If you're trying to buy a house that will be repossessed in 40 days.....

[Fortress]

does it mean the vendors mortgage company will want contracts to complete on the D day or can they just have an offer by then?

Two of our offers have been rejected, EA are saying they want to hold out for 265k, our last offer was 257k. It needs a lot of work.... Its on for a price range of 250 to 275 so we've not offered anything cheeky....

EA think they're being a little unrealistic, however its a sad story and their mortgage company will take it in 40 days for 250 apparently which will leave them with nothing. It's been their family home for 30 years etc.

TIA

A family home for 30 years that the mortgage on is £250k? If the mortgage company are repossessing in 40 days for £250k and that will leave them with nothing that is what that implies surely? Also they only have 40 days to sell a house or get repossessed and they're nt accepting sensible offers. Sorry but something about all that sounds wrong, are you confident that the EA are telling you the truth?

Sorry I can't help with your actual query though!

We know it's all correct as the lady who lives there with her husband is actually a sort of friend of someone in my family.... slightly tricky!

I just want to know if they get a higher offer, say the day before its due to be repossessed would it be too late for them or would their bank hold off? Does that make sense?

They're a nice older couple who have sadly made some naive choices.

Someone can make a last minute offer and, if it is a strong one that looks likely to go through, the lender probably will extend the deadline.

While the couple might look as if they are chiseling, if their debt is 265k and they only accept 257k, the bank will hold them liable for the difference even after they have repossessed so that could be why they are digging their heels in. Unfortunately, if the bank does repo and then sells at 250k, they will be liable for an even larger amount .

Thanks for that lala. I know that they owe their bank 250k so they're holding out for as much as they can get, as it'll be all they have left over...

So with our offer they'd be able to walk away with 7k, they're pensions, housing benefit and sheltered housing for the rest of their lives.

We could offer a bit more but they have very unrealistic views of their house (they think it's amazing!) - it needs lots of work and we don't want to pay more than it's worth. On the other hand there's not a lot on the market and we're completing next week!

AH sorry to go on it's a tricky one!

In that case, if they really do "only" owe 250k including all the bank charges, EA fees etc, then they are nutters and the relief of getting out of hock should outweigh the need for a (pretty paltry) nest egg. I can't imagine living with that sort of stress for an extra 8k.

Estate agents can play games with repossessions. You can look on the land registry title, see which bank is owed the money and talk to their repossessions dept and get them to tell you what would be acceptable in terms of extending the offer period.