Desperate for help! I'm buying a house but...

[Mistopheles]

Help please! I'm in the process of buying a house. The contracts were sent to my solicitors last week and we should be able to sign them in the next few days. The seller is a friend and the house is currently vacant, so we drop by it once every few weeks to pick up his post, check everything's okay etc. We've just been by, and there's a notice on the door saying it's being repossesed on Tuesday! The seller has an IVA set up, and has had a bankruptcy put aside by the courts to enable him to sell the house. We knew he had some money problems, but as the courts had cleared the sale etc., we thought everything was taken care of. As well as spending a lot of money on surveys, solicitors etc, we've also spent nearly �10,000 on the house itself. The mortgage company wouldn't give us the money until certain work had been done on it, including re-wiring, fitting a new kitchen, re-building an outside wall and lots of other stuff. We came to an agreement with the seller that he would knock �15,000 off the price of the house, we'd do the work, and if he then withdrew the sale, he'd pay us for what we'd done. So what now? If we can sign the contracts next week, does that put us in the clear - they can't legally take it then can they? And what if the contracts take longer to sort out? Will it just be re-posessed and leave us 'in the ****"? And what about the new kitchen, and the other stuff we've put in there? Some of it was from friends and family, and the seller's mortgage company says that if we don't have receipts, they can take that as well. And even if we take out the kitchen, it's not exactly much use without a house to put it in! I can't get hold of my solicitor until Monday and I'm in a terrible panic - please, please, can anyone tell me what I've got myself into here?

[MustafaTickl]

The vendor's mortgage company will have a restriction (previously called a charge) Registered against the property and this takes priority. They obviously view the reduction of �15000 as collusion and fraud by you and your associate to cheat them out of their money, so have whipped the rug from under you.

After they have sold the property and recovered their money and costs any surplus will be returned to your associate for you to squabble about. This sort of thing often ends up with the police.

[IggyB]

well thats not really a very helpful answer is it Mustafa - you have no idea how much the mortgage is for or how much the house is worth, 15 thousand off the asking price could still completely pay off the mortgage provider and leave the original owner with some cash from the sale now couldn't it - if you have no info to HELP then you should say nothing rather than try to upset other users!

this is a complicated case and i think you are best to try and hold tight until monday but if you can speed through the sale then it would avoid these problems - do not worry about fraud etc. as this sale has been cleared by the court there is zero chance of finding yourself in hot water law wise rather your friend if he has reduced the asking price lower than the mortgage was might find himself still owing money after the sale - which would be problematic to say the least.

anyway good luck - try try try to get contracts signed on monday is my advice and avoid

[Mistopheles]

Thnks Iggy. The house was originally up for �135,000 but the surveyor valued it at �125,000 - hence the �15,000 drop to include the work. I believe the current mortgage on it is just under �100,000 so it should be cleared easily by the sale. I'm going to attempt to not worry about it until we know more on Monday (easier said than done though!) Fingers crossed!

[Peter Pedant]

Hmm
This sounds terrible
You've onloy a few hours now to wait before the solicitor clocks on and youcan ask him

One way forward is to say to the repo company that you will pay them and not the seller

They are under a duty to get the best price - and clearly you may be in a position to do that

Good luck

It may be that the seller did not have title
that is the seller knew that there was a repossession coming up and didnt tell you
you would have a claim against him
but...he's a bankrupt so that's not much good

good luck again.....PP