Help re-interim charging order.

conorw

Hi
I met my wife in 2006 and we got married in 2008 and moved into my property and rented hers out until recently. We now need to move to a bigger property (children now) so decided to sell.

My wife has just started the process of selling her property and her solicitor has just informed her that there is a interim charging order attatched to the property dated july 2003 from natwest

Back in 2003 she had alot of financial problems and she buried her head in the sand.

Anyway her solicitor has contacted the court that issued the interim charge and also natwest but neither can shed any light has to who we contact to pay/remove this order.

Does anybody have any experience with these matters that can advise me further.

Has i understand it there are 2 types of charge. interim and full
this one says interim.

cheers

G_M

An interim charging order is a temporary measure to ensure the asset (property) is not sold in advance of a court hearing. At the court hearing, the court will either confirm the ICO and convert it to a full CO, or discharge (remove) the ICO.

so it seems strange that an ICO should remain in place for this long....

I would have thought your solicitor could apply to the court to have it removed.

Either the court has not yet heard the case, in which case I believe the Statute of Limitations (7 years?) might apply, so the ICO should be removed (your solicitor will advise)

or the case was heard and the ICO should have been discharged or confirmed, but for some reason was not.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part73

conorw

Thanks G_M

What i dont understand is why when contacting natwest they cannot find any details of this charge they are owed.

G_M

Big company. Many departments. Mergers/aquisitions. Poor filing. Change of staff/procedures.

Who knows?

Land_Registry

Presumably the register entry refers to the relevant court and their reference so seems odd that the court would have no details on record still?
Either way the buyer is unlikely to proceed until it is removed so it may be easier to pursue it with the court rather than NatWest as presumably the court can now dismiss the order?

There is a useful thread on here re Charging orders - the myth which may be worth linking to as the posters may be able to advise on the best course of action although some more detail or confirmation re the court's response

conorw

Update.

The last 2 weeks our solicitor has written to various depts at natwest and had zero replies. She has telephoned various depts of natwest to which know one knows anything about it.

She has been in contact with the court named on the charging order and all they can say is that it was national westminster bank for x amount.

Now the buyer wants exchange by this friday or we lose the sale.

So looks like we lose the sale and then have to get this removed via court ourselves before we can sell.

TBagpuss

The court should have a copy of the original application filed by Nat West, which would normally include details of what the charge related to and how much was owing at that time.

However, that information will only be on the phtisical file, not on the computer system. As it is 2003 the file may not be physically stored at the court which heard it,.

You will need to write to the court, ask for a copy of the original application and a copy of all orders made (it is possible that an order was made discharging the interim charging order, but that this was not complied with, for instance)

There will be fees for copying the documents and, depending on where the file is, there may also be a search fee. At the very least, get a copy of the order itself

In terms of NatWest it may be that the solicitor can write (to the address shown in the order and on the LR entry) and ask that they confirm they have no further interest in the property and will cooperate in removing the charge.

If they don't, ask them to provide evidence of the nature of their interest and specifics of the debt secured by the charge. then you can deal with that debt.

If they say they have no records then escalate to a complaint, as they ought to be able to tell your wife what she owes, and if she doesn't owe anything, they ought to remove the charge.