Mum sick with worry - please help.

fifa123

Hiya

I'm a long time lurker, but never had to register before. Please can someone help me out? Sorry if this is in the wrong section. and it's a little bit long.
My mother divorced my father 22 years ago, it was very messy. They had to go to court over the house that was in joint names and needed to be sold. Mum won, as long as she used the proceeds from the house sale to buy a home for herself and me and my 3 siblings.
Mum was a SAHM and had no money for a solicitor, so she qualified for legal aid. Now on Tuesday, after all this time, she has received a letter from the LSC (I think that's the name) suddenly saying that she owes them £13000 because of all the interest that has accrued over the years.
This has really hit mum for 6, because she isn't in the best of health, and at the time of her divorce when she was sorting all this out, the solicitor she hired made no mention of this ever needing to be paid back.
She is now frantic with worry that they are going to take her home. As you can imagine, 13k is a heck of a lot of money and she is adamant that no one told her that they would eventually come for this money. Like I said, she isn't in the best of health and she only gets sickness benefit, which isn't much and sometimes she struggles to get by. They have sent a form for her to fill in all her in/outgoings etc, but's very basic and she's really upset that all of a sudden she is £13k in debt and didn't know.
Does anybody have any advice in helping her to deal with this please?
Thankyou.

DUTR

Welcome to the forum, could yourself and your sibling not help your Mum out with the monies?

Mojisola

fifa123 wrote: »

Mum was a SAHM and had no money for a solicitor, so she qualified for legal aid. Now on Tuesday, after all this time, she has received a letter from the LSC (I think that's the name) suddenly saying that she owes them £13000 because of all the interest that has accrued over the years.

She's had no contact for 22 years from them about interest? Have they just found her paperwork down the back of an old filing cabinet?

McKneff

Sorry I didnt want to read and run.
I presume its the legal aid people *I dont know what LSC is short for) who are wanting paid back. I think she would probably have signed something at the time to be honest.

I'm sure there will be more people along regarding the legalites etc who are a lot more knowledgeable, please be patient, let them
get in from work and dinner over with.

Apart from that, she could get half an hour free consultation from a solicitor

Annie

joess

Under the Limitation act of 1980. No one can chase a debt older than 6 years old.

dirtysexymonkey

fifa123 wrote: »

Hiya

I'm a long time lurker, but never had to register before. Please can someone help me out? Sorry if this is in the wrong section. and it's a little bit long.
My mother divorced my father 22 years ago, it was very messy. They had to go to court over the house that was in joint names and needed to be sold. Mum won, as long as she used the proceeds from the house sale to buy a home for herself and me and my 3 siblings.
Mum was a SAHM and had no money for a solicitor, so she qualified for legal aid. Now on Tuesday, after all this time, she has received a letter from the LSC (I think that's the name) suddenly saying that she owes them £13000 because of all the interest that has accrued over the years.
This has really hit mum for 6, because she isn't in the best of health, and at the time of her divorce when she was sorting all this out, the solicitor she hired made no mention of this ever needing to be paid back.
She is now frantic with worry that they are going to take her home. As you can imagine, 13k is a heck of a lot of money and she is adamant that no one told her that they would eventually come for this money. Like I said, she isn't in the best of health and she only gets sickness benefit, which isn't much and sometimes she struggles to get by. They have sent a form for her to fill in all her in/outgoings etc, but's very basic and she's really upset that all of a sudden she is £13k in debt and didn't know.
Does anybody have any advice in helping her to deal with this please?
Thankyou.

what does the letter actually state?

you may get more responses in the debt free wannabe board too. the people over there will have some great advice for you and might not see it here, so if you ask one of the board guides im sure theyll move it for you.:)

DS4215

I'm not an expert but I think a few people have posted about these kind of nasty surprises recently. It might be some kind of crack down on the old "debts". If you don't get any response here, try the "DFW" board - I'm sure its been on there recently.

Mojisola

As I understand it, if the Legal Aid Services put a charge on the house, they will be adding interest to the amount. If she's on a low income, she won't have to pay it back but it will be added to what she owes which will claimed back when your mother dies and the house is sold.

It must have come as a shock to get this demand out of the blue.

dirtysexymonkey

joess wrote: »

Under the Limitation act of 1980. No one can chase a debt older than 6 years old.

thats not the whole truth. there are many many exceptions for this.

WestonDave

She will need to check her specific circumstance but sorry to say this is probably right. Legal Aid is normally granted subject to a condition that if you recover anything of value, then you have to pay back the legal costs - with a proviso that if the proceeds are used for housing yourself and family, the recovery is deferred to a future point (can't remember the specifics right now but often until the house is no longer needed). So in this instance it sounds like the costs were deferred against the house, and that this might just be a routine statement showing what her balance is, should she sell the house (it might be deferred again under some circumstances which is why she might want to check).

Not sure why they are asking for income and outgoings though as it should still be on a deferred charge, unless its because the children are now beyond the age where a family home is required. There is a potential real issue here so she should get some proper advice - phoning the LSC helplines might be a good start if there is a phone number on the letter.

gratefulforhelp_2

DUTR wrote: »

Welcome to the forum, could yourself and your sibling not help your Mum out with the monies?

Steady Freddie, we don't want her paying money she's not liable for.

If this was me, I would see a solicitor with experience of statute barred debts.

You may want to re-post on DFW.

Not ALL debts are statute barred after 6 years, e.g. a mortgage would be 12.

Your Mum would get good advice, free, from national debtline.