Equity charge on the property that shouldn't be there?

mrtg0525

I've just had one of "those" phone calls that make you want to punch a wall.

I haven't put all pieces of the puzzle together yet but here's what it looks like so far:

• I bought my current house two years ago. Shortly before the exchange of contracts, my solicitor is informed by the seller's solicitor that not only is there a mortgage on the house, but there's also another charge/equity loan/whatever secured on the property. My solicitor and myself were reassured by the seller's solicitor that both the outstanding mortgage and whatever the other charge is, would both be cleared by the seller when they receive the money for the house.
• I duly purchased the property, the seller made himself (very) scarce but I don't really notice anything apart from the occasional nastygram from people like the Inland Revenue (and a letter from the county court). Obviously he has left no forwarding address, either.
• Fast-forward two years and the fixed rate period of the mortgage is coming to an end. So I search until I find an acceptable deal and we're now in the stage of getting the paperwork sorted.
• Today I'm getting a call from the solicitor acting for the new lender who explains to me that they can't proceed with the whole matter because there is an equity charge on the house :eek:. After I pick up myself I ask them for more details and it turns out that Natwest has a charge on the house that pre-dates my purchase. So, it appears that either the mortgage or the second loan/whatever has not been cleared as advised by the seller's solicitor.

After using some of those interesting, non-PC words that make you sound like a sailor, I called the solictor who handled the transaction. Unfortunately he's out today according to his office cerberus, but should get back to me tomorrow.

Nevertheless, I'm suddenly rather worried and have this tight feeling in my stomach that something awful's going to happen, so my question to the assembled wisdom here:

• Is it relatively easy to get such a charge removed, as it is essentially on there in error and has nothing to do with me?
• Shouldn't this be something my solicitor should've picked up after the transaction?
• What the heck do I do now? Apart from getting a bit :mad:.

Oh, and is such a situation something that would normally be covered by the legal side of my household insurance?

silvercar

The solicitor who acted for you on the house purchase should have ensured that you had clear title ie all previous charges were removed. He may well have obtained a guarantee of this from the seller's solicitor. It could be an admin arror or it could be that your solicitor didn't complete the necessary paperwork. I don't see how your mortgage would have been registered without the other charge being removed.

Whatever the reason it is something that the solicitor handling the purchase for you should sort out. You were correct to contact him first.

Best case scenario it is an admin error either from your solicitor or land registry. Worst case scenario is that the natwest charge was never redeemed, in which case your seller's solicitor is responsible for the error and will have to sort it out. These things can occasionally happen, particularly if the charge was put on the property just prior to the sale.

mrtg0525

Just in case anybody's interested in a progress report...

My solicitor has been talking to NatWest repeatedly; it appears that they possibly misplaced the paperwork for this so we've been pretty much running around in circles so far. Unfortunately my remortgage is still on hold until this mess is sorted out so needless to say I'm not a happy bunny, given that I'm paying about 150 quid extra a month at the moment...

RabbitMad

When you find out who's fault all of this is you should put in a bill to them for all the extra interest you've had to pay.

mrtg0525

That's kind of the plan but at the moment I'd like to get back the ability to remortage my house...

clutton_2

keep at natwest night and day they are one of the most inefficient bunch of scroats re mortgage business you could ever come across !!!

budget_counsellor_shaz

I hope you get this sorted soon...... Thats the whole idea of paying a solicitor to sort these things out!

Shaz

mrtg0525

That was the idea of paying the solicitor during the purchase two years back, but then again he does seem to try to rectify this oversight, hopefully without any additional cost to me.

He does seem to be on the case, but most of the updates are along the lines of "still chasing NatWest".

PasturesNew

mrtg0525 wrote: »

hopefully without any additional cost to me.

Absolutely. He can bill whoever's fault it was.
You sit pretty ... and just wait for it all to be sorted, knowing you won't be picking up the tab

I hope it goes quickly for you.

mrtg0525

Well, it did take three months in the end (almost to the day) but I got an email from my solicitor yesterday stating that Natwest confirmed that they removed the equitable charge on my property. Phew.

Remortgage, here we come.