Santander Harrassment

chimchiminey

Hi,


Desperately in need of your help!


Mum is 65. She has an interest only mortgage (£145,000) which ran out a few years ago so Santander put her on a higher interest rate and said it was ok to pay back as long as she pays of the total amount in the future. They charged her £1500 for this. She advised them that she was selling her house.


House has been on market for two years, people wont buy and keeps falling through as the property was underpinned 25 years ago (before she bought, she does not have the paperwork).


Around a month ago, Santander told her she had to pay the money back. Obviously we have not been able to sell, so since October they call her on a weekly basis to find out what is going on, tell her to send the Rightmove links etc. They want their money.


Our latest buyer pulled out this morning. He said it was the underpinning although he knew there was underpinning but that's another future thread.


Santander made is clear that she needs to advise them of the current sale progress by the 23rd December. They have threatened to take her house off her. She is too scared to call and say it fell through.


Can they do this? She has had panic attacks all day and I feel they are being bullyish and I don't know what to do.


Please someone help? She thinks they will take the house and sell for half the price. House is worth £630,000 but she agreed offer at 550. That's how much she is desperate because of Santander and their phone calls.


Thanks
Lo

mrginge

So mum told Santander that she was going to sell the house.
Santander said ok we will give you the time to sell it.
Two years later mum has still not sold the house.
Santander are not harassing anyone. They gave mum the leeway to sort the problem and now are probably sick of being messed around by someone who has
A. Failed to pay the debt that they agreed to pay on time.
B. Failed to sell the property when they said they were going to.


The house is not worth 630k. It is not worth 550k.
Either sell the house for a sensible amount or get alternative funding from elsewhere to pay Santander what she owes them.

csgohan4

it might also have fell through due to the mortgage lender's survey and being unmortgagable.

Maybe auction would be better as it would be cash buyers only, what are houses around there selling for?

Agree with above, it is not harassment, the lender has been reasonable. While not what you want to hear, but your mother has run out of time.

She needs to call the lender and be honest and evaluate her option. Burying her head in the sand will make things worst and incur more costs

Brock_and_Roll

If the house is potentially not mortgagable due to the underpinning issue then it may well not be worth £630k.


Sending it to auction will establish the true value and no doubt the property will sell easily.


Better to do this now than to let Santander do it with all the extra fees etc.


Certainly not harassment in any shape or form.

chimchiminey

Thanks for that Mr Negative. I'm sure I didn't write my thread in that tone.


The house is worth that amount. Its the underpinning that people don't like.


They keep threatening to take the house off her. Calling her on a weekly basis, that's harassment. If they have all the details about it being on the market, valuation reports that they have done, can see that's it been reduced by 80,000 have all the information that they require. We are trying. We have not messed anyone around.


What would you call a sensible amount? half price? BOGOF? Would you sell yours for half price? Is it windy up there on your high horse? I'm not going to judge the rest of the members by your tone.


Funding is not available elsewhere. She is not able to get a mortgage. The others house are selling for 680, but it needs modernising.


Thanks.

csgohan4

costs to repo the house is not going to be cheap

Here's an article by shelter regarding the process:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repossession/ways_to_prevent_repossession/steps_before_court_action

chimchiminey

Hi csgohan4


No, it was a cash buyer. The previous peoples mortgages went through fine. It was just that we couldn't provide evidence of the underpinning guarantee, so they (buyers not bank) said no.


I do understand that she has run out of time. I just would like some advice on what to do. We are not trying to be devious or anything. We are just trying to sell the house. She is scared they will take it off her. Can they?


She has been open and honest with them all they way through, but they are not having it. They can have their money, its just that we cannot sell the house.

chimchiminey

csgohan4 wrote: »

costs to repo the house is not going to be cheap

Here's an article by shelter regarding the process:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repossession/ways_to_prevent_repossession/steps_before_court_action[/QUOTE]


Thank you. Would they go for repossession? She is not in arrears. Although I do know that we owe them the money.

chimchiminey

If you heard the nature of their calls, you would call it harassment. I'm not arguing with what they are saying. Its how they have been.

AndyBSG

chimchiminey wrote: »

The others house are selling for 680, but it needs modernising.

Are the other houses underpinned?

How much 'modernising'?

A complete rewire, new kitchen, new bathroom, new central heating system, new fascias and guttering, etc could all come in at tens of thousands of pounds so along with the underpinning a direct price comparison to other properties which aren't underpinned and don't need this work isn't accurate.

I wouldn't gamble 600K on an underpinned house with no guarantee or supporting documentation. Likewise even if it was reduced to 500K I wouldn't risk it.

Very few insurance companies will give you insurance on an underpinned house and the ones that do are very expensive, have lots of restrictions on what is covered and require lots of hoops to be jumped through to get insurance.

As others have said, unless you can find a cash buyer then an auction may be the only way forward and you will need to be very realistic about what the house is actually worth.

That worth is probably going to be significantly lower than you think it should be compared to other similar properties simply because underpinning opens up a huge can of worms and risks that significantly decreases a properties value.

chimchiminey

The insurance is normal as there have not been any issues in the last ten years. The underpinning was completed 25 years ago. We went down to 580 on the advice of estate agents due to underpinning. Accepted at 550.


No, its not a complete overhaul, just up to someone else's standards I guess. It need just more than decorating. It has a new kitchen and bathroom, but my mums colours and carpets are old fashioned even if new.


Anyway I will look into auctioning now, thank you for the advice. Its a shame that Estate agents cant be more honest about advice too, or we would have done this some time ago. Mum is 65. she isn't savvy. Neither am I, hence asking on here.


Wouldn't our property be more stable than the neighbours? Anyways, its probably better to not to go down that road cause we just wanted advice on what to do.


Thanks for your time, much appreciated.