Charge on inherited property

Jes67

Advice needed! My brother and I recently inherited the family home. We put it up for sale and got a buyer quickly. However when their solicitor did their searches it came back with a charge from 1973. I discovered the company was dissolved in 2003 and the crown are now dealing with it. They have now asked for the original mortgage statement showing the charge along with statements showing payments and dates! We do not have any of this information and do not know what to do as they cannot remove the charge until they have valid information and meanwhile I have a frustrated buyer waiting!
Any advice appreciated. 

user1977

Don't you have your own solicitor? What's their advice?

I think the problem with the Crown is that they only take on the company's assets, so while they can discharge the mortgage in exchange for any outstanding balance being paid, they don't regard the mere existence of a charge as being an "asset" if the mortgage had already been repaid in full. In which case I think your solutions are either a court application or an indemnity policy.

Jes67

My solicitor doesn't seem to have any answers!
Thanks for your reply, I will pass this suggestion to my solicitor. 

rose_T

Hi

i am buying a property that has a charge registered on the title, I knew it’s paid in full. The reason I knew this is because the family that owns the property stayed next door to my husbands grandparents and were family friends. We are buying of market. The charge was for a 10k mortgage that was taken out in 1983 through the TSB but was never discharged after final payment. The vendors are 4 executors and their mum never kept up with paperwork after her husband passed away around 94/95 and the mortgage was paid off then. They can’t find deeds and there is no paperwork relating to the mortgage. 

Luckily the TSB is still on the go but it has changed a few hands since 83 which is making it harder to find the old mortgage account. ( harder but not impossible) 

The vendors solicitor offered a title indemnity policy to cover the charge. The policy is for the total sum of the home report value. To us the policy looked perfect we read it over and it covered everything but our solicitor had to ask Halifax our lender if they would accept the insurance but they would not. 

The vendors solicitor refused to write a letter of undertaking with a 3yr time limit to remove the charge. 

So it’s been a standstill for 3mths but I talked to one of the vendors last week and managed to talk to my solicitor today. The new option getting put forward to Halifax is for my solicitor to retain 10k of the purchase price along with the title indemnity policy, if Halifax accepts this then the sale can go through but the vendors won’t get the 10k until the property is legally discharged which my solicitor feels there shouldn’t be a problem in getting the discharge. I really hope we hear back next week sometime on the lenders decision. 

For us most of the hold up is coming from vendors solicitor who seems to be just sitting on everything, he didn’t want to approach the banks to ask for a discharge but he has been forced into doing this now. 

Obviously my situation is slightly different as the bank that was used is still operating so I don’t have any advice on how to provide the documents the crown is needing. But I refuse to believe that it’s impossible to obtain a discharge, but I do think most solicitors don’t actually want to do the work that is involved in obtaining one. 

I know it’s not much advice am offering but I know how frustrating it is when you can’t get information on this problem as I have done lots of searching and asking on forms with little reply. 

I really hope you get it sorted soon

Jes67

The Halifax was the original mortgage lender and the charge was with a now dissolved company. There was a small amount owing which was paid and the deeds were then released. I am wondering if this small amount was the charge as the mortgage statements showed a zero balance. I did speak to the Halifax who said that it should'nt be there and they would get it removed, but when i called back to check they then said it was nothing to do with them!
My solicitor has said that the offer of an indemnity policy was refused so that is not an option. 

GoogleMeNow

Could you try looking up the name of the dissolved company on Companies House, to see if they've changed their name or trading as something else?  The buyers, understandably, will want that charge removed from the title so you/your solicitor will need to find some evidence of the account to prove that the charge has been paid off, or that you are willing to pay it off.

user1977

GoogleMeNow said:

Could you try looking up the name of the dissolved company on Companies House, to see if they've changed their name or trading as something else?

If the charge was still vested in the dissolved company at the time of its dissolution, it doesn't help that the business may now be carried out under some other entity - the charge would have had to have been assigned to the new company before then. Which would (probably) have happened if there had still been a balance on the mortgage account.

Jes67

I have found the liquidators for the dissolved company and tried to call them. They are not accepting any calls and several emails I have sent remain unanswered. 
I am quite willing to pay off any outstanding balance if there is one! 
Soo frustrating 😫 

user1977

If the company is now dissolved, the liquidators have nothing else to do with it.

Jes67

So how do I find out any further information?

rose_T

Out of all my searching on google this is the only information I have come across. 

https://www.nelsonmclean.co.uk/conveyancing/residential/lenders-restrictions-a-problem-for-conveyancers/