Does this happen alot?

[poorbuthappy]

I find this slighty suspicious and wonder if anyone has experience of it...

Our neighbour has recently died and his son has sold the house and bought somewhere else.

The son has learning difficulties, and whilst we aren't really close, I have been keeping my eye on rightmove to see what the house was valued at (and yes because i'm nosey ) just to be sure that no one is taking advantage...

Today we find out that he is moving today (he hasn't told anyone until today) and that the house never made it onto the open market. It has been bought by 1 of the estate agents who went round to value it.

I know I can find out the sale price in a few months time, but I am now quite worried that perhaps his interests haven't been looked after.

Do a lot of houses get bought before they get to open market? Excluding the obvious comment about agents buying their own houses obviously!!

I think that it sounds really dodgy and I don't think it's legal either.... unless an estate agent from a different firm valued it at that price. But who's to say that estate agents from different firms aren't manipulating prices and working together?

I know of two people who feel that a vunerable neighbour has been taken advantage of in this way... what I don't know is who to contact in this situation.

I hope you get some good advice.

God, how horrible and I think it sounds well dodgy. Do you think Mencap might be able to help. If not, they might be able to point you in the right direction.

Cor that does sound iffy.
Are there any other family?

i think it sounds iffy but when you say "learning difficulties" what do you mean?

It depends on whether the son was left the property in the normal sense. If it was left to him, & subsequently has been taken out of his hands to be sold below the market value (to another relative) for example, then possibly it's financial abuse. Could be quite innocent, as it is not advisable to leave assets to vunerable people, outside of a trust. Left in a Trust, they can benefit from the legacy, and still be entitled to state (lifelong) benefits. Otherwise they are penalised. If you are concerned, give Mencap a quick call to discuss your concerns, they will take it from there and if necessary it will be referred on. Obviously on your conscience, it would be on mine, so well done. Give Mencap a call!

This happened to us, cut a long story short we'd moved 200 miles away left keys with the agents and in 6 months not had one offer anywhere near their valuation, or indeed at all.
So we dramatically cut the price by 20% and overnight we get an offer from the mortgage advisor working at the branch, who buys it gives it a lick of paint and sells it for £65k more.
Now we were idiots, we know that know but when you are paying 2 mortgages, school fee's and praying at the till at tesco's you've got enough to cover the shopping you aren't thinking clearly.
So yes in my opinion it does happen a lot, but the solicitor acting for the vendor should smell a rat if it's a huge difference or maybe you could do some detective work and make sure the solicitor is aware.