Buing Repossessed House

airportgirl83

We finally found a house that we both really like in our ideal location. Unfortunately, the house has been repossessed by the bank, which from reading various articles and online threads, makes the buying process much more complicated. Has anyone here bought a repossessed house? What was your experience like? Would you do it again?

I very briefly discussed this type of a sale with my Solicitor but she basically told me that repossessed houses are suitable for cash buyers only as there might be difficulties obtaining a good title. We are not sure if we should proceed further. We have a significant amount of cash but we need to take out the mortgage to complete the sale and refurbish the property. Houses in this location don't come up very often, hence, we are still considering it.

I've also asked the selling agent about her experience in selling repossessed properties. She hasn't shed much light tbh other than saying that there are no issues with the planning.

Claw Hammer

airportgirl83 wrote: »

We finally found a house that we both really like in our ideal location. Unfortunately, the house has been repossessed by the bank, which from reading various articles and online threads, makes the buying process much more complicated. Has anyone here bought a repossessed house? What was your experience like? Would you do it again?

I very briefly discussed this type of a sale with my Solicitor but she basically told me that repossessed houses are suitable for cash buyers only as there might be difficulties obtaining a good title. We are not sure if we should proceed further. We have a significant amount of cash but we need to take out the mortgage to complete the sale and refurbish the property. Houses in this location don't come up very often, hence, we are still considering it.

I've also asked the selling agent about her experience in selling repossessed properties. She hasn't shed much light tbh other than saying that there are no issues with the planning.

You are going to have to investigate the situation.
Some things will cost you so do the leg work on the others first.
Is the former owner still hanging around and does that former owner have the sympathy of the locals?
You don't want to go into a situation where you are harassed, ignored or boycotted.
Are there any planning or boundary problems?

Is the title ok or do you have to sign a contract which is full of exclusion clauses.
After that you need to do a survey.
Many repossessions are ok, others not so and some a nightmare.

sharpish

airportgirl83 wrote: »

We finally found a house that we both really like in our ideal location. Unfortunately, the house has been repossessed by the bank, which from reading various articles and online threads, makes the buying process much more complicated. Has anyone here bought a repossessed house? What was your experience like? Would you do it again?

I very briefly discussed this type of a sale with my Solicitor but she basically told me that repossessed houses are suitable for cash buyers only as there might be difficulties obtaining a good title. We are not sure if we should proceed further. We have a significant amount of cash but we need to take out the mortgage to complete the sale and refurbish the property. Houses in this location don't come up very often, hence, we are still considering it.

I've also asked the selling agent about her experience in selling repossessed properties. She hasn't shed much light tbh other than saying that there are no issues with the planning.

Estate agents are useless and act on behalf of the buyer, on something like this might be on a tight fixed fee and don't a ****e as the house will sell eventually ( IMO )

My story was different, it was termed consensual as in the owner was consenting to the sale. It was quite straight forward but the bank took an age to approval the sale of the property about 8 weeks as I recall ( imagine they had a process as someone somewhere was losing money)

You need to know what the story is from the estate agent and talk to your solicitor with the specifics of the case.

Perhaps check with the neighbours to see what the story is, if it's rural enough the postman might be a good person to flag down, a family home will be a different story to a buy to let that nobody is attached to.

Peter File

A good solicitor will sort all title issues. It's not a big job for them.
Are services disconnected from the house?
Gas is cheap to reconnect but electricity can be expensive depending on how long it was disconnected for.

JustAThought

airportgirl83 wrote: »

We finally found a house that we both really like in our ideal location. Unfortunately, the house has been repossessed by the bank, which from reading various articles and online threads, makes the buying process much more complicated. Has anyone here bought a repossessed house? What was your experience like? Would you do it again?

I very briefly discussed this type of a sale with my Solicitor but she basically told me that repossessed houses are suitable for cash buyers only as there might be difficulties obtaining a good title. We are not sure if we should proceed further. We have a significant amount of cash but we need to take out the mortgage to complete the sale and refurbish the property. Houses in this location don't come up very often, hence, we are still considering it.

I've also asked the selling agent about her experience in selling repossessed properties. She hasn't shed much light tbh other than saying that there are no issues with the planning.

your solicitor sounds as lazy as mine was. is s/he just not interested in doing the leg work to eatablish IF there is good title as s/he might not get the sale fee out of it if there’s not?

Can you eatablish any insights from the bank - thou they’re hardly impartial.

A house down from me was a repossession sale and nobody really knew them or cared - sadly. But if it was a long settled community or a tragedy or worse land given that had been in the family for generations & lost & the parents still living next door it might be a much more different matter.

Worth more checking. You can check the planning permission online - see who the names were - IF it was an own build. If this matched the neighbours next door or a few houses up this might be a clue. Also the local newspapers might have run the story / sob story. I know a house a few km up the toad was reposessed only because their extravagant lifestyle and bad choices were a front page and middle spread offering - mortified for them but not too sympathetic.

I’d try and nail your solicitor down on this propertys specifics - not generalisations. And see if their services are reliant on continued access through another persons land needing their continued goodwill - etc. Then again it might be in a new housing estate or city - just depends.

Most important thing to do here, is to call around to a few neighbouring houses, and ask about it.

Repossessed houses can be a mixed bag. It varies from previous owners who are trying to buy it back and will fight to the death for their pack of concrete blocks that they couldn't afford in the first place, to the ones that copped on they were up to their eyes in it, and got onto the first plane to Australia and never looked back.

There's absolutely no hard and fast rule, and you very much have to get to the property to have a look, and chat with neighbours. That'll give you the real backstory. I wouldn't bother talking to your solicitor or anyone else until you've done this.

A bank likely won't mortgage it if it doesn't meet certain criteria or if there are boundary issues, etc. often times sour ex-owners will remove the sanitary ware and kitchens because they know a bank require them, and it makes it more difficult for others to buy. If it's a detached, rural kinda set up, make sure the percolation/septic/etc are all on the land, and not on an adjoining family members land.

JustAThought

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Most important thing to do here, is to call around to a few neighbouring houses, and ask about it.

Repossessed houses can be a mixed bag. It varies from previous owners who are trying to buy it back and will fight to the death for their pack of concrete blocks that they couldn't afford in the first place, to the ones that copped on they were up to their eyes in it, and got onto the first plane to Australia and never looked back.

There's absolutely no hard and fast rule, and you very much have to get to the property to have a look, and chat with neighbours. That'll give you the real backstory. I wouldn't bother talking to your solicitor or anyone else until you've done this.

A bank likely won't mortgage it if it doesn't meet certain criteria or if there are boundary issues, etc. often times sour ex-owners will remove the sanitary ware and kitchens because they know a bank require them, and it makes it more difficult for others to buy. If it's a detached, rural kinda set up, make sure the percolation/septic/etc are all on the land, and not on an adjoining family members land.

and not a shared driveway or driveway built or relying on someone elses land and goodwill go be able access your house.

JustAThought

JustAThought wrote: »

and not a shared driveway or driveway built or relying on someone elses land and goodwill go be able access your house.

Bank wouldn't lend in that scenario anyway, thankfully. I have seen a few "landlocked" houses alright. How they ever got a mortgage is beyond me, but thems the boom times, I suppose. :rolleyes:

Toots

Depends on the estate agent, but one house I looked at which was a repo had a really helpful estate agent selling it. I hadn't a clue what was involved but they were basically able to tell me that what damage was done to it (as mentioned, the kitchen and sanitary ware had all been ripped out, along with all the radiators, and a few 5l tubs of paint had been thrown around the interior) and also a ballpark estimate of what it would cost to put right.

They had a couple of banks who were willing to lend on it, and game me details of the mortgage advisors who were dealing with it. The one thing they did say was that if I was looking for a quick sale, then I should be aware that it would take months to even get an offer accepted, let alone close - basically the receiver would hold out for the highest possible offer in order to recoup the maximum amount of the bad debt. In the end we decided it wasn't for us, but I kept an eye on it, and it eventually sold about 18 months after I enquired.

Claw Hammer

Peter File wrote: »

A good solicitor will sort all title issues. It's not a big job for them.
.

How is a good solicitor going to sort out a boundary dispute if he is not told there is one? How is he going to0 solve the lack of a family home declaration if he is not given one?

drunkmonkey

I've done this start to finish on a holiday home and took a mortgage out on it without any issue, I don't think that even came up as part of the mortgage application.
It was easy enough close the sale I had it off the market within 6 weeks of it being advertised.
An estate agent has a few hoops to go through selling one of these and will really only entertain cash buyers which I was originally, it just dragged on so long decided to mortgage it.
EA needs to give X amount of viewings, X amount of bidders and advertise for X amount of time, buyer needs to prove where the funds are coming from, needed to go through aml, as it was a joint purchase we had to submit I think 6mts bank statements each to the receiver.

As far as issues it just needed a make over, heating system seemed rigged to explode, thermostat dropped out when we first turned on the water it wasn't even screwed into the cylinder lucky I had a good plumber with me when turning on the water it would definitely have went very wrong.
Electric looked like it was going to cost a lot to get going but had it certified cheap enough and electric ireland gave me an account credit so it worked out well on that front.
All the windows needed slight repair there was screw holes in them all from it being boarded up and the mechanics were kaput, got them fixed along with all new locks on every door and child safety locks on the windows.

All being said it took over a year from start to finish, It wasn't our family home so no mad panic we were just happy to have picked up a good house cheap in a great location.

I'd do it again no problem, I'd probably deal more directly with the receiver this time sorting the paperwork as it takes forever with the EA and Solicitor doing all the donkey work. I ended up dealing directly with the receiver in the end anyway.