Santander Harrassment

campbeji

Hi, I just had a quick read through this thread and I feel for you, dealing with mortgage companies is difficult when you have 'issues' with them.

I have no expertise with this, but a few suggestions that might help.

Issue 1 - 'Harrasment' by mortgage company.
I doubt that it is actually harrasment, but it would no doubt be 'firm and robust', no doubt worrying and scary for your mum. I would take one of two routes. Either ask the company to stop contacting your mum by phone and to do it by mail, or to get yourself put in as the point of contact. You may need to go down the route of saying that there is issues with health, vulnerability etc. If your mum has difficulties with making decisions then it might be worth looking at setting up a power of attourney to legally be able to deal with the mortgage company. I have no idea if this is legal or would work but might be worth checking to protect your mum from the worry and stress.

Issue 2 - Value of house/Underpinning

1st, do you know who did the underpinning 25 years ago? Are they still in business? Do they have a record? (I had a friend that got a copy of a Damp proof guarantee 15 years later using this method), would it be mentioned in the original purchase details?
Other people have mentioned dropping the hose price, in some cases by £100,000's, I would be more inclined to pay a much smaller amount and get a structural engineer to do an inspection and give a new guarantee.

You also need more advice, talk to Citizens advice, or one of the debt advice companies, or even a solicitor, they are all nice people and easy to talk to, they WILL help, and at the very least will tell you what your rights are and what the mortgage company can and can't do.

Finally don't pay to much attention to some of the grumpies on here, they just don't handle people asking for advice very well. I'll bet they wouldn't talk like that to your face :-) I know they'd only do to me the once.

Good Luck
Jim

abicat

I find it interesting how they are harassing your mother for the money and yet are the complete opposite when they owe money. They paid £8500 from my account to the wrong person and keep telling me it could take 8 weeks to resolve...plus their fraud department never lets me know what is happening. Obviously one rule for Santander and another for their long suffering customers

Thrugelmir

abicat wrote: »

Obviously one rule for Santander and another for their long suffering customers

I wouldn't call a two year time extension unreasonable. Yet you are complaining about 8 weeks. :cool:

MARTYM8`

If the house hasn't sold at the price of £630,000 now £550,000 in two years its clearly overpriced. Cos its worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Cos to put it bluntly this has been caused arguably by pure greed - wanting more for it than some one will pay for it.

Cut the price and it may sell or take it to auction and it almost certainly will.

I expect a lot of young people struggling to buy would be glad of such problems given that the house is worth far more than the mortgage.

xyz123

Considering the reduction that you may have to make, have you contacted any specialist companies or structural engineer to maybe do some investigations to confirm under pinning is upto scratch and maybe issue any letter etc. Won't be cheap as may need some excavations but maybe worth considering for th amount if money you are talking about. Good luck

Windypops

Sorry answered on wrong thread

campbeji

Hi MartyM8, I think that if you read the OP comments that there have been several offers on the property, initially at a higher price and then falling to the lower price. These offers to buy ending up falling through, the most recent of which fell through today/yesterday. So while I agree (in a basic way) with you that the property is worth what someone is willing to pay, it isn't as simple as that as selling a property can be a very complicated and time consuming process.

The other point is, of course, that since someone was willing to £550,000 up untill today then that is the current market price, but since there is pressure to sell then that price of £550,000 is at a discount to encourage a quick sale. You could argue, and I do, that the actual market price is therefore higher than the most recent offer.

I feel that your accusation of 'pure greed' is a little harsh, after all up until today someone was willing to pay the £550,000. Perhaps you think that people should sell their properties to people for less than they could?

Even if the person was to sell for a lower amount or through auction there would still be no guarantee that it would complete, such is the joy of selling property.

Jim

chimchiminey

Thank you Jim for your kind response. Its hard to explain every detail to get the feeling of what is happening, and I think you got what I was asking. I will speak to them about doing this via email, as yes, she is vulnerable.

When my parents bought the property 20 years ago, they were not aware of the underpinning as it did not come up on searches. We only found out about it about 9 months ago when a potential buyer found it on a search. My mother advised her insurers and they said that as there have been no issues in the last ten years it remains the same. We have no idea who the builders are, and do not know where the previous owners are. We will look into seeing if someone can come and look at the house and see if all is still ok. Thank you again for your help. We recently obtained the paperwork from the Council to say they signed it off 25 years ago, unfortunately thats all they had.

....

It wasn't a two year extension. They charged her 1500 each year and charged her more interest on her payments. Its only this October they said no. My mum advised them last year that she was selling, but that wasn't because they wanted their money, because they didn't at that point.

Martym8. This is not pure greed. She was selling for what everyone else was. If your house is worth 100,000 why would you go and sell it for 50? Why on earth would you do that? Or are you peeved because of what it could be worth. Young people? Whilst I know that it is difficult, as I am in the same position, My mother and father worked hard all their lives and if their house is worth that now, how is it their fault? Should they reduce it because you have an issue and say its pure greed? We live in London. For where we live, this is actually cheap. Thats how it is. We do not want more than some people will pay, can you not see it has been reduced? We had multiple offers on the reduced price and all other prices, thank you. The value itself has changed over the last two years as well. But Im not gonna list them all and all accepted offers as that it not the advice that I asked for.

I asked for advice, not judgement. You don't know all of the details, and I don't need to explain them all either, or this would be a long and detailed thread.

Thanks for advice people, we have some options that we didn't think we had this morning, and for that I am grateful.

campbeji

Hi Chimchiminey,

The friend I told you about (with the damp course thing) found the details of the company that had done the work because it had been added to the mortgage 'pack' that was held by their solicitor when they were trying to sell. It might be worth checking.

The most important thing is to look after your Mum, dealing with these people can be difficult at best, but it can be so stressful and downright scary. Speaking from experience it can get to the point of dreading the phone call you know is coming at the end of the month, or week in your case.

I have always based my dealings with these people on the basis that the people phoning up are basically idiots that don't know what they are talking about, and so often they proved me correct. Everything from not being able to add properly, or not taking proper notes, to threatening to repossess because I had missed a payment, even though I had made my payment every month since I had a suspended repossession 12 months before (that was because they couldn't use a calendar correctly).

Basically what I'm getting at is that someone needs to be on top of what they are saying and that they are being consistent and accurate.

I would also make sure that you talk to them, phone them once a month at least, make sure they update their systems with your comments on what you are doing. If you end up in court over this the courts will look a lot more favorably on your situation if you have being doing your best and are being seen to do your best. DO NOT avid talking to them, it'll just annoy them and escalate the issue.

Good Luck and I hope it works out well for your Mum
Jim

Thrugelmir

chimchiminey wrote: »

It wasn't a two year extension. They charged her 1500 each year and charged her more interest on her payments. Its only this October they said no. My mum advised them last year that she was selling, but that wasn't because they wanted their money, because they didn't at that point.

For clarity when did the mortgage term actually end. As contractually this is the date on which the mortgage debt should have been discharged. Any extension beyond this date is forbearance entirely on a discretionary basis by the lender. If it's an extended period of time then patience will be running out. Doesn't matter what the reasons or excuses are. The simple fact is that the debt is still legally due to be repaid.