the money from the bank to buy the new house and put my house on the market. I have been offered £150000 to buy another house if I rent mine a couple of months ago the repo is on at £210000 my house is worth £214000 by the banks valuation.

    Also is there anyway to extend the 28 days?.
    Be very careful Mark, would not want you to get backed into a corner.
    There will always be more decent houses coming on the market, so get yours sold first.
  • markvirgo
    markvirgo Posts: 12 Forumite
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    pickles110564 wrote: »
    Be very careful Mark, would not want you to get backed into a corner.
    There will always be more decent houses coming on the market, so get yours sold first.

    believe me this is a one off in the area I want to buy in. all is looking good at the moment just have to wait and see.
  • salesadmin
    salesadmin Posts: 271 Forumite
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    We bought a repossession and had to go through the procedure of talking to the EA's broker despite the fact we had already got a mortgage in principal with RBS. Our solicitor received contracts from the other side before the EA even confirmed our offer had been accepted so we bypassed talking to EA as much as we could!

    They told us they had no communal door key and wouldn't be able to get one. We asked for an "allowance" to get one after completion and a key appeared!

    Apart from rubbish EA (they called me for an update on the sale!) we had very little problems buying our repossession, everything works fine and the utilities hadn't actually been "cut off" completely just turned off by mains switches so easy enough to turn back on.

    We have had post for previous owners, but as said before we just put RTS on it and popped it back in the post box. No visitors yet thank god!
    Married 5th June 2010
    1st Baby born 12th April 2011:j
  • JayUK76
    JayUK76 Posts: 2 Newbie
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    May i please ask a couple of things about buying a repossessed propert please.

    We have a house in mind, and so far our lower-than-asking-price offer has been rejected. The EA is being very sneaky and keeps trying to get us to increase our offer (and even put in an offer that we didnt give!).

    Firstly, even though our offer has been rejected, if no other offers are made then will we be reconsidered? We heard elsewhere that the bank who has the mortgage wont accept offers till the advert goes out, but the EA claims this isnt true and is constantly trying to get us to up the offer. However we dont trust him and would rather wait until the advertisement of the house is out.

    Secondly, the EA told us that if someone else makes an offer, he cannot tell us what the other offer is. Is this strictly true please? This sounds a bit silly as we obviously wouldnt then put a higher offer in unless we know what we're trying to beat. Especially as another offer will appear in the paper anyway if its accepted.

    We very much like the property and are ready to go, but the EA is quite pushy. We dont want to lose out but at the same time dont quite trust what the EA tells us about other offers.

    Thanks for any help!
  • besonders1
    besonders1 Posts: 579 Forumite
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    The secret is to not get too attached to one property or "pretend" that you wouldn't be disappointed if your offer was rejected as the house isn't really your favourite anyway. You'll find that by doing this there is no way you can be messed around with.
  • besonders1
    besonders1 Posts: 579 Forumite
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    The estate agent won't disclose the offer I imagine it is to do with confidentiality laws etc but if they did tell you this then it would be bad luck for the EA as you could literally beat the offer by 1 pence. They will tell you if your offer is high enough, don't worry. Some repo houses do not always go into the paper, only if they feel that the offers are not high enough.
  • JayUK76
    JayUK76 Posts: 2 Newbie
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    Thanks for your feedback and help. We are trying not to be that interested but at the same time are worried about someone else coming in with a good offer and we're not told. However i guess thats the way it is :rolleyes:

    Our offer is quite low but its what we can afford and no other offers have been given yet, so touch wood. I wonder if they will come back to us and say what they're willing to accept? The EA seems very much on the bank's side rather than trying to assist us but we'll have to wait and see i guess.

    Thanks again for your advice.
  • Darth_Marty
    Darth_Marty Posts: 383 Forumite
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    Nothing to do with confidentiality, for some reason people think e.a's arent allowed to divulge details of offers, they are and they should. They work for the vendors and should do everything legal in getting them the highest price.

    In the case of a repo even more so as the price is likely going to be in the paper soon inviting higher offers!
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