Repossession Advice

petersutton

Hi I was wondering if anyone can help me.

I've just found out that my fathers house has been repossessed by Barclays and is currently up for sale, unfortunately my Dad hid this very well from me as I've moved out years ago and he didn't want to worry me (parents sometimes they are worse than my kids).

My question is can this be stopped or has it already gone to far?

My second question is his total debts are only 6K. 4k mortgage(not arrears actual outstanding amount) and 2k other debts the house is up for sale for 175k who gets the difference between the debt and sale price, and how can I get this for him.

Unfortunately my dad's health & mental state have decreased due to the stress and currently he has decided to destroy the correspondence with regards to the house and bury his head and hope it goes away, which doesn't help me as I don't know where to start. But he believes he has no right to any money, I can't believe this to be correct.

I am going to be getting a power of attorney from him so that I can act on his behalf, is this the right thing to do?

Please if someone can help me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

Pete

silvercar

I've just found out that my fathers house has been repossessed by Barclays and is currently up for sale, unfortunately my Dad hid this very well from me ...

If it has been repossessed, your Dad won't be living there. If it is in the process ie taken to court or the like, then your Dad should still be there.

If the latter, you can go along to court and plead his case. If no-one turns up, a judge is highly likely to award the repossession to the lender and your Dad would be evicted.

My second question is his total debts are only 6K. 4k mortgage(not arrears actual outstanding amount) and 2k other debts

You need to explain this further. the payments are upto date but there is an outstanding amount??? In which case why repossess?

house is up for sale for 175k who gets the difference between the debt and sale price, and how can I get this for him.

Your dad would be given this amount, less arrears and reposession costs and sale costs etc. Far more sensible for him to sell himself to clear the mortgage.

I am going to be getting a power of attorney from him so that I can act on his behalf, is this the right thing to do?

Yes. In the mean time, get a letter of authority from him so that you can act for him from now. It only needs to be a hand written note that you could fax to the lender today stating that you are acting for him in this matter. I wouldn't mention his poor mental state in the handwritten note in case they query whether he has the power to give such an authority.

petersutton

Thanks for the advice in answer to your questions he has had to leave the house and the locks have been changed and the house has an up for sale sign outside.

The payments aren't up to date he stopped paying them before Christmas, however, the whole mortgage was due to be paid off in December of this year and the total figure left on the mortgage is 4k. He was made redundant and I had thought he had paid it off with his redundancy, but obviously not. When he started getting the letters about six months ago he decided to ignore them and when it went to court he could show no means of paying as is still out of work and as he is touching 60 is apparently deemed unemployable.

I believe he went to court in late June and was told to leave in early July.

silvercar

Unbelievable that the lender (and the judge) couldn't see that £4k was such a small amount. You could put in a complaint over the way he was treated, I don't know how far you would get as 6 months arrears are enough for any lender to take action, I would have thought that some discretion could have been used.

Current situation is that the lender will proceed with the house sale, probably get a bit under market value in order to secure a quick sale. They will then take a chunk of the remainder for their charges, legal charges and estate agency fees. The remainder will be paid to your dad.

I hope your dad is claiming alll benefits and pensions he is entitled to. Once the money comes through, he should have enough money to buy somewhere smaller to live.

petersutton

Thanks for all your help I will now contact the lenders and see what they have to say I now have some great information to help me get started.

Thanks again I had absolutely no idea where to start or what he maybe entitled to.

toonfish

this is unbelievable - Barclays and the judge want shooting with s***.

He could have simply taken out £6K equity release loan and paid it off.

Conrad

Please go to the FSA immediately as this surely breaches the central principle known as Treating Customers Fairly. I suspect the judge is not even aware of such matters.

You can simply clear the debt for your dad and stop the repo.

The MD of Barclays (or Barclays mortgages) has a duty to ensure TCF permeates ALL processes within Barclays. He will have had to sign off a return to the FSA which allowed him to self certify TCF has been checked to apply to all processess. Send him a secure recorded letter - just to him not anyone else and say you will pursue him personally for not meeting his TCF obligations.

petersutton

Thanks for all your help I'm going to right a letter to the FSA and Barclays using all the information you have all provided.

Thanks again

Badger_Lady

What a frustrating situation... where is your Dad living now? Did he manage to get private rental without a job? What are his retirement provisions?

I don't know anything about these cases but, from reading the advice above, I want to wish you good luck with your efforts.

It seems ridiculous for the mortgage company to think it worthwhile to go through reposession / sale for this amount of outstanding mortgage (although I take Tootsie Roll's point) - the charges that they will make to your Dad for doing so will far outweigh the original debt!

Let us know how you get on - I sincerely hope this can be resolved so late in the game.

silvercar

There is the possibility of this being resolved IF the property hasn't yet been sold.

If you could get hold of the MD of the lender and get him to understand the situation, he could instruct that you be allowed to pay off the outstanding amount and reinstate your father. In view of the treatment your father has received, I would press for all charges to be withdrawn and possibly some compensation.

This may be one of those cases where some press involvement may help, how about contacting your local paper. Maybe your MP?