Problem with property bought at auction

hengilas

Hi,

[Edited: I've removed the text of the post, as there may have been enough information in it to identify the various parties. I'll restore it when the issue is no longer sensitive. But the gist was basically as per the thread title - a problem with the title of a property bought at auction. ]

Dredd_J

Dont believe anyone.
What if its not a clerical issue.
Wait it out until its a clean transaction.

hengilas

Dredd_J wrote: »

Dont believe anyone.
What if its not a clerical issue.
Wait it out until its a clean transaction.

[Edited: I've removed the text of the post, as there may have been enough information in it to identify the various parties. I'll restore it when the issue is no longer sensitive. But the gist was basically as per the thread title - a problem with the title of a property bought at auction. ]

Pat Mustard

hengilas wrote: »

At that point I'm not even sure what happens. If I try to withdraw based on the unclean title, I figure the other side will shout "auction! no backsies". I don't think that's (legally speaking) quite the get-out-of-jail-free card they think it is. But I could be wrong.

I don't know what is in your contract because I haven't seen it. Therefore, I cannot say what is your position. None of the following is legal advice, and should not be treated as such. You need to have a solicitor to advise you, because this is only a Legal Discussion forum on the web, and the information that you receive could be incorrect.

However, it is standard procedure to attach the law society general conditions of sale to a contract for the sale of land. General condition 8(c) of the contract for sale states:

Save as stipulated in the Special Conditions the Vendor shall, prior to or at the completion of the Sale, discharge all mortgages and charges for the payment of money (other than items apportionable under Condition 27(b)) which affect the Subject Property.

If it is the case that this extra mortgage/charge has been discharged but that the release/satisfaction has not been registered, then I doubt that this matter should take months to resolve. One would think that the Vendor's solicitor should be likely to prioritise the matter, given the circumstances.

If the mortgage was never discharged and remains on the title, then that's another matter.

Again, it is impossible to tell what is your position without having read the contract. Although general conditions are standard, special conditions are not, and these may modify the general conditions, depending on how they are drafted.

Your solicitor should be aware of all of this and should advise you. If he or she can't do that, then you should hire somebody else.

I cannot vouch for this link so make your own decision on whether to click it or not, but I have used this site on a number of occasions, and there is a copy of the General Conditions of Sale there.

Your solicitor should be in a position to advise you in relation to any remedy that you may have. You can ask your solicitor to advise you of the correct position in relation to the closing date of the sale, and the rate of contractual interest that is set out in the contract.

Do you know if a completion notice has been served?

hengilas

Mustard/Dredd: Thanks to both of you for replying. Sorry for going back and nuking the text of my posts, my Mrs. pointed it out that it was a bit too much information to be posting about an issue that's still on-going.

When it's over and done with, I'll post up a full account.

Pat Mustard

hengilas wrote: »

Sorry for going back and nuking the text of my posts, my Mrs. pointed it out that it was a bit too much information to be posting about an issue that's still on-going.

Your Missus is a wise lady.

goz83

Indeed, there was too much info in the first post, but there is certainly jot enough info in the title to make any comment at all. That said, I think you got what you needed.

hengilas

Hi,

I noticed I never actually got around to updating this thread with what happened in the end. I hate it when you never find out what happens at the end of a story so...

I won't regurgitate the full text that was deleted from the original post, but the gist is this: we bought a house at auction. Almost immediately (like, minutes after we signed the contract and paid the deposit) the vendors' solictor announced that proceedings would be issued if we were even a day late meeting the closing date.

With that in mind, come the closing date, our solicitor called a halt, having discovered that there was undischarged mortgage on the property that had not been disclosed by the vendor. The mortgage had been taken out by the previous owners of the house.

It seemed likely that what had happened was that the previous sale had been sloppily executed and the mortgage had in fact been paid off, but the correct paperwork had never been lodged with the bank to get the bank to renounce its claim on the title. As such, on paper at least, the bank still had a claim on the title of the property.

Our solicitor (rightly) wouldn't allow us to proceed until the title issue was resolved, although he explained that it could take quite some time. The vendor's solicitor was not prepared to wait and demanded that we close the sale regardless.

As such, we were stuck. So...what happened?

Well, we eventually negotiated a settlement whereby the vendors guaranteed the resolution of the issue (which they were 100% sure was just paperwork, and didn't involve any actual debt). On that basis, we were able to proceed. We moved into the house a few weeks later than we'd hoped, but we did get there. About 3 months later, it was announced that the mortgage issue had finally been resolved. So it's just as well we didn't just wait it out.

Thanks to those who replied here. The moral of the story: it pays to have a thorough and careful solicitor. Ours was, and we're glad we listened to him.

billy few mates

All's well that ends well, thanks for coming back with the end of the story.
Also great to see a happy ending to a story where solicitors are involved, you don't see that very often...




Helmet on, incoming....