Advice needed on mortgage shortfall with Halifax after reposession

[katnik]

Hi All

Could you possibly advise if the statute barred rule applies to mortgage shortfall after reposession?

 

My son had his house reposessed by Halifax in 2002 and has since been living abroad. Letters have been sent to him at my address periodically from various solicitors requesting payment of shortfall. I just bin them. No contact or payment has been made since the reposession and I am wondering if this is now statute barred, can you please advise?

[cab1ne]

Hi All

Could you possibly advise if the statute barred rule applies to mortgage shortfall after reposession?

 

My son had his house reposessed by Halifax in 2002 and has since been living abroad. Letters have been sent to him at my address periodically from various solicitors requesting payment of shortfall. I just bin them. No contact or payment has been made since the reposession and I am wondering if this is now statute barred, can you please advise?

 

hi katnik.

 

i had the same problem with halifax, demanding a shortfall of £26,000 after reposession, i ignored them aswell, and guess what ????? mortgage debts fall statued barred in 12 years (not 6)

and guess what ???? i saved £26,000. 2012 could be a good year for you and your son (if you knew were he was).

 

dave

Edited July 17, 2011 by cab1ne

[cerberusalert]

Neither you nor your son are under any legal obligation to inform them of his whereabouts. Even if they attempted to obtain a CCJ against him he would be able to have it set-aside as it is not legally possible to obtain one against a non-UK resident.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

That's correct 12 years on Mortgages.

[katnik]

cheers Cab, Cerber and Brigadier thats been a great help, you are all stars on here.

[alfwithhair]

2014 will be a better year (2002 + 12)

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

I don't have much experience on mortgage debt

and was wondering how difficult it would be for

the mortgage company to start action say in 11 years

and 6 months.

[alfwithhair]

I don't have much experience on mortgage debt

and was wondering how difficult it would be for

the mortgage company to start action say in 11 years

and 6 months.

 

Its not 11y 6m Brig, house was repossesed 2002.

According to Payplan

The lender has powers to sue for the difference and can apply for enforcement of a money judgement granted at the time of the possession order.

 

The first thing you need to establish is the length of time which has elapsed before the demand for payment of a shortfall is made. Where the shortfall includes an amount for the capital element of the mortgage i.e secured element, and they usually do, then the lender has up to 12 years to pursue their claim.

 

Where the money owed is not secured i.e. for interest payments owed, then the time limit is six years. (this is part of the Limitations Act).

 

In practice, although most lenders have up to 12 years to contact you and ask for payment, most will do so within the first six years. Many lenders have recently agreed to a policy of not taking further action after the first six years.

 

It is important to establish when the time limit runs from.

This can be either the date when the money was first owed , this is the time when the lender could have taken action to recover the debt and is likely to be much earlier than the date of repossession; perhaps when you were first in arrears with the mortgage. Or the last time any payment , no matter how small was made.

 

Be careful - this starts the time limit over again. Or the last time you acknowledged that you owed the debt. This usually has to be in some form of writing from yourself. Any offer to pay off some of the debt would count as an acknowledgement.

 

 

But as the guy is abroard not much they can do, so best to just keep ignoring as you have done in the past

[cerberusalert]

If they have already obtained a CCJ against him using a previous address it will be registered here; http://www.trustonline.org.uk/

 

However if six years have elapsed it will have dropped off the register & his credit file and they would need to seek permission from a court to take any enforcement action... this is rarely if ever given & as I said above it can be set-aside in any case.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Thanks Alf, I am anticipating a case landing on my

desk next week, from a long serving soldier, the

house was repo'd in May 2002 with about 11K

short fall, he has been contacted by tracing agents

on behalf of the bank last week, accusing him of

not acknowledging letters over the last 10 years +.

Good info thanks Alf.

 

Brig.

[casper1963]

[quote name=

 

The first thing you need to establish is the length of time which has elapsed before the demand for payment of a shortfall is made. Where the shortfall includes an amount for the capital element of the mortgage i.e secured element, and they usually do, then the lender has up to 12 years to pursue their claim.

 

Where the money owed is not secured i.e. for interest payments owed, then the time limit is six years. (this is part of the Limitations Act)[/quote]

 

sorry to jump in but this an interesting fact the short fall in my case is for interest and selling,solicitor fees and deed release ect the house sale cover the amount borrowed plus sum basicly the interest added from the time of repo til sale of property which was 5 months so for my case is stat barred at 6 yrs

regards casper

[cab1ne]

2014 will be a better year (2002 + 12)

 

i never was good at maths

 

dave

[brokebutnotbeatn]

he has been contacted by tracing agents

on behalf of the bank last week, accusing him of

not acknowledging letters over the last 10 years +.

Good info thanks Alf.

 

Brig.

 

And what great written evidence to prove he has not acknowledged the debt for this time!

[rdm2006]

In my case I actually had equity in the property until the sols fees were added to it. so would that be 6 years SB