Letter: Repossessions: bad practice

I am most definitely becoming a grumpy old man and feel the virtual monthly need to write a letter to the Journal concerning current conveyancing practice.

I have unfortunately had to deal with a number of purchases where the seller is a bank or other lender repossessing property.

While I appreciate banks or other lenders go for the cheapest option possible, and these transactions are usually handled by paralegals, it is extremely frustrating to find that the banks and other lenders take a completely unrealistic attitude towards concluding a missive, and very often peremptorily break off negotiations and put the property back on the market.

When will the penny drop that it is not possible to conclude a missive within a short time space, especially when the vendor is not giving any or all information relating to the property? I have had to prise a letter of comfort out of other agents recently. They clearly had it on file. If these agents made proper investigation before the properties were marketed, the conclusion of missives would be a lot swifter.

In a previous life, I used to deal with repossessions for a building society when I was a partner in another firm. We always went through the title, checked the position regarding alterations and crossed all the T’s and dotted the I’s before the property was exposed to the market, and by and large, the missives were concluded in a fraction of the time it now takes. All documents were available to the purchasers so far as possible.

It is ludicrous that banks and building societies repossessing will ask the purchaser to accept the title and ancillary matters as it stands, and the same banks and building societies will insist, where the purchaser’s solicitors who are acting also for them in other transactions, on complying to the letter with the CML Handbook.

I suspect also that because of these practices, the party whose property has been repossessed will find that it is sold at under value and many will no doubt lose out in the process.

Sloppy conveyancing practice and a desire to save costs is no substitute for still trying to obtain the best price available and do a swift deal with the purchaser.