legal services commision

gmjawajrm

hi, just a bit of advice please , my mom got divorced in 1981, she kept the house and the mortgage was paid off , this morning 23,8,2011 ,30 years later she has recieved a letter from legal services commision say she owes them £1136.94 because she recieved legal aid and chose to postpone her payment to the solicitor and it was transfered to a charge on the property , it also says says the letter replaces the annual statements , my mom has never even heard of legal services commission ,let alone had any letters of them before annually or otherwise ,she cant contact the solicitor as they no longer exist , well it was 30 years ago, she is now a pensioner and is worried about this charge which she didnt know existed , when she showed me this letter my first thought it was a scam of some sort , i thought legal aid was free ?, so could anybody out there give us some advice please on what to do and who to seek advice from , cheers

Tixy

I would start by seeing if there is a charge registered against the property - you can do this by contacting the land registry. Once you know this you can establish it will be a start to establishing if this is genuine or a scam.

crazyguy

Check out the firm with this website : http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/

Sounds a bit dubious to me but I am sure the website above can confirm or deny if this is a scam

piscky

I also received a dubious letter from Legal Services. Asking for money. I had charge put on property 27 years ago as I could not afford to pay. The only condition was that when the property was sold the Commission was entitled to their money back at no interest. I am trying to find a legal document that sets out the criteria for the Commision to legally to do this. So far I have not found one. Interest was introduced some years ago and that was not back dated. The only documents I can find are the Regulations and one about how to pay. Nothing to do with back dating. As far as I am concerned it is illegal to try to change a contract that was made 27 years ago. I am sure it could not be done in any other circumstances. Please let me know if you manage to find the necessary documents before I do

fatbelly

Sounds normal to me. She would have been informed at the time. There's a leaflet here. Your mum should know that interest is applied at 8%, so if she has savings earning 2 - 3% it may be worth paying this off. Otherwise it gets cleared when the house is sold