Buying a repossession

[katcatkat]

We have just seen a great house but its a repossession, its not in bad condition (needs decorative work and carpets). I wondered if anyone had any experience especially of the legal side etc.
Can it work to buy a repossession when we are in a chain.
Also would you worry about the previous owners etc.

We have bought a repossession before, there was no chain though.
we had to have the money and solicitors/searches sorted within 3 weeks. I rang solicitor every day!
Someone could have put a higher offer in at any time as it wasn't off the market until we signed-this is usually the case.
we exchanged and completed on the same day, I think.
Also we were not allowed to check water/gas and elec as all were turned off, which is a risk as we couldn't even flush the toilet/run a tap.
As it turned out the toilet had a leak and there was another minor thing so only costs us £100 ish to sort.
we never had any hassle from previous owner.

Also as you are buying from a bank so you can't asks the sellers all the usual questions.

We bought a reposession. Legally I don't think there were any problems or hold ups at all. We didn't have a chain.

We bought 'as seen' which meant that there was a load of stuff in it. We think every room, including the sitting room & dining room was being leased separately as there were beds and wardrobes everywhere! It was a bit if a nuisance getting rid of it all.
The previous owner had left the country as far as we know, so no issues there. We did have trouble trying to get electricity and gas bills in our name for some reason. They were still supplying it but we had to prove that we were not the previous owners so that we could pay. We ended up sending them (as well as a few others!) a copy of the morgage statement and a letter explaining that we now owned the property and knew nothing if the whereabouts of the previous owner. It wasn't a huge problem.
Good luck!

Property is empty with no furniture etc so no clearing out etc. Looks like we would have to have bridging loans etc which we would have to consider If we want it due to the time scales.
goingto see a couple others then decide.

Word of warning. We tried to buy a repo. Had surveys and everything done that showed a bit of damp but thought we'd carry on. We were cash buyers. The day before completion the bank accepted a higher 10k offer from people with a mortgage. We said hang on, we're cash buyers, we know they'll come across these damp problems are you sure? Bank said they're duty obliged to take the higher offer. 3 months later lo and behold we get a Phone call saying they've pulled out due to the damp issue and were we still interested! We'd moved by then. I'd only go for it if it's your dream house