Please help me with probate and my Mum's mortgage

undertheradar_2

I am in a mess.

My Mum died three months ago. I am her executor. She owned a house in her sole name with a mortgage of approximately 1/4 of the value of the property outstanding with 9 years left to run. Unable to claim on life or mortgage insurances as her cancer deemed pre-existing condition.

Spoke to the mortgage company soon after her death and was told that the mortgage account would be frozen until grant of probate was provided. Spoke to them several times since trying to ascertain mortgage details (term, monthly repayment, outstanding balance, early repayment charges, current status of account) for the probate forms which they were repeatedly unable to provide due to data protection, so I was told absolutely nothing, had to estimate everything from patchy records. They said they would have spoken to a solicitor had I employed one!

Anyway got the Grant, and sent it off, and now they will talk to me. They transferred the account into my name without telling me on my Mum's death and the account is now £2400 in arrears, which is sitting on my credit record and has been for the last few months whilst we tried and tried to get a Buy-to-let mortgage only to be refused again and again due to 'arrears' I maintained I did not have. I have the money to pay it/them - and had it all along if they had ever asked for it but they didn't, just said the account was frozen till probate.

I need the buy-to-let mortgage to provide for the dependants I inherited along with this house, and if these arrears stay on my credit I'll not be able to get one for at least three years. Please help, what do I do now?

TonyMMM

Data Protection certainly did not apply (it only relates to "living individuals")

The problem may be that the account should have been transferred into the name of "The executor of ......" rather than you personally as an individual until probate is granted and everything settled.

The money your mum owed on the mortgage will have to be cleared, either by the beneficiary (I assume you ?) paying the amount owing (from savings or by taking out another mortgage) and keeping the house...or by selling the house , paying off the mortgage and then distributing the remaining proceeds.

I am confused about why you need a Buy to Let for mortgage for the "dependants" ...who are they and what did your mum's will say about them ?

undertheradar_2

Thankyou for your reply.

I already have a mortgage on my own house. My mother cared for my very elderly grandmother and handicapped uncle who are still living at her house, being cared for at a distance as best I can by me at the moment. I need to get a buy-to-let mortgage to move them close to me (literally round the corner) so I can care for them, as I am tied in my house at the moment. There is a house up for sale very close which would be perfect hence the application for mortgage recently. I hope that makes sense, iti is a complicated situation.

ETA my Mum's will said nothing about them but I do need to share the proceeds from the property with siblings who are not in a position to care for them...

Fire_Fox

Why are missed payments on your mum's mortgage sitting on your credit file? Do you have joint financial products? Why do grandmother and uncle need to be homeowners, can't you just sell the house and move them close to you into rental accommodation? If you had the money to pay the mortgage why didn't you pay it? If you are struggling with understanding probate why not get a solicitor on board? Did you get a WRITTEN assurance that the mortgage would be frozen and no charges applied?

SouthCoast

They said they would have spoken to a solicitor had I employed one!

Sometimes independant professional advice can be money well spent.

trubble

The account should be as above - 'The executors of....'.
The mortgage co should be aware of that - that is their mistake, 100%.
Speak to their bereavement dept (they should have a specific team well versed in this area).
Failing that, find a local solicitor (not one of the big useless factories - someone independant) who deals with probates and ask them for advice.
Bear in mind the advice might at worst cost you £100 or so for half an hour of their time as they may be wary of being sued - some don't like to give out informal free advice now because of the threat of legal action for offering people free help - but it may be money well spent for the advice and the stress relief!

magpiecottage

I would complain to the lender as they have clearly been unco-operative.

There is, as has been said already, no data protection issue if the subject is no longer living and as their personal legal representative they should have co-operated with you. The argument that they would only speak to a solicitor is absolute nonsense. All they needed was to see the death certificate.

As the personal legal representative, you have the right to take the lender to the Financial Ombudsman Service but the usual rules apply - i.e. they have eight weeks to sort it out themselves first and you have six months from their final response to go to FOS.

If the lender has registered a debt and "arrears" that were your late mother's against you personally, then you ought to be entitled to redress for any losses resulting from that error.

DVardysShadow

SouthCoast wrote: »

They said they would have spoken to a solicitor had I employed one!

Sometimes independant professional advice can be money well spent.

I'm outraged by that. This is purely an incompetent lender not giving an Executor information which they would have given to a solicitor. Information the OP is entitled to.

DVardysShadow

undertheradar wrote: »

... They transferred the account into my name without telling me on my Mum's death and the account is now £2400 in arrears, which is sitting on my credit record and has been for the last few months whilst we tried and tried to get a Buy-to-let mortgage only to be refused again and again due to 'arrears' I maintained I did not have. I have the money to pay it/them - and had it all along if they had ever asked for it but they didn't, just said the account was frozen till probate.

I need the buy-to-let mortgage to provide for the dependants I inherited along with this house, and if these arrears stay on my credit I'll not be able to get one for at least three years. Please help, what do I do now?

Lender is totally out of order to put this on your credit record. As others say, the account should be 'Executor of <Mother>". I suggest a quick notice of correction to your credit file, a complaint to the Lender's data control department with a 7 day turn around on rectification and refer the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office.

undertheradar_2

Thankyou for all your replies.

Timeline was something like this: mother dies, I inform them of the death, they ask for death cert and will, sent, I call to ask about what next, they inform me account frozen from date of death awaiting G.O.P and amount outstanding will be claimed from my Mum's estate. Any attempt to get any more info at all was met with 'we cannot tell you due to data protection' again and again and again. Eventually after they stated that they couldn't possibly tell me the exact amount outstanding, and that I would have to estimate it from the paperwork I had for the probate form...which I did the next day, and the day after that they sent me a letter with the exact amount. I really don't think they know what they are talking about. I have been informed that they do not have a bereavement or probate team.

What they actually did was transfer the mortgage to my name the day they got the DC and will - so more than two months ago, and I have not heard a bean from them about any payment needing to be made - if I had I'd have paid it from my own personal funds. I asked them again and again about amounts and account status but was repeatedly told I was not entitled to that info until GOP provided. I even had a letter from them yesterday thanking me for GOP and nowhere did it mention arrears! I don't/didn't have trouble understanding probate, that is all done and dusted.

Yes it is on my credit file, I have now seen it. I have already escalated this to a complaint with the company and hope to hear back from them within 24 hours.

Thanks

pimento

Is it Santander by any chance?