Help with secured loan (welcome finance)

smiggy1981

Hi there

Could do we a bit of expert advice please,

In 2005 myself and my wife took out a secured loan of 20,000 with welcome finance all was fine until 2008 when the interest rate on our property sky rocketed due to the rise in LIBOR rates.

Unfortunately we where unable to keep up repayments on our loan and mortgage and in May 2008 we handed the keys to the property back to the mortgage and then rented a new property. Shortly afterwards welcome finance called to say that we where behind on the debt and that they would start to repossess the property if repayments where not made, I told them that I no longer had the property and that the mortgage had the keys the line went quiet and she asked me to hold the line. After about 5 mins she came back and said that she would contact the mortgage and the call was ended.

For 2 years I then had no contact with either the mortgage or with welcome and then I started to receive statements of the account every couple of months saying that I still owed 22,000 and then last week (4 years later) I had a debt collector contact me asking me to start making repayments.

I find it hard to believe that they would wait 4 years to contact me if everything was above board.

I have no idea of the price the property was sold for all I can see on my credit score is that it is settled and that there was no repossession.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Smiggy

smiggy1981

Any ideas peeps?

McKneff

Sounds like the mortgage people didnt make enough on the house to cover the loan and yo are responsible for the shorthall.

Have they given you a breakdown of the debt. They should, they have to prove that you owe it.

Im surprised no one else has been along to help.

Have a look into the statute barred rules (google it)

I believe that there is a difference between secured and unsecured so you would have to double check

geoffky

Please tell me that you did go bankrupt after you handed the keys back...otherwise i would start looking into it as they have 12 years to collect the shortfall...
and as for the 20k i hope you have not started payments again as that will start the clock again....but i dont know if this one is five years or 12yrs...before it becomes statue barred..

wait until femi has answered your post as you will get a full and frank answer from her..

antrobus

smiggy1981 wrote: »

... Unfortunately we where unable to keep up repayments on our loan and mortgage and in May 2008 we handed the keys to the property back to the mortgage...

That's commonly known as a voluntary repossession.

smiggy1981 wrote: »

... Shortly afterwards welcome finance called to say that we where behind on the debt and that they would start to repossess the property if repayments where not made, I told them that I no longer had the property and that the mortgage had the keys the line went quiet and she asked me to hold the line. After about 5 mins she came back and said that she would contact the mortgage and the call was ended.

No surprise there. If you'd forgotten to tell Welcome that you'd surrendered the property and the sale by the holder of the first charge was still in progress then they would have no way of knowing.

smiggy1981 wrote: »

.... then I started to receive statements of the account every couple of months saying that I still owed 22,000 and then last week (4 years later) I had a debt collector contact me asking me to start making repayments.

I'm guessing here, but like the man said, it appears most likely that the sale of the property didn't generate enough money to repay Welcome, so you still owe them £22,000.

smiggy1981 wrote: »

....
I find it hard to believe that they would wait 4 years to contact me if everything was above board.

Well it might be because Welcome had other things on their mind at the time. (Such as trying and failing not to go bust.) Doesn't matter much anyway, they've got 12 years

smiggy1981 wrote: »

....
I have no idea of the price the property was sold

Well, you really ought to find out. It's kind of important in determining how much money you still owe Welcome.

P.S. Did you take out PPI with the loan from Welcome?