I am currently renting a small 2 bed late victorian-edwardian terrace house, the landlord owned c25-30 similar houses in the same town before he went bust and they have all been reposessed. A number of the houses have been vacated and put up for sale, what i have been told is that the mortgage company are planning on selling some now and some later. I am in one of the later ones.

On the basis that next door has just been sold, he also owned that one, for a sum i could probably afford. I am thinking about my options.

I am assuming i have no rights just because i live in the house if i were to go to the mortgage company and make an offer?

If i think that making an offer makes sense is there any way that i should approach this? Any standard approach? Would the mortgage company even consider a direct approach or do they tend to have specific rules about how they handle the disposal of repo houses?

Would the bank not be obliged to offer the property on the open market as it has a duty to minimise any loss from bad debt.

Would the bank not be obliged to offer the property on the open market as it has a duty to minimise any loss from bad debt.

This is the issue, i don’t know enough to know what i can and can’t expect.

They often sell them at action for peanuts. I would have thought an offer to them would not go amiss. I would certainly give it a try and try a fairly low but not taking the proverbial offer

Only one way to find out. Find out who is doing the winding up and make them an offer. Takes the advertisment fees and all that nonsense out of it.

Also, dont think for one moment that the bank will even try and get near market value.

TJ, that was my thinking, i know the price they accepted for next door i know how the houses compare visually and i believe i can get a mortgage for the required amount. Can’t do it now as i need a few months to sort a deposit amongst other things.

Just give it a try, you’ll kick yourself if you don’t.

They are duty bound to get the best offer.

But, given you have a tennancy, (even if short) and by making an offer directly would be cutting out estate agents fees, and are in a position to proceed immediately with no property to sell in a chain, might be in this market, in the position to give the best offer.

A genuine offer of £85k on a £100k house is a better offer to someone who must sell the property, than say £90k from someone who is dependent on sales ect ect.

In the current market, a property might be on a while – the duty to get the best price and yet actually get one at all, are in considerable conflict. I sold some repo’s very cheaply in rhe last recession, yet could hand on heart say I did my best in the circumstances, ie where I was instructed to “sell” rather than simply “market” a property.

They may well be duty bound to get the best offer, doesnt mean they put the effort in to get it. When our house was repoed it was sold on at roughly 2/3rds market value.

further to what juju says, whilst they are required to minimise the debtors’ losses by getting the best price, that does not mean that they cant have due regard for getting a deal done promptly and with minimum cost and fuss. There’s every good reason for them to consider a sitting tenant who makes a fair offer. You have nothing to lose.

I know it isn’t what you want to hear and I do wish you the best of luck, but what will likely happen is it will be snapped up by another big landlord with a large cash reserve ( if not the very same landlord trading under a different Ltd company ) 🙁

You have nothing to lose.

+1

Go for it …

Check the price they normally sold for.

Ask the mortgage company.

Put in the offer.

random, i know that is a real possibility but i also know that of the four in the street currently on the market one has sold and that has taken a few months and they only moved in a week ago, i noticed that the agents had a note stating an offer had been received a few weeks back. The other three are just sitting there, there are also a few others properties nearby not shifting.

Make the offer in writing, an agent can get away without taking a verbal offer to the bank but they are duty bound to take a written offer.

A local surveyors office in my area has a group of wives with an alleged healthy property portfolio as their husbands were holding back verbal offers…

Dont forget that at some point the LL had to put down a substantial deposit on a B2L, prob 25%.
If you go on Upmystreet you can find out the SP , do a little math and work out how low you can go.

You have nothing to lose.

+1

Sigh – financial education really is lacking. Good luck with the idea, but please don’t believe this. Given the current market the risks of losses are less than before but they are not non-existent.

Overall property market still o’valued but rescued (probably for some time) by need for negative real interest rates