Old Halifax Mortgage / Tomlin Orders / New Question!

john.burn

Hi all,

I'll try to make this clear (it's anything but to me at least). It's a long story so I'll summarize it if I can.

Had a house repossessed in 1999 which the Halifax sold in 2000 with a loss or shortfall of almost £8900. This fell short in time frames for the statute whereby they won't chase you any longer and upon finally buying another house in 2007 they came after me for the money. Plus interest. So it's about 13k or so. I got some advice on here at the time (thread appears to be gone) and ended up getting a firm of solicitors involved to try and avoid going to court so ended up with a Tomlin order to pay the amount at £110 per month. Plus a nice bill form the solicitors I engaged for £1800. Ouch. Moving forward....

I was going through all the paperwork again as it's always bugged me and noticed something about a higher lending charge / policy and funds of almost £5500 being claimed back by the Halifax from this. So, to me, if they had a policy taken out and it only paid them out £5500 then how is that my problem? And if they are to receive this money then how can they reclaim it from me again? So, I spoke to the FOS and logged a complaint as I couldn't get the Halifax to explain this to me. Moving forward to a phonecall from them today...

They have told me this charge / policy would only have paid £5500 and they have not received that so their loss is still £8900 so they are coming to me for this full amount (plus interest). I can't get my head around this at all. How is this my fault that they lent me more than they should (I get that) but the policy they took out to protect them hasn't paid them and wouldn't pay them the full amount? Does anyone have a clue on this? They are getting an expert to call me later apparently and I will get them to put this in writing. From what the guy told me today, this money is actually owed to the policy company and it should had been made clear by the intermediary company who sold me the mortgage how this would work (they didn't and they went bankrupt a long time ago). So, again, how does all this work? Anyone got any clues?

Also, they stated the policy was from the Royal Assurance Company who, according to the FSA have never existed - the Halifax this morning said that they are actually now Aviva. So, if it's them the money is actually owed to, and not the halifax then does the 6 year statute for debt come into play in any way as surely Aviva should have been asking me to pay them back as they'd paid the Halifax.

Thanks! If anything isn't clear please ask! I know this is not that clear, apologies!!

Regards,
John.

john.burn

Ok, the Halifax have called back again and this is what they've said...

The cover I paid for was for a policy between the Royal Assurance Company (now aviva) and the Halifax in case I defaulted or the house got repossessed. Apparently with this then the Halifax can then recover the total debt from me and pay this figure back pro rata, both the themselves and Aviva. So I've asked for copies of the policy I signed and the T's & C's and asked for them to explain this in plain English. I don't understand if any money has actually been paid to the Halifax via Aviva or if the Halifax has ever in fact been asked by Aviva to recover the £5500 or so. I did ask but she said this was not how this worked and they (the Halifax) would automatically come after me for the total amount.

So I'm wondering, if this part of the debt (that is being collected on behalf on another company) could ever have been statute barred in any way and is it worth me contacting Aviva to see if this is even still live on their systems?

Does this make any more sense?


Regards,
John.

Tixy

I think you do need to see the documents.

Usually mortgage shortfalls are not Statute barred until 12 years after the date, and I imagine it will somehow fall under these rules rather than the 6year timescale for other debts.

Did she say she'd agree to send out copies of the paperwork? If they won't you might need to do a formal subject access request under the DPA.

Are you still paying off this debt at £100 per month at the moment?

john.burn

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I know that mortgage shortfalls aren't statute barred for 12 years however I was wondering about insurances and policies around them and if they had a different ruling as this was a policy in case the mortgage fell into arrears / repossessed so wasn't a mortgage itself.

She is going to send me copy's and did say this all would have been made clear to me at the time, but i wasn't - I'd remember that for sure - a case of 'you pay this amount to protect us and we still come after you' would have rang bells' lol.

And yes, I am still paying the debt off but it's not easy.

John.