Which is better in UK Property Investment? - Foreclosure or Repossession?
Written by Mark Bottomley   
Tuesday, 27 April 2010 07:45
There are a lot of differences between repossession and foreclosure. The United Kingdom's laws are more on the side of "finding after the person who falls on their mortgage" and few on the side of "what is written on the contract". First things first, you should be aware of the present differences between repossessions and foreclosures.
by MarkBottomley


There are a lot of differences between repossession and foreclosure. The United Kingdom's laws are more on the side of "finding after the person who falls on their mortgage" and few on the side of "what is written on the contract". First things first, you should be aware of the present differences between repossessions and foreclosures.

In the UK Property Investment repossession, according to the modified Building Societies Act 1997, the mortgage companies "took back" the house, sell it, and use the proceeds to pay off the total amount of the money that you owed them, and send the balance to the borrower. The law also stated that repossession is to "take reasonable precautions to obtain the true market value of the mortgage property". It is common yet not needed by the mortgage company to get a court order for the repossession. The company also doesn't sell the property via auction because the Courts have concluded that this is not the best way to obtain the true market value.

The foreclosure is quite the same in some ways. The houses are also taken by the company and sell it but the whole profits are kept by them. But this will only be possible through the Court Order, and it's rare for the courts to grant it nowadays - there are only few who grant repossession orders.

There is also a myth called "hands the keys back myth". This is a myth wherein a person hands the key to the mortgage company thinking that it would stop their obligation to pay the mortgage. Nowadays there are a lot of people who do this act just to avoid paying the

For the investor, the first two means that, unlike in the United States, it is very uncommon for an investor to get a good deal by looking out for which properties can be repossessed, and then buying them up cheap from the mortgage company by cash in hand.

There are several market opportunities that do exist now for people searching for properties which could be repossessed where they can negotiate deals and leave them better off than repossession.

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