Legal Aid Charge on a house I have inherited

xylophone

they confirmed that they could tell me nothing without the written permission of the executor of the will.

You appear to be on good terms with your stepmother (who is the sole executor of the will).

Have you asked her to contact Legal Aid for information?

elsmandino

Thanks xylophone.

I think all I can do is offer to help in any way I can but accept that, as not an executor, I can pretty much do nothing but wait.

TBagpuss

The courts are very stretched - if you e-mail them to request the order the auto-reply will probably tell you what sort of delay to expect, but 10 days - 3 weeks would not be unusual. 

As far as I recall, legal aid charges have always carried interest, but the rates have varied. So yes, 8% came in in 2006 but it was just a change to the rate, it's not that interest wasn't chargeable before that. 


The rates are/were 

(a) from 1 December 1988 to 31 December 1991 12%
(b) from 1 January 1992 to 31 August 1993 10.5%
(c) from 1 September 1993 to 31 March 2002 8%
(d) from 1 April 2002 to 30 September 2005 5%
(e) 1 October 2005 to present 8%

the good news is that it is simple, not compound interest .  

It probably should have been cleared when your mum died, as at that point the house was no longer needed for her to live in. 

elsmandino

Thanks so much for this TBagpuss - couldn't find this information anywhere.

8% doesn't look too bad, now consider what it was prior to 1992!

Not_a_clue

From a response to an FOI request:

3.      I confirm that interest was introduced by a regulation change under the Legal Aid Act 1974 with effect from 1 December 1988.  Interest applied to statutory charges which arose after that date, including where the legal aid certificate was issued before 1 December 1988.  This change, though, did not affect or result in interest accruing on statutory charges which were registered before 1 December 1988.  Those statutory charges remain non-interest bearing today, unless in the meantime, the LSC agreed to transfer the charge to a new property, which would have resulted in the contractual charge being governed by contractual terms which would make interest accrue from the date of transfer.

So you could be lucky on the interest front if it was before 1 December 1988.

TBagpuss

elsmandino said:

Thanks so much for this TBagpuss - couldn't find this information anywhere.

8% doesn't look too bad, now consider what it was prior to 1992!

I think it is based on what you pay on CCJs