Buying a house that is under threat from repossession

[mitford]

Hello

 

We are in the process of buying a house which is now under threat of repossession, the current owners have done an extension which has not had its final building regs sign off due to some minor work which needs completing and our mortgage company have now put a full retention on our offer until the building regs certificate is issued.

 

The current owners had a repossession hearing on the 3rd of this month and have been told to come back again on the 3rd of next month for another hearing.

 

After the hearing this month they have managed to borrow the money to get the building regs signed off which will be done this week.

 

Due to Christmas being just round the corner and knowing how long our mortgage company will take to remove the retention from our mortgage offer ( upto 10 working days once they have received the certificate) this will take us past the 3rd of january when they have there next court hearing.

 

once the retention has been removed we are all ready to exchange contracts though this will probably be after there next court hearing but only by a few days i imagine.

 

So my question is how likely is it that the court will issue a repossession order as this is the second hearing?

what is the likelihood of them taking into account that we are ready to exchange contracts?

 

sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for your help

 

Jamie

[raydetinu]

If the sale is ready to go, then court will take that into account and therefore should not agree to repossession.

particularly if sale will clear the debt. their mortgage co should be happy with that.

[mitford]

ok thanks for the quick reply, apparently they have allot of equity tied up in the house which will clear the debt and leave them with a nice lump sum, they are keen to sell it to us rather than going down the repossession route as they get more money by selling it

[raydetinu]

Discuss with vendor, but a letter from yourselves regarding you being ready to buy may help in court.

[mitford]

many thanks for the replies, i have one more question

 

if they get given a possession order when they go back to court on January 3rd is it still possible for us to buy the house from them before the eviction date?

[raydetinu]

yes but only if they remain the legal owners.

if lender gets ruling then ownership reverts to them.

[mitford]

yes but only if they remain the legal owners.

if lender gets ruling then ownership reverts to them.

 

ok cheers, if it wasnt for christmas we would complete before the 3rd of january

[raydetinu]

You could still buy it off lender, poss at acheaper prce, but may take a while longer; they must get max possible price for it.

[mitford]

reading this on the gov.uk site on possession orders

 

"Outright possession order

 

This gives the lender a legal right to own your home on the date given in the order and is sometimes called an ‘order for possession’. This is usually 28 days after your court hearing.

 

If you don’t leave your home by the date given in the order, your lender can ask the court to evict you"

 

 

 

reading that(worst case scenario) we would have 28 days to push the sale through no?

[mitford]

Good news we got the retention removed yesterday, though the solicitors are now closed for christmas typicall. Does anyone know if it is possible to exchange contracts before the 10% deposit has cleared? the reason i ask is they go back to court on the 3rd an solicitors open on the 2nd so it would be good if we could exchange before they go back to court

[raydetinu]

That would up to the conveyancing solicitors I am afraid, statement of intent etc.

good luck anyway.

[mitford]

That would up to the conveyancing solicitors I am afraid, statement of intent etc.

good luck anyway.

 

Ok thanks for your help

[Ell-enn]

If the current owners take a letter from their conveyancing solicitor along to the hearing the judge will extend untill completion.

[mitford]

a quick update, they were in court today and the bank have removed the threat of repossession and we have exchanged contracts and move on the 18th:whoo:

[Ell-enn]

Great news

[raydetinu]

cool, great news.