credit card company wants to sell my home

hsgamboy

Hi

I am a 1st time user after many months of reading everyone’s threads. I have to say that this is a brilliant site and full credit to all of you.

Enough said, I have a massive problem and need your help.

I ran up my American Express credit card to 2k and couldn’t repay the debt. Couple of weeks ago I received a county court judgement to repay £4K and this week I received correspondence from both the solicitor acting on behalf of American Express and the Land registry that my creditor had applied to register their interest on my property and provided I don’t dispute or object by mid-Jan 2007 this would be the case.

My property is a Share Ownership scheme – 50% belongs to the housing association and the other 50% to me and my ex-girlfriend (she moved out over 3 years ago and I had been paying the mortgage, we are in the process of taking her name off the mortgage)

My question is – and bearing in mind that I cannot pay the £4K they are demanding;

1) Can my creditor and its solicitor legally exercise this threat?
2) Can they force both the Housing Association and me to sell our property to pay off the measly £4k debt?
3) When I do sell my share of the house, in 21 year (after paying off my mortgage) will they just be entitled to just the £4k or also the equity made on the property as well?

The property is worth £166k, I owe 83k of which 55k is mortgage.
I only want advice/suggestion and no criticisms please on why can’t I just pay up. I will pay the debt back in less than two years time when I am in a better financial situation. I don’t either want to borrow on my mortgage just to pay off this debt.
Look forward to your replies.

Robert_Sterling

hsgamboy wrote:

I only want advice/suggestion and no criticisms please on why can’t I just pay up.

That is OK by me.

Ian_W

We all make mistakes, mate. You don't need me or anyone else to tell you that defaulting on a Card is one. Nuff said?

I don't know enough to give you proper advice - post with details of you income/expenditure etc on the debt free wannabe board, loads of good folk on there who will advise better.

What I do know is that putting a legal charge on the property is A MILLION MILES away from taking it off you. All it means is that you can't sell it w/o repaying them first - so stop worrying about losing your home.

You need to get it sorted ASAP as the interest will continue to rack up if you don't. Hope that helps and BoL for 2007.

hsgamboy

Cheers Ian for your reply happy new year too

MortgageMamma

Could you not remortgage and pay it off to stop them putting a charge on the property?

Raksha

IIRC putting a charge on the property means *when* you sell it, they have a legal claim on any money left after the mortgage is paid - it does NOT mean they are forcing you to sell now, this instant.

meanmachine_2

I'm no expert, but...

The credit card company has nothing to do with the housing association. The HA doesn't owe Amex anything.

I should think therefore that they'll be putting a charge on the 50% that you own.

If it is a "measly 4K" as you state, then remortgage and pay it.

Unless you have other debts that haven't been mentioned.

leo5000

1) Can my creditor and its solicitor legally exercise this threat?

yes - if any debt is defaulted any creditor can register their interest in the debtors property
2) Can they force both the Housing Association and me to sell our property to pay off the measly £4k debt?

as previously stated, they do not have the power of sale but will be entitled to their 4k when you sell the property
3) When I do sell my share of the house, in 21 year (after paying off my mortgage) will they just be entitled to just the £4k or also the equity made on the property as well?
no they won't be entitled to equity but may be entitled to interest. you would have to check the terms of the judgement. One thing that occurs to me is that you are paying your ex off and transferring the property into your name. I'm not sure if this may trigger something off whereby you may need to clear the judgement should the judgement be in place prior to transfering the property into your name. I would seriously check this point with a solicitor or maybe the citizens advice bureau. good luck i hope you manage to sort it out.

hsgamboy

thanks everyone.

I am currently tied in to my mortgage deal until may this year (redemption fee of £3900 if i cahnge before then). I was hoping to remortgage and increase my stake to 75% or even 100% either through my current lender or whole market broker. This seems unlikely now with this cc event. This is the only debt I have and a £800 overdraft. I have never missed any of mortgage repayments either.

I intend to pay the debt in small regular payments from this point provided the CC company allows that. Otherwise I will just have to bank on my wife finishing her studies (ACCA, accountancy) get a job thus puts us on a better financial position to make much higher repayments or pay it off altogether. This can only happen in couple of years time though.

I can't take up a part-time job as I already work 40hrs per week and also doing a p/t (two evenings) MSc Computer Science. My take home pay is good but wth a wife and child to support, it get stretched.

Has anyone had such experience and managed to arrange a small repayment on a monthly basis - say about £30 per month?

Also if I manage to re-mortgage in order to buy an extra 25% stake (which I doubt very much I will be able to with this CCJ), do does the land registry has to be involved, hence the CC company knowing. The extra money I will need when I remortgage is £41k(25% stake), £82k (for the whole 50%) and of ocourse the extra £4K to pay off the CC debt.

Any more ideas please, thanks a lot

brasso

I don't understand why you've received a CCJ. You should be talking to Amex and arranging a repayment schedule to suit you both. They don't want to sue or take your house, they just want their money back.

hsgamboy

Thanks every one,

I am going to offer the CC company £20-£30 per month until my financial circumstance improves in a couple of years time and then increase my repayment.

Is this the best route to take? What would you personally do?

thanks alot