Charge against my home to secure a loan

johnb80

Back in 2006 I took a business loan out that was secured against my property. Over the years I paid off the loan on time etc, no missed payments everything done bang on time. In March this year the loan was paid off, the account closed and we were told the charge against our property would be removed, it takes 7 to 10 working days.

Fast forward 6 months to now, I am trying to buy some business premises and I am raising the money by a lifetime mortgage (various reasons but it looks a good fit for us), all was going well, very well in fact until the mortgage company looked at our Land Registry Title, it still has the charge on it. I raised the issue straight away with Natpest (worse bank ever), I had numerous forms to complete which were done immediately and returned by email. I followed it up the next day, we needed a speedy resolution to this, solicitors are sat waiting twiddling their thumbs - vendors, our side and the lifetime mortgage ones. I'm getting no where, yesterday through shear persistence (6.8hrs on the phone over the last 7 days), I finally got to talk to our complaint handler, whilst I di wish to complain and seek some compensation for all of this, I really wanted to talk to the person dealing with our case, a member of the charge release team (they seem to have a lot of teams!). I was not allowed to talk to this team, they would not give me any phone numbers or names. They did say that there was no reason for the charge to remain against our property, it was their error and they started looking at it on Wednesday this week, 6 days after I returned their forms and emphasised the urgency.

We are in danger of losing our property we wish purchase which is an absolute perfect choice for our business in terms of price, size, location etc, we have been looking for the last 2 years and nothing has been up for sale. Any advise of how to put a rocket under Natpest, how do I seek compensation when the dust has settled for the stress, my time on the phone, additional solicitors fees and their delays?

Any help / advice gratefully received

Many thanks in anticipation. - John

Grumpy_chap

It may not be the bank's fault.  If it requires HMLR to update records you may be in for a long wait.  We have a lease extension from April 2020 that land registry have still not yet processed.

Is it possible for the bank to provide a suitable statement that the debt is settled and no charge can be enforced, in a form acceptable to the new lender?

johnb80

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.

It is the banks fault, they admit they did not process the release.

It sounds like a good call re a statement from the bank to the new lender, I'll give that a try on my daily call to them on Monday.

Kind Regards - John

Grumpy_chap

Might be worth checking with the new lender first what they would be willing to accept, then arrange that from the old bank.

Will all need to be tied down through the Solicitors.

sourcrates

Land Registry rep posts regularly on the "charging order the myth" sticky post on DFW if you need advice from them.

johnb80

Thank you all, I have some things to go at on Monday to try and motivate these people to release my property.

J