Charge on Deeds

Chris1943

WE are currently selling our house to move to a smaller property as we are now recently retired (both in our late 60s) We had a residual mortgage with NAtionwide which we cleared and received the deeds. I was surprised to discover a charge of £7000 in relation to a loan obtained from Natwest in 1990 The loan was a career development loan for a PGCE as I could not get one from my local authority. I could not work for over 5 years afterwards as I had both my mother aged 85 and parents in law aged 78 and 77 in poor health and requiring nursing.

I have enquired from Natwest what this all amounts to and a great deal of it is bank charges. The original loan was for £3500

Is there anything that can be done about this? The property is jointly owned and neither of us ever signed anything.

DVardysShadow

Did you take the loan? Did you pay anything back? Are you sure you never signed anything authorising a charge to be placed?

Short of info on this, although it seems that a lot rides on whether the charge was rightfully placed or not.

Chris1943

I did take out the loan but never paid anything out as it could only be activated when I started work Neither of us can remember signing anything. According to Natwest the charge was put on in 1997. The last time I had any contact with them was a letter in 1994 to say the account was being referred to their specialist team. I never heard another thing and closed my current account with them in 1995

chambta

Chris1943 wrote: »

I did take out the loan but never paid anything out as it could only be activated when I started work Neither of us can remember signing anything. According to Natwest the charge was put on in 1997. The last time I had any contact with them was a letter in 1994 to say the account was being referred to their specialist team. I never heard another thing and closed my current account with them in 1995

What do you mean by 'never paid anything out'?

Do you mean you didn't receive the loan funds or you didn't pay them back?

Chris1943

I didn't pay anything back is what I meant. Sorry for the confusion

Alter_ego

Did you fill in and sign a loan application?

chambta

Chris1943 wrote: »

I didn't pay anything back is what I meant. Sorry for the confusion

As far as I know the Natwest loans you describe have never been secured.

I know with current unsecured loans it is possible for banks to apply to the court for a charging order though when this became possible I'm not sure.

It'd be difficult for this to happen without you being aware though as you'd likely have had a CCJ first.

paddedjohn

so why are you disputing the charge on the property if you owe them money?

MrandMrsB

The deeds aren't particularly relevant these days, it's what is registered with the land registry that is important. You can do a land registry check online.

They could not have put the charge on the house unless you signed a legal charge or mortgage, or defaulted so the court have made a charging order in favour of the bank (but you would know about that!). You can get a copy from the land registry if there is a charge.

dodger1

Chris1943 wrote: »

WE are currently selling our house to move to a smaller property as we are now recently retired (both in our late 60s) We had a residual mortgage with NAtionwide which we cleared and received the deeds. I was surprised to discover a charge of £7000 in relation to a loan obtained from Natwest in 1990 The loan was a career development loan for a PGCE as I could not get one from my local authority. I could not work for over 5 years afterwards as I had both my mother aged 85 and parents in law aged 78 and 77 in poor health and requiring nursing.

I have enquired from Natwest what this all amounts to and a great deal of it is bank charges. The original loan was for £3500

Is there anything that can be done about this? The property is jointly owned and neither of us ever signed anything.

Ok, you couldn't work or pay off the loan for five years after taking out the loan due to caring for relatives, fair enough. So from let's say from 1996 onwards why didn't you pay the loan back when you were working. As you've only recently retired that's quite a long time you've had to pay off the loan. You spent the money they lent you and now it needs to be repaid, man up.

Chris1943

Yes I did sign a loan application in 1991
PAdded John - try reading what's going on before you charge in with platitudes

I should have explained that this is unregistered land, so it is a charge if it were registered it would be a notice.

The amount is the real issue because I was told in 1994 that if it went to their recoveries section charges would be frozen, but this does not seem to be the case.

Chambta this is what I thought, but there is no CCJ