Charge on the house we are buying holding things up

fawnyb

We put an offer in on a house in Jan and it was accepted straight away. The same day we had an offer on our existing property accepted. All was going well with both the sale and purchase until they found there was 4 charges against the house we were buying. They managed to removed 3 but the final one was for a car loan company which is now not in business.

Due to it being so delayed we nearly lost our buyers, but as the house we are buying was empty and so as not to let everything fall through the vendor agreed to let us move in and rent it until a time we could proceed with the purchase. With the agreement that we would only pay what we would be paying for our mortgage each month and that whatever we did end up paying would be taken off the final purchase price. We have all of this in writing from solicitors so no concerns about that.

The concern we now have is that the solicitors have been contacting the company which hold the charge for months now and have had no response. The only way of contacting them is via post. There is no telephone number or email address. They are now saying they are going to have to go to court to have the charge removed but there is no time limit for this. It could take a year.

We are in limbo. Living in a house we are buying which is in total disrepair but we don’t want to/can’t start doing work on it incase the worst happens. We just don’t know if the charge can ever be removed or when it will be removed. Also our mortgage offer has expired and we can’t extend it so we are having to go through that process again. And the rental agreement was initially for 6 months.

I have a couple of questions that I can’t seem to get an answer for

1. Has anyone ever had this happen and how long did it take to resolve/did it get resolved?
2. Is there anything we can do from our side to try to speed things up?

Thanks in advance for advice and help

davidmcn

Why has it taken them so long to consider court action? Assuming it's not defended (which would seem unlikely) I wouldn't expect court to take long. The only reason why it couldn't be removed would be if the proceeds from sale weren't sufficient to cover anything which is still owed - do you know whether there is still a debt?

fawnyb

The solicitors said they had to give the company time to respond first. Had to write to them a certain amount of times.

We have no idea how much the debt is for. Only that it was for a car loan that is something to do with her ex husband.

I can’t imagine it is more than the value of the house. We were originally told that the company just needs to respond to confirm the amount and then it can be removed. But as they haven’t responded it can’t be removed. We really don’t know what is going on

babyblade41

Can't you look for an alternative property ??? Just give notice as soon as you have found somewhere . I'm not sure it was a good idea to have this arrangement in the first place...

fawnyb

We are constantly looking just incase. But this property is a lot bigger than the average in our area and perfect for our family which is why we have held on like this.

I’m not concerned about the arrangement. It’s all done legally. It’s no different from tenants who eventually buy the property they have been living in.

davidmcn

fawnyb wrote: »

We have no idea how much the debt is for. Only that it was for a car loan that is something to do with her ex husband.

I can’t imagine it is more than the value of the house. We were originally told that the company just needs to respond to confirm the amount and then it can be removed. But as they haven’t responded it can’t be removed. We really don’t know what is going on

To be seven months down the line and have this little information seems odd. I doubt anybody here can help further as we know even less than you do about the background. Have you asked your solicitor the same questions, and if so what are they saying?

da_rule

When you say “not in business”, what do you mean? Do you mean no longer trading, dissolved or struck off?

If they were struck off the company roll then their assets would pass to the Bona Vacantia division of the Government Legal Department and they can release the charge (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sending-money-due-to-the-crown-under-a-bona-vacantia-mortgage-bvc5).

davidmcn

da_rule wrote: »

When you say “not in business”, what do you mean? Do you mean no longer trading, dissolved or struck off?

If they were struck off the company roll then their assets would pass to the Bona Vacantia division of the Government Legal Department and they can release the charge (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sending-money-due-to-the-crown-under-a-bona-vacantia-mortgage-bvc5).

I'd hope that would be one of the first things the solicitors could figure out. I expect "not in business" might just mean not taking on new business but still having a loan book. OP, what's the company? You say it's do with the ex-husband - is he still an owner of the property? Might be complications if he somehow needs to be involved (or if this was forgotten about in divorce and wife now wants reimbursed for paying off his loan).

D_M_E

Car loan taken out by ex

Have a look at

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1839539192#topofpage

Presumably the loan was just in ex's name and house was in joint names, not his alone?

Since solicitors, from what you write, have been in contact with whoever owns the loan then the above thread may be of help if the above applies.

xylophone

When you say “not in business”, what do you mean? Do you mean no longer trading, dissolved or struck off?

If they were struck off the company roll then their assets would pass to the Bona Vacantia division of the Government Legal Department and they can release the charge (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sending-money-due-to-the-crown-under-a-bona-vacantia-mortgage-bvc5).

There could still be problems it seems.


https://www.ehnetwork.org.uk/forum-topic/unable-remove-charge-empty-property-dissolved-company