Hi Egg, Thanks for the info - very knowledgeable on the subject, got a scenario for you: A Housing Association took over the old council stock - circa 6000 houses and flats and became the new landlord. As part of the transfer the tenants kept their 'right to buy' rights that they were entitled to (in some cases upto 60% discount). Some of the tenants in a block of flats have exercised this right and bought - these were bought on a Leasehold basis as the Housing Association own the Lease. Under the terms of the Lease the council tenants that bought still have a responsibility to contribute to repairs to the building and communal areas. The Housing Association have just had significant repairs done to the roof and each flat has an individual bill of £9k - the Housing Association Tenants proportion of the bill (their 9k) will be covered by the Housing Association but those that bought have received a demand for the money, giving them 12 months to pay. The Housing Association have implied that if they do not receive payment in 12 months (as they are due the money under the terms of the lease) then they will apply for a Charging Order - presumably they are able to do this as it states in the lease and would become an equitable charge as the debt will be the buyers (whether sole or joint) of the flat and again as they would have got 60% reduction off market value there would be enough equity? Cheers

Brilliant, that's crystal clear and definitely makes sense - my solicitor never offered the information to me I asked if it was compulssry to pay them just before I was signing, more tongue in cheek and then she advised me. It was on the same day for completion and had an extra £50k that I didn't expect to get..... and to be fair northern rock screwed me cos it stemmed from me being guarantor for a relative borrowing, I agreed a repayment figure with them when they defaulted but at the death they re-neged and decided to add on collosal default and interest charges that added upto £19k......more the wiser now

I gogled the issue about the charging order and asked the question on a forum like this and the overwhelming response was that I would have to pay the order but they could not touch my partners share it could only be paid via my share of the equity But what you say must be absolutely correct as my Sols did say that all they needed to do was advise Northern Rock's Sols - Thanks for the info The next part of this then surrounds CO's and how they work - you say that a restriction is registered at Land Registery, is that all a claimant can do with a CO or are there different types? As you quite rightly say, you would have expected the buyers Sols or Mortgage lender requesting that the restriction be moved - any suggestions why they never asked, presumably you would have thought they would have insisted. And after Northern Rock Sols have been advised that there is a sell 'what options' are open to them to enforce the debt when it appears they are reliant on the buyers Sol not telling them that its not compulsary to repay and/or purchasers sols making the request to remove (repay) is this 'how' CO's work because I thought the person with the CO could enforce it by means of forced sale (but would imagine difficult to get as not many judges would be keen to grant i would imagine) and they would get their money Thanks for your help with this

Hi, I understand your points that may be valid but I was originally advised that they could take half of the equity (being my share) - there was enough of my equity to pay them. The only correspondence I received post the sale was from my Sols - they had received a strong letter from Northern Rock Sols asking them to explain themselves on 'why' they had not repaid the order and sent them any money.......not heard anything since and its been nearly 2 years Thoughts?

HI, Can anyone help??!! I had an unsecured loan with Northern Rock that I couldnt pay so they took enforcement action and eventually were granted a charging order on my property. I naturally assumed that when I sold the house they would get their money before any balance would be paid to me (after the mortgage as well) However when I did sell my Solicitor told me that i had the 'option' to repay the charging order and it was not compulsary??!! I declined to pay them, have charging orders lost their bite - is this now the case that you have the option? I did query it with the Sols but they said that they no longer have any bite and are pretty much useless. I cant find anything on the net to substantiate this - does anyone have the answer and where would it be written down - Thanks