Mum sick with worry - please help.

Mojisola

noodles86 wrote: »

This very same thing happened to my nan. She got divorced in 1982 with 3 children and she won the house (didnt have to move) she received a letter in 2009 in regards to the debt and interest accrued. As you say, it was a bit of a shock for her too and my uncle who still lives at home tried to fight it tooth and nail but was told that the only way they could stop the interest rising would be to sell the house. So that's what they did. My uncle bought the house last june and he and my nan still live there. Hope this helps a little x

Didn't the debt have to be paid off when the house was sold?

markandkate

Legal aid is a loan not a grant and any monies secured or acquired can be subject to charge back by the LSC. As other posters have said the LSC will put a chrage on your proprty which accrues annual interest. In contacting your mother the LSC are reminding her about the debt. If your mother carries on living in the property then nothing will happen except that interst will still accrue. What they have done by writing to her is to give her the opportunity to settle the debt as she may have savings with low interest or prefer to borrow the money to pay the loan back as the interest rate on her loan may be less than the charge.

If your mom does nothing then the only people this charge will affect are you and your sibllings who are possibly going to inherit the house and you may want to take the view that the you all want to club together to clear this charge if you have savings.

As this is a legal charge the statute of limitations does not apply. The other name for this is a Statutory Charge as your mom used public money to secure the house.

noodles86

Mojisola wrote: »

Didn't the debt have to be paid off when the house was sold?

Yes, sorry didn't realise I hadn't made that clear. I meant they did it to pay off the legal aid and to stop any more interest being added - sorry x

jakjay

I recieved legal aid in 1999 and was told a statutory charge would be put on my property. I sold that house in 2002 with no mention in the paperwork of repaying the charge. I have not heard from the legal aid board since then does this mean the charge is still outstanding and what should i do about it?

loztredders

DUTR wrote: »

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

Not many people have thousands of pounds spare to be fair!

tiamaria

I got divorced with legal aid help 18 years ago. I was aware of the charge and the interest and every year I received a statement.

As I hate debt of any kind I worked really hard to repay it in dribs and drabs and I asked them for a final statement after 5 years so I could pay the rest back. I knew it was about the £700 mark. They replied to me with a bill for another 1k more than the statements were saying. On querying this it turned out they had been sending incorrect statements to me every year. Although I was upset about this and even went to the Ombudsman I still had to pay the extra, they said even though the statements were wrong I still owed the money.

I don't think you'll be able to get out of it based on my experience, they'll just say you owe the money regardless of whether you knew it or not. I did however, get let off the interest so if you can prove you've had no information or notifications maybe that's something you can pursue?

Gigervamp

Old thread alert. OP hasn't been back since last September.

Nicki

Gigervamp wrote: »

Old thread alert. OP hasn't been back since last September.

It was revived by a newbie with a completely different question, also related to the statutory charge, which has not been answered yet.

jakjay wrote: »

I recieved legal aid in 1999 and was told a statutory charge would be put on my property. I sold that house in 2002 with no mention in the paperwork of repaying the charge. I have not heard from the legal aid board since then does this mean the charge is still outstanding and what should i do about it?

Jakjay - hijacking threads to add your own question rarely works, especially when they are old threads which have died off, as people look at the the date of the first post and move on. You'd be better off starting a new thread with your question to be honest.