Getting a charge taken off my house

Marstonman

Hi All, please be gentle, newbie with a pickled brain here.
i have managed to negotiate a part settlement with HSBC from £9000 down to £4100 which my partner has agreed to pay them.
the letter from them states that they will then make the steps to remove the charge from my house.
all good, i think.
However, they have told me that i cannot go to court to get it satisfied unless i pay in full.
it was registered in 2009 so with the six year credit file rule, will paying this £4000 help my file or am i being duped.

any help please, i feel i am near the end and house is on the market but just a bit scrambled now

kind Regards
Marston man

National_Debtline

Hi Marstonman,

Welcome to MSE

You need to be very careful in this type of situation as it can be quite complicated and you may benefit from taking full and impartial advice before proceeding. From what you have described you seem to be trying to improve your credit file and get a charge removed from the property through a partial settlement.

Firstly, if we consider the charge on the property, you must be very careful what you, and the creditor, are agreeing to. It is quite rare for a creditor to agree to a partial settlement when they have a charge on a property, as they can recover all of their money when the house is sold. They may be more inclined to consider this if there is insufficient equity in the property for them to recover all the money they are owed.

Marstonman wrote: »

the letter from them states that they will then make the steps to remove the charge from my house.

This does not seem clear enough at the moment, and I would suggest you ask them to clarify what they mean. Does the letter mean that in exchange for the partial settlement they are willing to remove their full restriction with Land Registry? It is my understanding that in order for a sale to complete all organisations, with a restriction on that property, will need to be paid in full. So if you are looking to sell the house, and they still have a restriction with Land Registry, the partial payment needs to be completed before the sale completes.

It is also important to get all other aspects of the partial payment agreed to in as much detail as possible, before a single penny is paid. For example, are they agreeing that the judgement will be considered settled and that neither they nor any other third party will take any further action to chase the shortfall?

Finally, in regards to your credit file, if the CCJ was registered in 2009 then it will be removed from your credit file 6 years from the date of judgement. So whether the judgement is fully satisfied or partially satisfied should have a reasonably low influence on your overall score if the judgement is about to be removed anyway.

I hope this helps to clarify things for you. We have factsheets available on our website about Charging Orders, Full and Final Settlements and Credit Referencing that you may find helpful.

Laura
@natdebtline

Marstonman

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi Marstonman,

Welcome to MSE

You need to be very careful in this type of situation as it can be quite complicated and you may benefit from taking full and impartial advice before proceeding. From what you have described you seem to be trying to improve your credit file and get a charge removed from the property through a partial settlement.

Firstly, if we consider the charge on the property, you must be very careful what you, and the creditor, are agreeing to. It is quite rare for a creditor to agree to a partial settlement when they have a charge on a property, as they can recover all of their money when the house is sold. They may be more inclined to consider this if there is insufficient equity in the property for them to recover all the money they are owed.


This does not seem clear enough at the moment, and I would suggest you ask them to clarify what they mean. Does the letter mean that in exchange for the partial settlement they are willing to remove their full restriction with Land Registry? It is my understanding that in order for a sale to complete all organisations, with a restriction on that property, will need to be paid in full. So if you are looking to sell the house, and they still have a restriction with Land Registry, the partial payment needs to be completed before the sale completes.

It is also important to get all other aspects of the partial payment agreed to in as much detail as possible, before a single penny is paid. For example, are they agreeing that the judgement will be considered settled and that neither they nor any other third party will take any further action to chase the shortfall?

Finally, in regards to your credit file, if the CCJ was registered in 2009 then it will be removed from your credit file 6 years from the date of judgement. So whether the judgement is fully satisfied or partially satisfied should have a reasonably low influence on your overall score if the judgement is about to be removed anyway.

I hope this helps to clarify things for you. We have factsheets available on our website about Charging Orders, Full and Final Settlements and Credit Referencing that you may find helpful.

Laura
@natdebtline

Hi Laura and thanks for replying.
if i may quote the letter i received after negotiating with them as follows

Balance £9098.46

We can confirm our Client ( M & S Financial Services ) is willing to accept the sum of £4150.00 in part settlement of the account.
The figure remains valid for a period of 30 days from today 6th January 2015.
We will arrange to remove our Clients interest, registered on 08/02/2010 at the Land Registery upon receipt of cleared funds.
Please be advised your credit file will be updated to show the balance has been part satisfied with a zero balance

Your etc
Litigation Team
HSBC Bank

i was assured over the telephone ??? that this would be the end of the debt and no third party would be coming after me.

Any further advice would be welcome

Regards
Marstonman

National_Debtline

Hello again,

The letter they have sent you seems to be good, and does reference a lot of what I mentioned but there could be a little bit more detail. The reason it is important to be careful is because full and final settlements are an informal negotiation option (in the same way as paying £1 a month when the minimum payments are no longer affordable) so the more detail you have, the less likely the creditor, or another collection agent, is going to try and chase you for the shortfall at a later stage.

I also notice that they say this offer is only valid for 30days from the 6th January so you will have to make quite a quick decision. If you do not comply within the deadline then they may revoke the offer (remember this is quite rare anyway), but if you make a payment and are unhappy about the details in the letter this may also cause concern.

If it is possible to email the company concerned and ask them to confirm some more details before you send the payment then that would make the letter a little bit clearer. Some suggestions could be: -

We will arrange to remove our Clients interest (Balance £9098.46), registered on 08/02/2010 at the Land Registry upon receipt of cleared funds of £4150.00.
Please be advised your credit file will be updated to show the balance has been part satisfied with a zero balance. And that neither you, nor any associated company, will take any other action to enforce or pursue this debt, in any way whatsoever, and that I will be released from any liability.

If they will not do this in the timescale that you have then you need to decide whether you are happy with the letter they have already provided and are willing to send the money. Or whether you would like to insist on the extra details and risk losing the offer. I hope that helps you to make your decision.

Laura
@natdebtline

Marstonman

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hello again,

The letter they have sent you seems to be good, and does reference a lot of what I mentioned but there could be a little bit more detail. The reason it is important to be careful is because full and final settlements are an informal negotiation option (in the same way as paying £1 a month when the minimum payments are no longer affordable) so the more detail you have, the less likely the creditor, or another collection agent, is going to try and chase you for the shortfall at a later stage.

I also notice that they say this offer is only valid for 30days from the 6th January so you will have to make quite a quick decision. If you do not comply within the deadline then they may revoke the offer (remember this is quite rare anyway), but if you make a payment and are unhappy about the details in the letter this may also cause concern.

If it is possible to email the company concerned and ask them to confirm some more details before you send the payment then that would make the letter a little bit clearer. Some suggestions could be: -

We will arrange to remove our Clients interest (Balance £9098.46), registered on 08/02/2010 at the Land Registry upon receipt of cleared funds of £4150.00.
Please be advised your credit file will be updated to show the balance has been part satisfied with a zero balance. And that neither you, nor any associated company, will take any other action to enforce or pursue this debt, in any way whatsoever, and that I will be released from any liability.

If they will not do this in the timescale that you have then you need to decide whether you are happy with the letter they have already provided and are willing to send the money. Or whether you would like to insist on the extra details and risk losing the offer. I hope that helps you to make your decision.

Laura
@natdebtline

Thankyou Laura, we take on board your points
Regards
Gary