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maca1170

In 2005 my dad thought he had paid off his mortgage. Then unfotunatley he came down with dementia.
One year later my mum who was now dealing with a man with demetia started receiving letters and phone calls telling that she owed them money on her mortgage. She thought it had been paid off and did nothing about it. These letters and phone calls kept on coming asking for more and more money but mum thought it was a mistake and ignored it.
This year dad died and when me and my sisters were going through mum and dads things we found some letters from the mortgage company asking for over £3000 we were gob smacked because mum never said anything.
It took us ages to manage to talk to anyone to find out what this £3000 was. Not even the mortgage company knew. Then we found out that DAD underpaid his last mortgage payement by 43p. The £3000 pound was not from the 43p it was house insurance. Mum canciled the house insurance when she thought the morgage was paid off, but she never opened any new insurance. Because the mortgage was not paid off it was law that you had to have house insurance. So now they are demanding over £3000 pounds.
In that first year Why did nobody from the HALIFAX cantact mum ad ask for 43p?

Is there anything we can do?

Thrugelmir

maca1170 wrote: »

In that first year Why did nobody from the HALIFAX cantact mum ad ask for 43p?

Is there anything we can do?

Why did your mother ignore all the phone calls and letters that arrived from 2006 onwards? Considering your late fathers state of mind.

You can hardly blame the Halifax for a lack of action. When all attempts to contact were ignored and 5 years has passed.

hcb42

this doesnt make a lot of sense?

Compulsory buildings insurance, for most properties, would not add up to £3K over 5 years, indeed most people can get combined buildings and contents for much less than that.

In my opinion though, the halifax communicate regularly regarding charges etc, and as you acknowledge you have had letters which have been ignored, more so the building has been insured, when, according to the OP, it hasn't been elsewhere. If the building had burned down, we might have been looking at a different thread, the building has been on risk, and insurance needs to be paid for.

picardygirl

Im sure the last five years for you and your family have been rather demanding, i have personally dealt with a close member of our family with dementia, so know from personal experience how hard it is to deal with on a day to day basis, it sounds like your mum has just buried her head in the sand and didnt want to deal with it ........ but the way i'm reading your post is that the Halifax did try on several occasions to contact your Mum, by letter and telephone, what more could they do?

Yet you say, why didnt they contact her to discuss the outstanding 43p .... they did, and she chose to ignore them.

Why did your Mum think she didnt need insurance when the mortgage was paid off? If something awful was to happen to the house, has she got the funds to pay to rebuild after a fire or flood etc?

maca1170

I can see your argument.
No on asked her for the 43p they asked her £300 after one year.
No on contacted her for a full year.
As far as she knew the mortgage was paid off.

This is an old lady who was caring for a man with demetia. Not educated in any form of modern technolagy Her children all live on all four corners of the country.

Fair enough she should not have stopped the house insurance and I don't know why she did.

Why did the Halifax when they knew she wasn't paying up send out a court order.

Not every one is as clever as some

anh1904

While on the surface of things you don't have much of a case, I would imagine that if you appeal to the Halifax based on all the facts you have presented, then there may well be some room for negotiation.

If not, it sounds like tohe sort of thing Watchdog love to get hold of, so you could always try that route.

43p to £3000 is never going to make for good PR, so there will be something that someone can do for sure.

maca1170

Thank you anh1904

maca1170

The Halifax keeps on telling us that the home insurance is not part of the mortgage company and the insurance company keeps telling us that they are seperate to the mortgage company If I went into the halifax and paid off the 43p plus any interest on the 43p would that be the mortgage paid off. Then we could sort out the insurance separatley.

I have asked the Halifax this but they could not answer the question.

I also asked the insurance company if mums house had burnt down and her insurance was in arrears would they pay out even if mum paid her arrears after the event.

So was she insured or was she not insured or has she got to pay for something that she would never have been entitled to.

They couldn't answer that one either.

I still cannot believe some one didn't tell them when they went to pay the last payment give us 43p and it's paid off. The mortgage company didn't contact them until one year later. If nobody tells you and your conviced you have paid it off how would you feel one year later when you get a leter saying you owe money.

Yes mum was stupid for not sorting it but the Halifax should have took more action, were's the customer relations or customer care??? 25 years they paid, never missed a payment, from the day they took out the mortgage to the day they thought they paid it off. £25000 for which they probabley payed back over £100000

ViolaLass

maca1170 wrote: »

If nobody tells you and your convinced you have paid it off how would you feel one year later when you get a letter saying you owe money.

I would feel inclined to ask the bank why they thought I owed them money, not stick my head in the sand with letter after letter coming through the door - one letter could be a mistake, but several? Did your mother ask the bank why they thought she still owed them money?

GMS

Halifax are right to insure the property if the borrower does not do so. The mortgage and insurance part of Halifax will be seperate but this is not really an issue.

If the property had burnt down Halifax had it insured and as a result could reinstate their security. Halifax had the property insured, not your Mum. It is standard for any insurance put in place by the lender to be charged to the mortgage account.

This is a prime example of why a solicitor should be used to discharge a lender. For the sake of a few hundered pounds (if that) the Halifax charge would have been released. Very often there are people who state that it can be done by anybody. It is true if that person underatands it but unfortunately, as in this case can be potentially disastrous if not.

OP I have every sympathy with your predicament but can see the lender point of view too.

Get a breakdown of the costs. You will probably find arrears charges (as payments were not made to the account), admin charges for letters sent (which you acknowledge) and interest.

Had the amount involved not been so trivial as 43p then the Halifax would not seem to have been so harsh, despite the situation being similar.

Have you tried speaking to a manager at Halifax. Also put something in writing.

Explain the situation, that your Dad was ill and your Mum was finding things difficult. The insurance has been in place regardless so this needs to be paid for. It is down to the amount to be paid and how it is done. A sensible person will look at this and come up with a solution to suit all parties. If it was me I would be offering to pay for the insurance premiums for the period, acknowledging that any policy taken out elsewhere would usually include interest for monthly payments rather than annual ones. Arrears and admin charges could be looked at and reduced accordingly. Then try to come up with a way to pay which causes least hardship for all concerned.

Had the property been reduced to rubble there was insurance in place. Without it the losses would have bene huge.

Once the debt is cleared you need Halifax to release their charge. Get a solicitor to do it to ensure it is done. I think the form needed from Halifax is a DS1 which would then go to the Land Registry but I would leave this to a solicitor after all you have been through.

Good luck with it, I hope you can reach a sensible conclusion with Halifax

maca1170

Thanks for your advice.

It is good to have someone explain it with open eyes and not just Knock some one for been less experienced than them self.

I still cannot beleive it took 1 full year for the bank to contact her. 43 chuffin p

Thank you

It's OK for people like us. I myself would have questioned the bank. But if I were in the situation as my mum was. Not very well educated and never understud banks or finance not very good a communicating. She didn't berry her head in the sand she was so scared and exhausted she could'nt even tell her kids.
Just think one day your there with the man you love and lived with for 40yrs Then all of a sudden bosch. I tell ya I hope nobody has to do what mum had to do with dad. It's easy for us to say do this do that but I tell you what, I hope nobody has to look after a 72yr old toddler who can't even dress him self and goes in and out of fits and tempers.