Would this property be a good buy or a legal nightmare?

[Elakiya]

I found this property on Zoopla:

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/58997653?utm_source=v1:5bWFDybfWx7C7AGpeagt7mP3PgcqjuqJ&utm_medium=api

To summarise what is said in the zoopla description:

• You can’t get an internal viewing of the property (The auctioneers and the sellers solicitors have not had an internal viewing of the property either)
• There are people living in the property. They say they have paid the owner but there was no contract and the solicitors don’t know how much was paid.
• There was a fire in the property which has left the garage severely damaged.

Would this be a legal nightmare?

Post edited by MNHQ at OP's request

@FurierTransform

It will be a good deal for someone who, ermm, doesn't really care about squatters rights & will just forcibly have them removed at 2am.

This was my thought. Someone who'll pay cash for the property and send the boys round as soon as the sale completes.

You wouldn't get insurance with squatters in it so nothing to stop them setting it on fire and doing a runner. Would walk on this one.

@ThatLibraryMiss: I agree, I’ve even heard estate agents joking about this topic so they are aware it happens… forcibly sending thugs round to intimidate the tenants

Obviously I don’t agree with squatting, but I don’t think I’d have the stomach for that either

[quote Elakiya]**@NoSquirrels* @Ellmau* thanks for letting me know she’s actually alive. I think I assumed she’d passed away from seeing some posts about mountfield house. No idea how to edit my original post though.[/quote]
It looks like she owned property companies listed at the address in the OP and is listed on Companies House as being born in 1932.

So I would assume she must have lived at the property many moons ago. Who knows. It'll be interesting to see what the outcome is!

When I had a tricky tenant who had decided rent was optional I had a businessman friend and a tradesperson separately offer the services of certain people who would ensure said tenant would leave on the day his lease was up...

Curiously, if the owner has been incapacitated for a while and whoever has the protection order - some solicitors presumably, have been in charge of her affairs for long enough to get the house on the market - there must be some record of rent being paid, even if only 50p a month?
What a legal quagmire to untangle! Presumably there are debts and care home fees that need paying.

It looks a nightmare.
Risk benefit - if you can afford to lose a certain amount sorting out the status of ‘the tenants’ and then be prepared to walk away?
The fact the sell hasn’t done this before selling (and for a higher price) suggests it is a real problem and be can’t afford to delay probate any longer or whatever ???

I want to watch the live auction next month now.

hannah gosh that link is very sad. Remarkable woman in proper significant difficulty and for some time it would seem. Sad.

[quote Hannahcolobus]@HeronLanyon- it is sad isn't it. She seems to have had a very interesting life, training to be a doctor in the 40s and having a career at a time when so few women would have been doing that, it all sounds very remarkable really. I'm assuming she is maybe in a care home now, and as the authorities are involved with her affairs I'm hoping she is at least being well looked after and someone's got her best interests in mind.[/quote]
Agree, how sad, all her photos, and persona papers, cards and belongings just left. I bet she was an incredible woman I really hope she has people working in her best interests.

Cash buyers only and no insurance to cover if the squatters retaliate with the legal action you would need to take to evict them. I’d run!

I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole!

@Hannahcolobus thanks for sharing the link. She definitely is a remarkable woman. It makes me so sad when people live alone in their later years without support from family.

I am also really hoping she’s well looked after.

The Court of Protection bit is interesting though, anyone know why that might be?

Owner of the property lacks capacity and did not appoint an attorney. Court of Protection then assumes this role. Owner will have moved into care and the property will have been seized to pay the care home fees.

The property is priced very low for the area. If the Court of Protection has ordered the sale this means that they are sure that the owner legally owns the property. I would not touch this as a private buyer but a developer would, as the site alone is worth well over £350000. Legally evicting the squatters will take time and money but the owner will eventually win.

Looking on Companies House, it looks like she had several property companies, none of which declared a profit, and all now defunct.
Mountfield House is derelict, that appears to have been her own residential property.
Very sad.

It does sounds as though she owned property all over , there is something about an abandoned property in Paignton and the court case mentioned in the link related to a holiday cottage in Lyme Regis.

Arrangement with “the tenant”(in quotation marks!!!!) I’d run a mile.
If there’s no access it won’t be mortgagable as they won’t be able to do a survey.
You’d have to buy cash, unseen, and then go through the courts to get rid of the squatters, that can take an age, and then deal with potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage with no recourse?
Nope.

How have they been able to do a floor plan if no one has been inside?

@LittleMissNaice

How have they been able to do a floor plan if no one has been inside?

Well clearly they have got photos as well so someone has obviously been into the property at some point - same with the other property that a PP listed.

It does mention 'enquiry agents' in the listing.

The owner isn't dead. She lacks capacity to deal with her affairs so the Court of Protection have appointed a Deputy to do so. I can see the Deputy's reasoning - if they have to try to evict the tenants on behalf of the owner, the owner will pay for all the Deputy's costs and any specialist tenancy law legal advice. and the cost of all this may make it prohibitive. I personally wouldn't buy this house unless I was very rich and financially able to take a gamble.

How sad, all her photos, and persona papers, cards and belongings just left. I bet she was an incredible woman I really hope she has people working in her best interests

I witnessed something similar a few years back; a neighbour's house across the road from me. He was still alive but in a care-home with dementia and no family at all so under the care of Social Services
The house sat empty for a couple of years while they got a court order to seize all his assets to sell them in order fund his ongoing care.
There wasn't any real care about his possessions when the house was emptied, it was quite awful to see a whole lifetime going off for auction or into a skip (although I don't suppose he would have been told what was happening).
When he lived there I knew him to say hello to - was an odd man, very dirty and extremely reclusive so I suppose that would account for him having no real friends to speak for him. All in all very sad.
The immediate adjoining neighbours (terraced house) weren't sorry to have the house repaired and refurbished though as there had been issues with leaks and vermin when he was living there and yes, always the worry of squatters when it was left empty.

www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/58997643/

I found another property that belongs to her.

There is a lot of detail in that listing about the tenancy arrangement, was the landlady philanthropic or was she being taken advantage of ? How old would Dr Drummond-rees be in 2015 ?