Buying a house with title issues

willciviceg5

Hi all, I know a solicitor can only give the correct legal advice but I am looking for the opinion of someone with real world experience. I have been a tenant in a house for a number of years that was taken over by a receiver last year. The house is now going to auction and I am in the position to buy it. We have employed the services of a solicitor who has rightly spotted that the legal documents (mortgage, land registry etc.) are in the name of Paddy #### and the deed of receivership is in the name of Patrick ####. There is also a small spelling mistake in the surname.
My solicitor is advising me not to proceed as this could cause issues getting my name on the deed with the land registry depending on who's desk it ends up on.
I really do not want to walk away from this sale as I have lived in the house for over 10 years and have made it my home. Any advice? Would I be stupid to proceed?

laurah591

willciviceg5 wrote: »

Hi all I know a solicitor can only give the correct legal advice but I am looking for the opinion of someone with real world experience. I have been a tenant in a house for a number of years that was taken over by a receiver last year. The house is now going to auction and I am in the position to buy it. We have employed the services of a solicitor who has rightly spotted that the legal documents (mortgage, land registry etc.) are in the name of Paddy #### and the deed of receivership is in the name of Patrick ####. There is also a small spelling mistake in the surname.
My solicitor is advising me not to proceed as this could cause issues getting my name on the deed with the land registry depending on who's desk it ends up on.
I really do not want to walk away from this sale as I have lived in the house for over 10 years and have made it my home. Any advice? Would I be stupid to proceed?

Ask your solicitor to talk to the receiver or the receivers legal to rectify title issues?

willciviceg5

laurah591 wrote: »

Ask your solicitor to talk to the receiver or the receivers legal to rectify title issues?

The registration only opened last week and my solicitor looked at the legal docs and spotted this, he sent through an email last Thursday and has not heard anything yet, I have been trying to contact the representative from the auction site and they have not answered over the last 3 days. The house is going this Thursday so we are running out of time.

Lenar3556

There is always a slight degree of gambling where property is sold at auction, particularly In the case of receivership sales.

You were quite correct to have the legal pack reviewed by you solicitor in advance. In practise, the receiver usually wants shut of the thing and will make reasonable efforts to resolve issues which are holding up closure of the sale. Although my experience has been that they tend only to enter in to such engagement with the winning bidder after the auction has concluded.

What you describe may not be a fatal flaw to warrant turning and walking away. This is your present home I understand, so you have a significant interest, and I would suggest are in a stronger position than someone who is not currently occupying the property.

Arrange another discussion with your solicitor, make known your position and try and get a more complete understanding of what challenges may arise. A second opinion might be worth while also.

willciviceg5

Lenar3556 wrote: »

There is always a slight degree of gambling where property is sold at auction, particularly In the case of receivership sales.

You were quite correct to have the legal pack reviewed by you solicitor in advance. In practise, the receiver usually wants shut of the thing and will make reasonable efforts to resolve issues which are holding up closure of the sale. Although my experience has been that they tend only to enter in to such engagement with the winning bidder after the auction has concluded.

What you describe may not be a fatal flaw to warrant turning and walking away. This is your present home I understand, so you have a significant interest, and I would suggest are in a stronger position than someone who is not currently occupying the property.

Arrange another discussion with your solicitor, make known your position and try and get a more complete understanding of what challenges may arise. A second opinion might be worth while also.

I appreciate your response, the auction is going through bidx1 and we have been trying in vain to purchase the property since the receiver took it. They kept telling us our offer was under review until 2 weeks ago we got a message from a friend with the listing of the house. We rang the property management company working for the receiver and they apologised that they forgot to tell us. I have been trying to engage with bidx1 but they are less than useless and seem completely uninterested in answering the phone let alone questions even after I paid my €4600 registration deposit. My understanding of bidx1 is there is no come back and once the auction ends you can pull out of the deal if things don't add up but you lose the deposit. Usually I wouldn’t consider this purchase as there is so much to go wrong but we always had the intention to buy this house, we had been in negotiations to purchase from the landlord before he lost it and it has been our home for 10 years now so it’s not easy walk away. My solicitor is trying to cover themselves and I have now spoken to another solicitor who has advised the same: it may not be an issue if the person in the land registry isn’t concerned with the slight discrepancy in the name on the title but also he has not had this situation before where it is a mistake from the receiver on the name

GavMan

Sounds a bit like the solicitor being extremely cautious. Every man and his dog would accept that Paddy is a universally accepted shortening of the name Patrick. Short of the surname being completely different, (ie. Collison instead of Smith) I can't see it being a fatal flaw either.

You have to assume that 99.99% of people would accept that Paddy Smyth on a document could and probably is indeed Patrick Smith the person and there's simply been a human error. Particularly if there are other records in existence regarding the property with the correct name. Property Tax records for example.

Short of that, there should be some mechanism for the receiver's solicitor to swear an oath with a 3rd party solicitor that they are telling the truth about the clerical error.

chops018

Just some general information which you may or may not be aware of, when buying a property you really need to at least ensure the following: (or your Solicitor needs to ensure, and advise you of same, and it is up to you if you go ahead or not)



1. That the person selling is legally entitled to sell and transfer the property into your name.

2. Ensure that there are no encumbrances on title e.g. charges/judgments. You want to get clean title with no burdens adversely affecting your ownership.

2. Ensure that the map/boundaries are correct and there are no issues there. That is, that the boundary line isn't going through someone else's property, for example. If the property is registered, usually you can see this from the folio map, if it is unregistered, you need an engineer to give you a land registry compliant map (the seller is normally supposed to provide this, but in a Receiver sale they may not do so, especially at an auction sale).

3. Ensure that the property is adequatley serviced i.e. mains water, drains, electricity, septic tank (if applicable) etc., and that all serivces are within the boundaries of the land you are buying and if they are not that the appropriate easements are in place so you can access them to repair them if needed. Declaration of Identity from an architect will confirm this.

4. Ensure planning documents are in order and that it is planning compliant or exempt. Usually, this is done by way of an Architect's Certificate.

5. Do a planning search to ensure nothing unusual shows up.

6. If possible, do a survey report.

7. Other things, which are a bonus, but not necessarily needed are BER cert, ensure LPT and NPPR aren't issues. Get declarations re Family Home Acts, Section 72 Declarations, letter from council regarding roads and services and if they are in charge etc. if possible.



If it is a Receiver Sale at an auction then more than likely you're just given the contract and whatever title documents the Receiver has available to them. The contract will more than likely have a load of special conditions with the Receiver contracting out of everything that is usually in a normal sale and basically they will say this is all you are being given and you are buying it as is and you can and do your own work on sorting the ancillary title stuff normally required if you wish.

For Receiver sales at auctions, the usual thing is to make sure the property you are buying can be registered in your name and that no encumbrances adversely affecting your ownership follow on to you e.g. mortgages, charges, judgments etc.

You will more than likely have to do your own investigations into planning and whether there is adequate services etc. You might not have the money or time to do this.

A bank will more than likely not loan you money for a Receiver Sale at auction unless the title is fairly clean and it has proper planning docs, declarations, taxes sorted, etc. Otherwise you would have to qualify title with your lender as your Solicitor won't be able to certify to the lender that title is in full order. Again, an auction sale, more than likely you won't have time to do all that.

Most auction sales by Receivers would be cash buyers, who are able to sort out the few title issues after and have good clean title if they ever wanted to sell etc. then.

As I said, main thing is to ensure it can be registered in your name, with no encumbrances adversely affecting your ownership and the map/boundaries being in order.

Finally, you should really rely on the advice of your Solicitor. I know that you said you wanted practical advice here, but what happened for one person before may not happen the same for you. Listen to what your Solicitor says, then make an informed decision on what you want to do.

Good luck anyway.

nuac

Mod
issues well covered by Chops. Be careful;