# Repossessed House - How are they resold?



## Newby (29 Nov 2007)

Does anybody have any idea how repossessed houses are sold in Ireland? There are website in the UK and US which detail houses for sale that have been repossessed but no corresponding equivalent over here. 
Do the the banks contact an estate agent/solicitor/receiver directly to arrange for the house to be sold. Surely if you were looking at a house you would want to know if it has been repossessed?


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## LivLand (29 Nov 2007)

"Surely if you were looking at a house you would want to know if it has been repossessed?"

why ?


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## deedee80 (29 Nov 2007)

> LivLand"Surely if you were looking at a house you would want to know if it has been repossessed?"
> 
> why ?


 
I was also wondering this??


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## Bronte (29 Nov 2007)

Three reasons for knowing this
1. you feel sorry people had to sell so won't buy it - think Irish famine evictions, carpet baggers in the USA after the civil war 
2. You want to get a good deal as the bank will sell as quickly as possible and if their costs are covered will sell for less than market value.
3. A criminal in jail's house (wouldn't want to buy that for obvious reasons)


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## deedee80 (29 Nov 2007)

Ah right.


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## angela59 (29 Nov 2007)

Hi,

I'm also wondering why you would want to know if a house has been repossesed or not.  If I was looking at a house - it's the house I'm looking at - not people's misfortunes.  House prices are dropping all the time - they're plenty to choose from - why in this climate would anyone want to specifically go for a house that has been repossessed - is it because you are going to get a great bargain?


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## Stifster (29 Nov 2007)

You might want to know if the house was possessed ;-).


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## mf1 (29 Nov 2007)

"Does anybody have any idea how repossessed houses are sold in Ireland?"

Like every other house - through an Estate Agent. The fact of repossession would not  become apparent until Contracts issued and Vendor would be the Bank selling as Mortgagee in Possession - i.e. under the terms of the Mortgage Deed. 

I doubt very much that a Bank would trumpet that it was a repossession precisely for the reasons mentioned above. 

I know that there is an occasional trenchant opinion put forward on this Board that Banks don't repossess a Family Home and that a Court won't order repossession. Certainly  Banks and Courts don't like it but there will come a point when it becomes quite clear that 
(a) Owner cannot afford the property
(b) Costs interest and penalty will simply keep accruing
(c) It makes more sense for a householder to try and sell than to resist the repossession application.  ( I accept that that is not easy at the moment)
(d) If householder won't , then Bank will persist and ultimately a Court has to make an order - however reluctantly. 

mf


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## Stifster (29 Nov 2007)

I'm acting in several such re-possession cases. The Judges in my jurisdiction are generous to borrowers in general but a family home is just as likely to be re-possessed.


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## Paulone (29 Nov 2007)

Is knowing whether or not a house has been reposessed got a lot more to do with making a quick, low bid for it in the hope that the buyer can snap up a bargain?

That's certainly the intention of those US & UK websites - who had the house and under what circumstances they lost it is not a consideration there - getting houses for a steal is!


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## pc7 (29 Nov 2007)

I went to see a house once in drimnagh it was fab! But the auctioneer advised that it had been siezed by CAB from a drug dealer, no way would I put a bid in!


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## csirl (29 Nov 2007)

Interesting programme on buy to let in UK on TV recently.

Said that the buy to let landlords scan the court lists for repo cases, then call to the owners and offer to buy the house (thus allowing owners to pay back bank) and rent it out to owners as tenants. Buy to let vultures reckon they can get these houses cheap as owners desperate and want to safe face by not having to move out and salvage their credit rating by cancelling the repo proceedings.


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## iguana (30 Nov 2007)

Bronte said:


> Three reasons for knowing this
> 1. you feel sorry people had to sell so won't buy it - think Irish famine evictions, carpet baggers in the USA after the civil war
> 2. You want to get a good deal as the bank will sell as quickly as possible and if their costs are covered will sell for less than market value.
> 3. A criminal in jail's house (wouldn't want to buy that for obvious reasons)


 
You can add the fact that an adverse credit ratiing can be attached to the house and may tack itself onto you.


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## beautfan (30 Nov 2007)

I'd sure that repossessed houses are sold by the banks via autioneers like any other house. 

Buying a repossessed house would not have any impact on your credit rating, I know this is the case in some other countries something to do with the debt staying with the property but that isn't the case here.

I'd probably not be happy buying a house seized by the CAB but I wouldn't rule it out if the price was right.  I'd have no problem buying a repossessed house.


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## Murt10 (30 Nov 2007)

You may be doing the borrower a favour by buying his reposessed property.

The more you pay for the house, the less he will owe the banks, assuming that what you buy for does not exceed what he owes. Likewise, I presume that if the banks sell the reposessed house on the open market for more than they are owed, that the excess must go back to the original defaulter.

All the banks are interested in is getting what they are owed. They are not interested in selling the house for as much as they can. There is nothing in it for them, once their loan has been repaid.

A similar type of moral delima arose a few years ago, when people were starting to die from from AIDs. Many of these had insurance policies that paid out only when they died. The people knew that they were dying, but the only place they could get money from these policies was to go back to the Insurance company, who had originally sold them the policy, and ask them for a surrender value. Despite the fact that, they were dying, no longer capable of work, and suddenly very short of cash,  the amount of money offered by their own insurance companies to surrender these policies was usually derisory. The insurance companies had the victims over a barrel. It was a case of take what we offer you now, or leave it to your estate. And by the way you must keep paying the premium or the policy will lapse. There was no choice.

A market opened up in traded endowment policies, where ordinary people could buy these policies at auction. The policies would then be signed over to the buyer. They would continue to make the payments on the policy until the person died, and then they would claim the payout.

I have seen it argued that it was immoral to buy such a policy, that you were taking advantage of a dying person, and profiting from others misfortune. My own view is the opposite, you were doing the victims a favour, by agreeing to pay the victim more that their own insurance companies were prepared to offer.

I never actually bought a policy myself, but as I said I would not have had any qualms about doing it.

In relation to buying reposessed properties, I don't doubt that with the current financial climate, there will be a glut of "distresses sales" in some of the recent foreign and domestic holiday hot spots. Having said that, I suppose that it's different buying someone's holiday apartment rather than their actual home.


Murt


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## Brendan Burgess (30 Nov 2007)

In practice, there have been very few repossessions in Ireland. 

Courts are slow to grant repossession orders and even when they do, they tend to put a 6 month stay on the order. The owner thus has plenty of time to sell the house and pay off the mortgage. 

There have been a few court cases where the previous owner has challenged the price at which the repossessed property was sold by the lender. It's a messy business and most lenders don't want to get involved in it. 

Brendan


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## beautfan (30 Nov 2007)

While I have every sympathy for people who find themselves in this distressing situation I am of the opionion that once I buy a house (even if its repossessed one) the debt of the previous owner has nothing to do with me.


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## foxylady (30 Nov 2007)

pc7 said:


> I went to see a house once in drimnagh it was fab! But the auctioneer advised that it had been siezed by CAB from a drug dealer, no way would I put a bid in!


 
An very surprise the auctioneer told you that considering they usually will tell you anything to sell the house. Maybe they wanted it for themselves


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## iguana (30 Nov 2007)

beautfan said:


> Buying a repossessed house would not have any impact on your credit rating, I know this is the case in some other countries something to do with the debt staying with the property but that isn't the case here.


Experian and Equifax are both used in Ireland, and they have both been known to attach bad debts to the address.  You can get it removed, but it does happen.  Plus that if the previous owners have bailiffs after them they could very easily turn up at your door.


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## pc7 (30 Nov 2007)

maybe foxylady, it was a number of years ago and was going for auction, my bf went to that and it went for big money it was a great house


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## beautfan (30 Nov 2007)

Thats interesting iguana - I'd like to know.  I would hope when you buy a house that its yours and no one else.  I know when buying abroad in some countries you need to make sure there are no debts attached to the property but never heard of that here.


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## johni (30 Nov 2007)

id buy any house if i thought i was getting a good deal . repossessed or not


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## Newby (7 Jan 2008)

Thanks for the replies guys/gals. The original question was asked from the point of view of knowing all the facts surrounding a house - good, bad or indifferent. If the fact that a house is repossessed from an unfortunate individual or via the CAB then I'd rather know. Obviously if you were interested in such a house and were aware of its repossessed status it may impact on the price you offer.


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## carrielou (1 Apr 2008)

Brendan said:


> In practice, there have been very few repossessions in Ireland.
> 
> Courts are slow to grant repossession orders and even when they do, they tend to put a 6 month stay on the order. The owner thus has plenty of time to sell the house and pay off the mortgage.
> 
> Brendan


 
Do u happen to know what exactly happens if the owner does not manage to sell the property within the stay of 6 months. Do they have to move out by that 6 month time period or what is the procedure.


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