Left the UK, Out of our minds with worry

overseasgal

Hello, thanks for this forum.

I hope someone can point me in the direction I need to find, I am making myself ill with worry over our debts in the UK. Sorry for the length of the post, I am trying to give as much information as I can.

Situation is, 6 years ago we were given the opportunity to start a new life outside of the UK (within Europe). Were living in a very bad part of town,(burgled twice, drug dealers moving in, we had a young child and feared for him at times, jobs going nowhere so we took the leap. Before we left we approached our mortgage lender with a view to selling our house with neg equity of around 5K which we wanted to agree a payment plan for. They refused us point blank saying asthey couldn't enforce a debt if we were outside UK they could not allow us to do this. By this time there was no going back for us so we went ahead with the move. We agreed with our lender a 3 month suspension of mortgage payments until we got settled and the house remained on the market. After 3 months I hadnt found work, the exchange rate was shockingly low so there was no chance of us making repayments on the mortgage and we eventually handed in the keys. The property was eventually sold about a year later for 12K less than we owed. The mortgage company has never made any contact with us since we handed back the keys - despite having a forwarding address for us.

We also had other debts, a loan and a visa card. We had some corresspondance with them after we moved, the last being in December 2000 when we sent them a budget statement and offer of a nominal payment. OH has a vague recollection of getting a call from someone in the USA (WTC) early 2001 about one of the debts but we thought it strange to get a call from the US and refused to deal with them.

We have built ourselves a good life now, we are not wealthy but we get by and have no intention of returning to the UK. However we are both consumed with guilt and worry about the mess we left behind. (The only company who seem to be actively chasing us are the infamous Lowell Financial Group for an alledged Sky TV payment of 22GBP which we refused to acknowledge as we gave adequate notice of disconnection of services) We do want to honour at least a proportion of our debts but are scared stiff of approaching the lenders in case it impacts on our credit history here. Does anyone know if judgements can be "transferred" between EU countries? Part of me is thinking "if they havent contacted us in all this time they never will" but another part dreads the thought of a knock on the door one night. We have never tried to hide away, they all had our address, we are easy to find. We are far from proud of what we did but at the time it was our only option.

We cant find out if we have judgements against us as the UK credit bureaus won't send reports overseas ( even doing it online won't work) the Money Advise Places suggested here can't help as we are out of the UK and the local one here can't either as the debts are not in this country.

Does anyone have any suggesstions, shall we just ride it out and see if they contact us in the next 6 months, would it jepordise us to contact them?

Please help, I am getting sick with worry about what might happen

Bestthingsinlifearefree

If you have had no contact from your creditors for 5 years or so I would not worry about it.

If they are not worrying about your debt to chase you. Why should you worry about it ?

......if it is troubling your conscience well maybe add up all the debt and make a donation to charity (I am sure the banks will survive with their billions of pounds of profits).

seriously if there has been no contact I would not initiate contact with them.

That's my gut reaction, though what the exact legal position is is another matter.

Good Luck.

MrsTinks

Well in the UK there is a statute of limitation on debts. That means if they have not contacted you within a certain time or trie to contact you then the debt is "written off". They no longer have a legal right to that money. If you are getting near the 6 years (which I believe is the legal cut off) then I would ride this out and then forget all about it. If they later DO start chasing you for the debts you can honstly tell them that as they made no attempt to get the money in the last 6 years they are no longer legally entitled to it.
I don't generally believe in not paying back what you owe, but on the other hand I am also less and less in favour of most lenders after having more dealings with them myself both on my own behalf and on friends and relatives behalfs. They are bloodsucking scum and if you can avoid paying them then good on you!

As for your credit report in the country you are now in then I would doubt it's affected... after all it hasn't been so far has it?

Good luck in a hopefully sunnier climate than here in Brightey

Bestthingsinlifearefree

I will give you 2 specific examples that relate to me.

In the early 1990's when the govt introduced the Poll Tax in those days being a young radical I was very much against this and refused to pay on principle
I ignored every letter and in the end the Poll Tax was abolished and I paid its replacement the council tax.

In the mid 1990 I was living in the US and ran up a big, big phone bill and left the country without paying it (did not have the money).

These 2 debts were in my irresponsible :rolleyes: student years

For the last 10 years I have been a working, tax paying ,mortgage paying, living at the same address model citizen very much in the system.

If those organisations really wanted to find me I am sure they could have (as I am on the electoral register,same name,in the phone book etc etc)

But have never been chased for these debts. I assume in the end they just get written off.

I guess if you never contact your creditors and are in a different country.

Is it financially worth while for them to invest resources to track down that debt ? (even if they tracked you & others down you might not be able to pay it anyway...so they would have lost more money)

(just my thoughts not saying my views are the best way or not).

Good Luck.

lixi

The six year rule wouldn't apply here. That applies to contracts in general. However, in cases were contracts are created by deed, it is 12 years before it will become statute-barred.

Mortgages are contracts created by deed. The mortgage company will have 12 years to pursue this claim, not 6.

The relevant legislation is the Limitation Act 1980.

rchddap1

The mortgage one can still follow you up to 12 years. Happened to my MIL. In fact they knew exactly where she was and didn't bother contacting her until shortly before the time limit was up. Despite the fact that she'd lived in the same house since. This was so they could add on the maximum amount of interest. There were a few other issues involved in her case and the whole matter went to court. Fortunately due to the other issues she won.

overseasgal

Thanks for all the input. I guess with regard the loan/card I don't have to worry too much, they are well aware where we live so am guessing they are not pursuing a debt that would be expensive and almost impossible to enforce outside the UK ( I believe there is no reciprocal agreement when it comes to debts between the countries) I think the fact the 6 year "cut off" is getting near is what has brought it all to mind for me.

As for the mortgage, I knew about the 12 year thing but I read that the lender concerned had stated they would not pursue debts over 6 years old, would the debt be from the day we handed back the keys or the date of sale. We have never received any corresspondance from them at all, and they had our new address plus one of my siblings as we used her address as a forwarding one when we first moved abroad. If they did try to take us to court would we have an arguement that we had not tried to hide and they were negligent in not contacting us sooner and they sold the property for far less than we could have achieved if they had let us sell when we approached them?

It is very much a guilt/moral issue with us, I know the lenders make huge profits and have "bad debt" provision in their annual accounts and I wouldn't be too upset at some overpaid director losing a bit of a bonus but we had always paid our way in the UK and have done the same here. My OH view is, if they contact us and ask us to pay we will come to an arrangement but we should not contact them first, whereas I can't help thinking it would be better for my sanity if we just offer them some kind of payment.:huh:

rchddap1

As I said when my MIL's house was repossesed she moved straight into another property. They were informed where she was and she didn't move. However, they decided not to contact her about the amount owing until just before the 12 years were up. Don't count on the arguement of "they knew exactly where we were", or "we didn't receive any paperwork" to save you if it happens.

In her case the company quickly sold the property to someone else for much less than the market value (ie, building company back hander). My MIL's sons actually went the following day to arrange to purchase the property, but were told that it was already sold. MIL kept all the paperwork for this (including newspaper clippings). That is, she could prove that it was not put on the open market and that it was sold for far less than the market value at the time. It was this that saved her. Although it did take a huge amount of time and a 'nice expensive' solicitor. Case actually went to a number of courts to be resolved. By the end of it she was waiting for the results from an identical case that went in front of the house of lords before her case could be sorted.

I'm only telling you all this to warn you what could happen. I don't know the legalities of your situation (ie, you're outside the UK), but I'm sure someone else can advise. All I can do is tell you about our experiences.

overseasgal

It's very much appreciated! I hope someone can clarify the situation with us being outside the UK, I have searched the net but can't seem to find anything definitive. We really want to buy our own home here but with this hanging over us I am too afraid to.

My sister lives in the locality of the house we left and she said she never saw any For Sale signs or notices in the paper but I wouldn't have any real evidence to back that up. We only found out when it was sold and for how much by looking it up on nethouseprices, the lender never contacted us about it.

Pobby

``From what I remember when I was at the bank, we were always 'educated' to tell customers that we are an international company and can send your debt anywhere in the world. In theory... and team meetings, we were advised that legislation legally doesnt enitle us to the debt however just tell them that it does.

So your answer is nope !``

The question spoke about someone with a pile of debt moving to NZ.Could they be persued for it.The above quote is the answer.Hope it helps to put your mind at rest.

overseasgal

Thanks Pobby!

In a further twist, after talking with the OH and going through paperwork it transpires that: ( both of these I knew nothing about 24 hours ago!)

Our lender wrote to us via forwarding address( despite them having our new address) in early 2002 stating the house had been sold in July 2001 for even less than we were aware of (a further 5K less than we thought) however I cannot find any information on the land registry about this sale and the first sale I can find after we handed in keys was in November 2001 for the price we originally believed. According to this "statement of sale" they formally took possession in November 2000. There are no other details regarding the sale other than we apparently owed them at the time almost 17K. OH never replied to this letter it seems.

A letter was sent to our new address from Allied International Collections in January 2002 for one of the unsecured debts,demanding full and final payment or they would pass on our details to a "legal representative" in our country for further action, however OH wrote back saying he had no idea who they were and asking for the name of address of their legal rep in our new country as we would deal with them direct, no reply was ever received which suggests that it was an empty threat.

After feeling OK about all this for a few hours thanks to the comments here, I am now back to square one, even though it's over 4 years since any contact ( and OH assures me there are no other surprises in store) again I feel like I should just ring them all, make some kind of offer and deal with it. We are desperate to buy a home here after 6 years of renting but until this is sorted I feel we can't move on. Everyone knows where we are and I am just fearful that if we do buy they could come along and jepordise everything for us