Just after your thoughts really. We have seen a house we like but it’s a repossession. Apparently you have to be in a position to exchange in 28 days.

Anyone ever bought one.

What happens if they get no interest?

Our house was a repossession job, we were lucky that the person buying our house was paying cash, so there was no chain to hold things up. It was 28days to complete but all of the mortgage etc people seemed to understand that it needed to be hasty and everything was sorted.

The only pain in the backside is that you will get debt collectors sending you letters about the previous owners debts. They are fine if you phone them and explain that you bought the house as a repossession and you don’t know where the previous owner is. As a result of phone calls we now open any mail to the previous owner. Even after being in the house 2 years there are still a few coming through! Btw credit raising is linked to you, not the property so there isn’t an issue with that.

As a result of phone calls we now open any mail to the previous owner

I rang Citizens’ Advice after a debt collector came round a few weeks ago looking for the previous tenant and they told me opening someone else’s post is illegal.

I suspect once interest rates go up, there’ll be a few more repos on the market…

It probably is, but the previous owner is no where to be found, and I don’t want debt collectors showing up. When the situation is explained they are fine.

You can be guzumped at any time until you exchange and you can get into a bidding war if better offers come in as the seller/mortgagee is obliged to get the best possible price it can.

Thanks for the replies.

If they get no one willing to buy the house and pay for it within the 28 days is there any way of buying it like you would in a normal property sale?

There is no way we can complete within 28 days as our property only went on the market friday.

I think the 28days is from when they accept the offer….. I think….

Worked in a few repo houses, electric cables cut below floor boards, all light fittings cut off at rose, dogs been bred in bedroom and floor rotten from dogs urine and we had the job of ripping it all out and throwning it out the window on the hottest day of the year.

Buy it but expect to have quite a few tradesmen round as things show up and expect to spend some cash on top of price, day you move in change all the locks.
As above expect bailifs round and threatening leters.

Expect trouble getting electric and gas re connected as the house will have a poor credit record usually due to non payment of bills.

Lift carpets and check floors especially if chipboard for water damage, otherwise you get a cheap house and can spend what you want on it making it your home.

Lot of negatives but if youve paid the mortgage for x number of years and suddenly yopu dont pay , youre not going to do maintancesand when repoed youre going to do some spiteful damage seems to be the thing to do.

Cheers.

All our equity is tied up in the house we are selling so can’t even raise the deposit on this one to be honest.

Is there any sort of chance of buying it like a normal house.?

Unless you are ready to go then they probably will not entertain your offer, the ones I looked at recently I asked the estate agent ‘so it’s technically always on the market then?’ ‘Yes but once things are moving they like to get it wrapped up quickly’ so they will ignore a slightly higher offer if they are half way through the legal process.
Funny thing is this one particular repo went from £200k asking to £205k offer which then appears on the agency listing as a dated offer and I presume they list it for a week to see if there’s any more interest before taking it off the market.
It then went to £240k and a week later £251 😯 Way overpriced and the bank will have made a huge profit.
This was early summer when it went a bit nutty and stuff was sold on the first mass Saturday viewing for above peak prices, suddenly a few months later the silly prices have mostly dropped backed to sane (ish) levels and the agents are now ringing up instead of not returning calls so things are changing back in favour of the buyer.
This is zone 3/4 london commuter area.

As a result of phone calls we now open any mail to the previous owner. Even after being in the house 2 years there are still a few coming through! Btw credit raising is linked to you, not the property so there isn’t an issue with that.

Never mind whether open other people’s mail is illegal or not – it might save bailiffs turning up and causing trouble.

We lived in a rented house where the previous tenants had run up debts of tens of thousands of pounds. I opened loads of debt collection letters and phoned the collection agencies to explain. It took a rather heated exchange to get rid of one of them but it worked. Never had any comeback for opening the letters – the debtors were hardly likely to come out of the woodwork to complain!

I always thought that the debt was registered against the person not the house, but when we applied for a mortgage we nearly had a problem as it seems that debts were registered at our address. Maybe to the people concerned, but obviously at our address. Fortunately, we obviously weren’t the debtors and we got the mortgage, but still…!

I bought a repossessed house that was totally run down.I was lucky to be in a cash buyer position so it went through very quickly and stress free. i got the house for a good price and didn’t bother with a survey as I knew I would have to rewire, replumb and I also took it back to the stone wall and totally replastered.

If you are not in a position to buy then I dont think they will entertain any bids as all they want is a very quick sale. They asked me for proof of monies when I put in a bid and put a 14 day limit for purchasing, I think it took about 16 days in the end as we had to wait for the local council searches which took a while.

i do get the occasional letter addressed to the previous occupants but have had no other hassle.

yup, sold it 12 months later for +27k

had cash in the bank, no chain, had sold previous house, 28 day thing applied, but that just standard house selling,

Edit: context added, comment withdrawn 😀

Key points for a repo / insolvency deal is that it should be ‘cheap’ because you will not get any of the usual solicitors enquiries answered so have to take a view on everything that normally the vendors would tell you, often there is disrepair (as others have said), there may well be extensions or works done without planning or building regs approval, you have to be a cash buyer and you have to move fast. Banks etc typically have huge amounts of this stuff to shift and want it gone asap so asking questions, (even if well intentioned and reasonable by normal criteria) just pi$$ them off.
And thats why you need that discount.

you have to be a cash buyer and

Not necessarily, you just need a decent deposit and be ready to go, I have viewed repo’s that don’t even say repo on the listing just the red tape over the sink that gives it away.

^^^ yup, the giveaway is the tape over the toilet/sink etc

again like above, everything was in place

often there is disrepair, however, mine wasn’t, had an estate agent round 3 months ofter completion, id painted the hallway and front room,

he walked walked round saying “yar, its very nice,well decorated, very in keeping with the character of the property, what do you think you spent? 10k-15k?”

just agreed, 100 quid on paint

Bought a repo flat once, had no issues except for a few letters that stopped after a while of marking them “no longer here”.

Had more issues buying a house off a self employed builder who was married to a lady who worked for the Council.
No end of Bailiffs.
It culminated in a knock at midnight once, by two seriously mean looking chaps looking like bouncers, in a big Merc. Showed them some ID, & some chap in the Merc rolled down the window to take a look & they apologised profusely & left. These were not folk I’d liked to have fallen foul of. 😕