outrageous mortgage dilemma !!!!!!

mickeymumx

Hi all , am posting for a friend as she has no pc, who really needs some help,

basically she is getting a divorce and changed her mortgage in june to her name only, she was told verbally that this was fine and the new paperwork would be sent out, she recieved documents but they were a little complex and she signed and sent back as nothing had seemingly changed except the name etc.....

she recieved on friday a court letter saying she was being taken to court for repossession , as she hadnt been paying the full amount of her mortgage, it had gone up from £600 pm to £900 , however she pays by ddebit and £600 has been collected every month, no missed. she called them and they are saying they are now going to reconsider the mortgage as they feel she can no longer afford it, ??????????

can they do this ?? surely the ddebit details are the responsability of the mortgage lender? and she has had no correspondance about the change of amount etc...and has never missed a payment, they havnt told her anything about not recieving the full amount, the first she heard about it was the court letter....any advice would be really welcome, as a single mum of 2 she is scared witless,

many thanks xxxxx

herbiesjp

The direct debit is indeed controlled by the mortgage lender - they have to give prior notice of any change in the payment amount.

You should get them to explain why they have not taken the payments

dunstonh

Its possible that you are not getting the full story.

Lenders go to court as a last resort. It just doesnt turn up out of the blue like this. There would be multiple letters, even phone calls. Only if they get no response to their corrospondence would they then proceed with court action.

If the mortgage was in joint names before and a name was removed then it is uncommon for a repossession to be sought if payments are being met. If the mortgage was in sole name and needed to be re-issued in her name, then this is a new lending decision and they can (and often do) reject if they feel it is not affordable.

Obviously the payment issue needs to be sorted and it should be difficult to get an answer as to what has happened there. She needs to speak to the lender and get some answers.

1 - why did they not increase the direct debit?
2 - why are the repossessing when all direct debits have been paid (error on amount being their fault)?
3 - why have they begun court action without any prior notification?
4 - did they change the mortgage to her name?

MarkyMarkD

More than likely (and sorry for crystal ball gazing) the OP's friend was paying by standing order, not direct debit - for some mysterious reason, a large proportion of the population can't understand the difference between these completely different things.

In which case it would be her fault for underpaying, but they would still have contacted her MANY times before getting to the repossession stage.

No lender wants to repossess - it's far better to have a customer paying their mortgage for the long term than to repossess and potentially lose money selling for less than the loan value.

jamesd

The reason for the mortgage repayment changing from 600 to 900 would also be interesting. It may be that they changed her from a reduced rate to SVR or some other high interest product. Or possibly changed from interest only to repayment.