WhiteLoutsLane and qwerty both make excellent points.

That was our experience when we looked at purchasing repo land/houses via the banks.

What hadn't already been cherry-picked by the bank staff was a potential legal headache in trying to remove the exisiting 'tenants'.

So unless, as WWL points out, you have an 'inside line' with the bank it's probably more trouble that it is worth unless you're willing to be exceptionally persistent and have a bit of luck.