How does this Charging Order Work?

DesperateMeasures_3

I have been issued a letter from the court saying our biggest creditor has a hearing for Charing Order on our property. My Qs are:

1. How do the courts know what your property is worth?, do they ask us? will they do a drive by? etc etc.

2. if the creditors get awareded this charge, is it only realised when the house is sold, less any amounts paid to them in the meantime?

3. If we were to go bankrupt after this charing order, does this affect the debt or do they still get their money if and when house is sold.

4. If we do go bankrupt, do we get to keep house, ther eis very little equity in it, and will possibly be negative equity after the above charging order.

5. Is it best to bite the bullet now and go bankrupt before the hearing for this charging order on Dec 19th? how long does BR take?

I am ringing one of the agencies for debt counselling next week when I have a few days off work (cant be doing it at work, too nosey people).

I have a DMP in place with Payplan, but they are not aware of this charging order as they havent responded to my emails advising them of this.

sorry for lots of questions, but am really worried where all this goes. The debt above is £20k and we still have a further £50k which the creditors have agreed DMP, but doubt will ever be free of them.

Is BR our best option? We only have run about cars which are needed as we work in different places and different times, plus i work on various sites of our company. We would like to keep the house and i think deep down this is hte only thing stopping us from going BR, but from what i have read on here, losing the house isnt always the done thing... what are th criteria.?

any help and advice would be appreciated.

thanks

Richard_S

DesperateMeasures wrote: »

I have been issued a letter from the court saying our biggest creditor has a hearing for Charing Order on our property. My Qs are:

1. How do the courts know what your property is worth?, do they ask us? will they do a drive by? etc etc.It doesn't matter to the Court what the property is worth; all the C.O does is sit on the land registry until the property is sold and then the various charges are paid in order of preference i.e. mortgage first; a second mortgage second; then any charging orders.

2. if the creditors get awareded this charge, is it only realised when the house is sold, less any amounts paid to them in the meantime?The creditor can enforce the charge at any time but they won't do it until there's sufficient equity to cover their legal costs and a decent return on the debt owed. If the house is sold then they receive whatever is left after any first or second mortgage.

3. If we were to go bankrupt after this charing order, does this affect the debt or do they still get their money if and when house is sold.They can't hold you personally liable for the debt but the charging order stays in place. If you declare bankruptcy then I don't think the C.O can be applied post bankruptcy, because your house will become part of your estate in bankruptcy. Please take professional advice though; I have had personal experience of this kind of thing but that doesn't make me an expert.

4. If we do go bankrupt, do we get to keep house, ther eis very little equity in it, and will possibly be negative equity after the above charging order.You will ba able to purchase the B.I in the property for a nominal £1 plus the O.R's fees of £213, but if the C.O is already in place before you declare bankruptcy then depending on the size of the debt there's probably not much point. You can stay in the house until there is positive equity, at which point the debtor with the C.O would probably apply to enforce the charge. There is a statute of limitation on property which I think is 9 years (fermi knows the exact period)

5. Is it best to bite the bullet now and go bankrupt before the hearing for this charging order on Dec 19th? how long does BR take?Following my logic, it would be best to declare bankruptcy as soon as you can, but please take professional advice. Once you've got an appointment with the Court you walk in with your papers, have them stamped and walk out bankrupt; a few hours at the most.

I am ringing one of the agencies for debt counselling next week when I have a few days off work (cant be doing it at work, too nosey people).

I have a DMP in place with Payplan, but they are not aware of this charging order as they havent responded to my emails advising them of this.

sorry for lots of questions, but am really worried where all this goes. The debt above is £20k and we still have a further £50k which the creditors have agreed DMP, but doubt will ever be free of them.

Is BR our best option? It certainly seems like it.We only have run about cars which are needed as we work in different places and different times, plus i work on various sites of our company. We would like to keep the house and i think deep down this is hte only thing stopping us from going BR, but from what i have read on here, losing the house isnt always the done thing... what are th criteria.?If the house has negligible or negative equity, you won't lose it through going bankrupt.

any help and advice would be appreciated.

thanks

Hi DM,

Apologies for the brief post; I've given you a layman's view of your situation, and we experienced similar cicumstances ourselves, but with property you really do need professional advice.

Best regards

Richard

tigerfeet2006

4. If we do go bankrupt, do we get to keep house, ther eis very little equity in it, and will possibly be negative equity after the above charging order.You will ba able to purchase the B.I in the property for a nominal £1 plus the O.R's fees of £213, but if the C.O is already in place before you declare bankruptcy then depending on the size of the debt there's probably not much point. You can stay in the house until there is positive equity, at which point the debtor with the C.O would probably apply to enforce the charge. There is a statute of limitation on property which I think is 9 years (fermi knows the exact period)

I thought it was 12 years but Fermi will probably know for definate as Richard said.

Numbers for debt charities in my signature. They do have quite long opening hours so you could ring them in the evening.

Richard_S

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

4. If we do go bankrupt, do we get to keep house, ther eis very little equity in it, and will possibly be negative equity after the above charging order.You will ba able to purchase the B.I in the property for a nominal £1 plus the O.R's fees of £213, but if the C.O is already in place before you declare bankruptcy then depending on the size of the debt there's probably not much point. You can stay in the house until there is positive equity, at which point the debtor with the C.O would probably apply to enforce the charge. There is a statute of limitation on property which I think is 9 years (fermi knows the exact period)

I thought it was 12 years but Fermi will probably know for definate as Richard said.

Numbers for debt charities in my signature. They do have quite long opening hours so you could ring them in the evening.

Hi tigerfeet,

It's 12 years for a mortgage lender, and six years for unsecured debt.

Just thinking about it, if a charge is secured on a property it'll stay there until the property is sold or the charge enforced; not really what you'd call peace of mind.

Richard

tigerfeet2006

Richard_S wrote: »

Hi tigerfeet,

It's 12 years for a mortgage lender, and six years for unsecured debt.


Richard

D'oh of course it is!!

debt_doctor

Hi,
Quite right land debts are statute barred after 12 years, allthough if the lender is a member of the council of mortgage lenders they have agreed not to chase the debt after 6 years subject to certain conditions.

Also debts cannot become statute barred once a CCJ has been obtained ( unless the ccj was obtained after the the relevent time period had been reached, in which case the judgement should be 'set aside' to allow the limitations act to apply )

Best

DD