Repossessed houses - being stripped before owners leave - is it criminal?

NIMAN

I have seen a few cheap houses recently online, and they have turned out to be repossessions that the bank are selling off.

I have noticed 2 recently, and even know of another owner myself, who have basically stripped the houses bare before they hand it back to the bank. They have taken kitchen, fireplace, showers, bath, boiler, oil tank, floors, carpets etc.

Surely this must be a criminal offence?

mathepac

Why? If the houses were purchased with a "builder's finish" a lot of those items were not included in the mortgage either presumably. I know it was an option I had to pay a reduced price and just get bare walls stairs and doors for example, ,but plumbed and wired but not decorated with no floors laid, no kitchen etc.

Sala

I wouldn't think so. They paid for and own the kitchen, fireplace, showers, bath, boiler, oil tank etc.
The above don't neccessarily come with a house so if you put them in you can presumably take them with you. They are not part of the house. I presume if you tried to take the roof it's be a different story..

NIMAN

Fair enough logic I suppose.

Only thing is, one of them was a full turnkey, so I would think the story would be different with that one.

Kosseegan

It is not criminal damage. It may be theft is the fixtures are removed after the order for possession is made.

NIMAN

By 'criminal' I meant theft, they aren't trashing the place, just removing everything.

DubDani

Not uncommon. Saw a house where the previous owner had taken the sockets and radiators.

Said that, they will pay for it in the end. It lowers the value and the amount of money the bank will recoup. Most people forget that the Banks will still pursue you for any outstanding balance after the sale, so it should be in the previous owners interest for the Bank to get as much as possible out of the sale to lower their own liability.

Kosseegan

NIMAN wrote: »

By 'criminal' I meant theft, they aren't trashing the place, just removing everything.

It depends when it was removed. You can't steal from yourself so if it is gone before the Sheriff arrives it is not theft.

Cedrus

This was very common in London 20 years ago when the housing market crashed there. A freind of mine got a great deal on a stripped repossessed house, all of the electric fittings, some of the wiring, the boiler, radiators and most of the pipework, a couple of internal doors and even the PVC windows were taken (the rotten wood framed windows were left.
As a buyer he benefited from more than just the price because the house was of an age when rewiring was strongly advisable and replumbing would also be advantageous, but most people would just put it on the long finger, he had no choice but to redo it all. My friend won, the lender potentially made a loss but the original defaulter was the biggest loser because if he doesn't clear his mortgage debt some way his credit is fcuked.

I would be very surprised if the lender has any idea what was actually bought with the mortgage or even if they care, they don't usually look at the contract documents (such as they are). However, by stripping major fixtures out you would be seriously depleting the value of the property to very little advantage, you might get €1,000 for a secondhand kitchen but the replacement value including plaster repairs, painting, floor & wall tiling could easily cost €10,000. As DubDani says, you still owe the mortgage, so you've only succeeded in adding €9,000 to it.