Any advice??!!

_m__3

Hello

This is a complicated situation so please bear with me!!

My parents owned a second home in Ireland some years ago.

In 1991 (approx) my father took out a small loan (5k) with the Natwest Bank. The bank manager at the time allowed my father to secure this loan against the title deeds for the property in Ireland.
My father never repaid this loan and was made bankrupt soon after. Apparently the bank manager at the time shouldn't have accepted the deeds to secure a loan (??).
Some years later 1995 (approx) communication was recieved from a debt recovery company in the midlands, stating that £120k was now owned and that they planned to sell the property in Ireland and my father had a choice as to pay the £120k and get the deeds back or allow the property to be sold.
My father didn't reply to this letter.
In 2004 my mother visited the property in Ireland which now stands deralict. Her keys still worked for the lock and our belongings were still inside.
In 2006 I became aware of this situation and encouraged my father to contact the debt recovery company. The company no longer exists.
How can we go about getting back the property???
The place still stands empty in southern ireland.

Any advice?????

silvercar

The bankruptcy is irrelevent. If the loan was secured then the loan isn't inculded in the bankruptcy.

If the last communication was in 1995, then the debt would be time-barred in 2007 AFAIK.

First step is to get hold of the deeds and find out if the charge has been registered. It may be that, in not replying to the letter, the debt collection company sold the property to a third party or that they have ownership. Or it may be that the deeds were never changed and the ownership is still shown as your fathers with the secured loan attached.

_m__3

Thanks for advice.

Unfortunately the land registry in Southern Ireland doesn't seem as straight forward as here in the UK however once I make sense of the advice on 'land deeds' and 'land registry' i'll get on to it.

Would you happen to know what the legal situation is in terms of securing a loan against a property abroad? It had been suggested to me that due to the laws in southern ireland the debt recovery agency wouldn't be able to touch the property at all.

silvercar

On the face of it, it seems they haven't touched the property. So it could have been a threat to pressurise your father to repay the loan.

I have no knowledge of the law abroad.

I would have thought that someone could sign a document in the UK giving a property abroad as security for a loan for a UK company and that document would have validity in the UK. So for example, the debt would be excluded from bankruptcy as it is secured. Whether this means that the property could be repossessed overseas may be a separate matter than would depend on the law overseas. just my personal opinion.

lil'H

keys work no-one has been inside for years, sounds like the company never took pocession of it, maybe your dad actually still owns it?