shortfall advice

mutley66

Hi, new to the forum and hope you can help. Back in the early 90's I had a mortgage with Abbey National (now Santander). My home was repossessed and a debt company called Optima advised the property was sold but failed to cover the amount owed and I needed to pay the 'shortfall'. Over many years I have been paying Optima a small amount (£20 per month) to pay off a sum of £18,000. I know it's unrealistic that I will ever pay this off at this rate. I'm unable to raise the figures of £3000 quoted by Optima as a 'one off' payment to settle the debt. I've recently moved house and had a letter from Optima sent to my previous address (I have my mail redirected for the next few months) and they advise they are no longer dealing with the debt. It has been passed onto a company called Enact. I've received a letter from Enact (again redirected from my old address asking that I set up a standing order with them for the same amount as Optima. I maybe slightly paranoid but at the moment Enact appear to be acting reasonably but i'm concerned that once I commit to this then they may try and start be pursue this debt in a more 'aggressive' manner! Considering Enact don't have my new address, should I respond to them? Over the years I've managed to rebuild my credit file and I don't want this to impact it. I've never heard of Enact and I'm unsure if I'm still liable for this debt? I could really do with some guidance on what to do and how to handle this. Thank you.

xyz123

Whatever you do, don't ignore this letter. Just because you don't respond to letter doesn't mean they will forget about it or it won't affect your credit rating.

mutley66

ok thanks. I wasn't really expecting anyone to tell me to ignore them as I have faced all my previous debts and cleared them and I'm more than willing to continue paying what I did with with Optima, but I really need to know if I have to continue to pay this considering I will never be able to pay it off???

Thrugelmir

mutley66 wrote: »

ok thanks. I wasn't really expecting anyone to tell me to ignore them as I have faced all my previous debts and cleared them and I'm more than willing to continue paying what I did with with Optima, but I really need to know if I have to continue to pay this considering I will never be able to pay it off???

Do you own your own home?

mutley66

No, always been rented