query on house value

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please help. i have recently had my house repossessed and found out it has just gone up for sale at £27,000. it is in a new housing estate and an identical house two doors down is for sale at 39,995 which is roughly the value of the houses. please tell if they are allowed to do this. the house is in good condition and has only been empty for a couple of months.

-- philip (philip.m.@euroseek.com), March 12, 2002

Answers

This is actually a heaven-sent opportunity for you.

There isn't anything to stop them doing this - meaning that it is not a breach of criminal law. However, it may be a breach of various civil laws. If it is a breach of civil law, then you can't stop it, but you may be able to use it to claim compensation against them if you can show that their action has damaged your interests. Or you might be able to use it to offset damages that they try to claim from you later.

Here's why it is a heaven-sent opportunity: You can go to estate agents concerned, act like a buyer who is interested in both properties and get the house particulars. This means you will have irrefutable evidence that the lender is under-selling your security property. You should also photograph both properties and make sure the pictures show the condition of both properties (and date the prints when you get them) You should also grab particulars for similar properties in the same area from other estate agents *especially if they have just been sold*. This gives you irrefutable evidence of real sale prices in the area. Date every sheet and store it carefully.

Also, read the do's and don'ts pages of this site, which are in the Repossession section. They go into some detail about what to do after you are repossessed and before the property is sold.

I've been just finished an analysis of 61 shortfall claims. Underselling appears to have gone on in almost every case. This underselling hurts the repossessee but it also hurts ordinary, non- repossessed homeowners in the area. On average, this kind of lender underselling stripped [pounds]22,829 from the value of nearby homes owned by non-repossessed homeowners.

Yup, repossession under-selling directly damages other homeowner too.

Good luck,

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@home-repo.org), March 12, 2002.


Philip, You can bet the estate agent selling the more expensive house (presuming the agents are different) is not happy. My local agent said exactly that happened when he was trying to sell one half of a semi, when the repossessed other half was advertised at far less. He complained to the agent selling the repossessed house, who put the price up (by about 15K) and it still sold quickly. I would get a friend to get details of both houses, then go to both agents to ask them to explain the difference. Helen

-- Helen Hawkins (poernigh@aol.com), March 12, 2002.

Philip,

Please take a look at the repossession section of this site, do's and dont's section and the section entitled "Before you are repossessed or hand in the keys". There's lots of useful info for you here.

Good luck Stephen

-- (stephen.pooley@ntlworld.com), March 12, 2002.


Philip,

Sorry, wrong info above. look a bit further down for "after repossession but before they sell".

Stephen

-- (stephen.pooley@ntlworld.com), March 12, 2002.


Philip,

When you go into the estate agents who are 'handling' your property aim to make an appointment to view your property. Make sure that you have a witness (as independent as possible) with you on these occasions. When I went to make an appointment to view my property the agent refused to give me an appointment saying that the property had been sold. (In fact it wasn't actually sold until 3 months later.) Even though I said that I may well make an improved offer he still wouldn't budge. ( The nasty sod has since died - and there are no prizes for guessing where I hope he has 'gone to'!).

Carry out the same tactics with the agent selling the comparable house.

Keep a close eye on the market and prices round there and collect as much info. as possible. Good luck. Joy

-- Joy Harker (fightingback@harker.go-plus.net), March 12, 2002.



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