Avco Trust - charge on property not lifted after 19 years

jwcrack1

I am currently selling my property but my solicitor has discovered that there is still a charge recorded at the Land Registry. This dates back to a "top-up" loan of £1,200 I had when buying the property 24 years ago. This loan was fully paid off over the five year term and I have subsequently (unfortunately as it turns out) disposed of all the correspondence.

My solicitor has tried writing to City Finance who appear to be the successors to Avco Trust, but has not had a reply. I rang them today and was told to put it in writing to their administration department - I have sent a letter off today.

I am worried that they may not have the necessary records, or (especially as I am unable to supply them with an account number) be unwilling to dig deep enough to establish why full repayment of a 24 year old loan of £1,200 did not result in this charge being removed 19 years ago on repayment.

Any advice as to how best to proceed would be appreciated.

jamie11

Even 19 years ago the bank should have the records in their archives. I assume you paid the loan off through the bank.

Have you had no correspondence regarding this?

jwcrack1

Thanks for the reply. Maybe 10 years ago I had a "purge" of paperwork and naively assumed that as the loan had been paid off so long ago I could dispose of the paperwork.

Credit checks n myself have not revealed any outstanding payments so my solicitor believes that it must have been an oversight on the part of Avco Trust in not removing the charge. It's stimulating their successors into any sort of response or action that is proving the problem here - and could very easily abort the sale of my property.

jwcrack1

The loan was repaid by standing order (or direct debit but I think the former) direct to Avco Trust.

Land_Registry

As you are already aware the charge will need to be removed and invariably this would be a discharge completed by the lender.

As you are already aware it is important, after such a long time, to be sure which lender you should be dealing with and this is reflected in both the name and address recorded on the land register. If Avco Trust have changed in some way then I would expect this to be reflected on the register itself

In general terms our own records for lenders confirm that Avco Trust are still a recognised lender for registration purposes and they do have links to CitiFinancial Europe plc.

An online search of Avco Trust confirms such detail.

jwcrack1

Many thanks - that makes things clearer.

I was advised to write to the following address, and my letter has now been posted. My solicitor will be also be writing to the same address.

Administration Department
Citi Finance
PO Box 49944
London
SE5 7YG

Hopefully this correspondence will elicit a response and also some action.

Guest101

After 6 years the debt becomes statute barred, so they cant claim you owe them anything anyway, they should remove the charge fairly quickly.

RAS

Guest101 wrote: »

After 6 years the debt becomes statute barred, so they cant claim you owe them anything anyway, they should remove the charge fairly quickly.

That limit relates to consumer credit in England and Wales.

For secure debt it is 12 years and there was a very interesting judgement against a mortgage provider who failed to evict a E&W non-paying mortgagee for 18 years. They lost the right to collect any money with respect to the mortgage; he effectively got the house for the cost of his deposit and a few payments.

mschooner

Hi jwcrack1,

have you had any success with this so far? I have the exact same problem and don't know where to start. My loan with Avco Trust was back in the late 1980's/early 90's. Like you I have no paperwork now, as I stupidly assumed the charge was removed when the loan was repaid. I want to put my property up for sale, but no point until this charge is removed.

jwcrack1

Hi mschooner. Yes, thankfully a combination of a 'formal' letter advising them that I was now treating the issue as a "complaint" and would take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman if they did not at least respond within 14 days with an explanation as to why the charge could not be remove and a 'forceful' phone call from my solicitor finally produced an instant response. The charge was instantly removed

The correspondence was with 'Future Mortgages Ltd. PO Box 49944, London SE5 7YG and the email address was [EMAIL="crt.pleaseassist@citigroup.com"]crt.pleaseassist@citigroup.com[/EMAIL]

Good luck!

LauraStafford

Hi,

I'm having the same problem now and stumbled across this forum. The charge is on the property we're buying and the solicitors in our chain are clueless. The vendors mortgage was with AVCO many years ago.

After contacting the land registry, the solicitors were put in contact with CitiGroup who say they are "investigating".

Does anyone know roughly how long it takes for CitiGroup to remove the charge on this property?

What can I do to speed this up? I can't fathom why this takes so long.

Thanks

Laura