Charge on property

Musleman

Hi everyone. I am new on here so not sure if I am posting on the right forum. I got legal aid some years ago and then out of the blue I got a letter this week saying that the legal aid had got a charge on my property to recover the costs. I am taken aback as the original amount was £450 of legal aid and now it is in excess of 7k with interest being added daily. What can I do if anything about this? Should I have been told about the charge. If I had my dad would have helped me to pay the legal aid rather than getting a charge and subsequent interest. I am on long term ESA due to ill health and was so at the time of the legal aid assistance.
Thanks for any help.

lld01

You may wish to read this

http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/legal-aid/funding-code/paying-for-your-civil-legal-aid-leaflet.pdf

Your solicitor should have told you about the legal charge at the time (or that you had to repay the legal aid)

There are contact details at the end of the leaflet if you dispute the amounts etc.

sammyjammy

I thought if a charge was put on your property then they could only claim interest at 8% a year? That wouldn't put the total cost at anywhere near £7k.

Musleman

Should I have been told by land registry first and given the opportunity to raise funds to pay the legal aid bill?

tomtontom

You would have had to sign paperwork to agree to the charge - if you do not have a copy the solicitor may still have theirs, depending on how long ago this was.

Musleman

Thank you I so appreciate it. Didn't think at the time as I was so stressed with divorce going on. If I had known I would have got money together some how to cover it.

Land_Registry

In most cases the registered proprietor (owner) of the property against which the charge was registered would have been served a B46 Notice advising them of the application to register.
The Notice simply refers to the actual legal aid charge details and seeks your confirmation as to it's registration.
As tomtontom suggests you would have completed paperwork re the charge itself so any objection to the registration is quite rare.

One thing to note is that such a Notice will only be served on the address as registered against your name at the time. This may not be the same as the actual property address depending on what details were supplied when you were registered as the owner and whether any changes had been reported of course.
If for example you were not actually residing at that address for any reason then this could be why you did not receive it?

Concerns re the charge itself or the interest being levied etc need to be taken up with the Legal Aid Agency of course