Barclays Secured Loan from the 1970s

JDSurrey

Have just discovered on my parents house deed's, Barclays still has a charge on the property, even though they paid off the small loan in 1979.
I'm being sent round in circles by Barclays as they have no idea which department would hold this historic information. Visiting the branch Personal Banker, they just call the call centre and they provided an incorrect external company who have no idea. We have very limited info - we do not have a loan account number. 
Does anyone else have previous experience they can share please (eg which department they called / phone number)....anything gratefully received!

Shakin_Steve

How do you know that the loan was cleared in full?

JDSurrey

Valid question - at the moment all I have is my Mum's word that it was cleared. 

ARH_2

Even if the debt hadn't been settled back in 1979, wouldn't it be statute barred at this point (12 years for a secured debt of this type)? Seems to be a clear case that the charge should be removed without further fuss. 

Have you complained to Barclays about them not being forthcoming with an answer? Once it's been 8 weeks you can complain to the financial ombudsman, which is usually enough to catch the attention of someone at the bank with enough common sense to sort unusual customer queries like this out.   

JDSurrey

Thank you for your response - I will raise a Complaint with Barclays!

sourcrates

Contact the land registry as well, they offer good support services.

Shakin_Steve

JDSurrey said:

Thank you for your response - I will raise a Complaint with Barclays!

You could ask them if they're willing to remove the charge, as they have no proof of any outstanding debt, before going into complaint mode.

JDSurrey

The problem was that no-one knew which department to put us through - just kept being sent in circles. Good news we started a Complaint and then they seemed to take responsibility - will update when get more info.

Clive_Woody

JDSurrey said:

The problem was that no-one knew which department to put us through - just kept being sent in circles. Good news we started a Complaint and then they seemed to take responsibility - will update when get more info.

By raising a complaint you get past the help-desk folk and it should find it's way to the right person. Sadly this seems to be the most effective way of getting issues resolved beyond very basic problems that a help-desk Minion can deal with.

jonesMUFCforever

I know about this but from a different bank. Customer wanted one of the houses he owned , held by the bank as security for a long time business loan paid off, to give to his daughter as a wedding present.
You would think this would be straightforward - on no it wasn't. He went into a branch to be told by the manager that they did not deal with this type of enquiry there but that he would forward it on to the business side of things as they would know where the deeds were kept and confirm the loan had indeed been paid off.
This was like a tennis match for nearly 3 months - person A saying they had asked person B to get person C to do whatever was required but of course the chain had broken down somewhere, mainly because nobody had the 'balls' to sign off the discharge in case they made a mistake which would cost their promotion or job.
In the end the customer got the area director involved threatening to sue them - he got his deeds and a little compo for his trouble.
OP do a little investigation find out who their area director is - get in touch.