BR last week - repossession query

debt_doctor

Hi, You are not responsible for the shortfall guarenteed. I wouldnt do anything with the house and I wouldnt sign anything from your mort co. As Fermi says you will not be liable.

Best

DD

fermi

DD makes a better point than me.:o

There is no reason why you should sign anything at all.

ceri123

So, I ignore the letter completely and sit it out?

We are hoping to be moving into rented accommodation in the next couple of weeks anyway.

What can I expect to happen if I ignore everything that comes in? Will we need to go to court? We're both also hoping to start new jobs very soon, and to have to take time out to go to court wouldn't make a very good first impression when trying to prove ourselves in our roles.

That's why I ask if it saves any hassle if we do it via voluntary repossession.

Ceri

Richard_S

Hi ceri,

I agree with everything fermi and debt doctor have said; especially when it comes to not signing anything. We went the Court route, because it made sense for us to keep our house, even though we had moved into rented accomodation; long story.

HSBC and their lovely solicitors will threaten all sorts but as fermi points out they can't change the law, and the Judge was very quick to point that out to them in our case.

If you do nothing HSBC will get a repossession order and then an eviction order which means they can change the locks and have anybody living there removed. So doing nothing, including not attending Court, will have the desired result. You aren't under any obligation to go to Court.

However, to ensure that you're absolutely in the clear refer the whole thing to your O.R., and ask them what you should / shouldn't do. You aren't supposed to have contact with creditors anyway so HSBC are bending the rules to some extent by addressing correspondence to you rather than your O.R.

Banks have a nasty little trap when it comes to voluntary repossession that can result in you being liable for the shortfall. There is part of the agreement that they send you which should be deleted before you sign it, but I've no personal experience of that, and I've yet to see anybody convince me that it's worth taking the risk.

In summary, don't sign anything and refer the whole thing to your O.R.

Regards

Richard

ceri123

When we had our telephone interviews with the OR she said we needed to let them repossess the house. She wasn't very clear about it. We have nil equity in the property and she said she would just be writing to them saying that if any profit is made, it needs to go to the OR. In fact it's probably in negative equity now that interest and charges are lumped on, as payments haven't been made for a few months.

Regarding contact with creditors... we're still getting threatening letters from them all. Is this usual at this point (we were declared BR on 11 Dec)? I presume so, as it presumably takes a while before they receive any contact from the OR. She said we could let them know we were bankrupt in the first instance and give the reference numbers, which is what we did. We sent a standard letter to all creditors after the telephone interviews, informing them of this, but they all seem to be ignoring this. We have had so many letters from creditors, or their solicitors, or various debt recovery companies. And we have 2 hire purchase cars sitting on the drive waiting for them to let us know what needs to be done. We want rid of them but they seem to be farting around... one company rang my husband, denying they'd received the letter informing them of his bankruptcy, yet the only way they'd have got that phone number is from that letter as it was a new PAYG mobile he'd got.

I just want to move into our rented accommodation and say 'here - have the house, have the cars, here are the keys'. I'm conscious that once we move out into our rented house, the cars and/or the house will be broken into (our current street is far from desirable).

Ceri

Richard_S

Hi ceri,

If that's what your O.R said then it seems as though we're on the right track; do nothing, and sign nothing. If I were you though, I'd still want to update the O.R and ask for confirmation of what you should do.

It does take a while for the letters and calls to stop; if you can be bothered to answer the phone just quote your bankruptcy number and the O.R's office handling your case.

Apparently, getting hire purchase cars collected is a real pain; there's several threads on here from people who've had problems and some quite imaginative solutions. If I remember rightly, Welcome Car Finance is one of the worst.

It does seem as though you've got the worst behind you now, it's just the niggling little "fallout" to contend with now.

Richard

fermi

Some creditors like to play the silly game of "Bankrupcy?. What bankruptcy?" for a while.:rolleyes:

But you can safely ignore them. Soon you will moving to a new address, and since the OR is now dealing with the debts and should be the creditors ONLY point of contact regarding them, you don't need to inform any of them of your new address.

Other people have had problems with with hire purchase cars, but in the end it is for them to sort out with the OR. If they can't be bothered to sort it out and they are vandalised as a result then as far as I can see it is their problem.
The important thing is to keep them and the OR informed so that if they create any hassle by being useless it falls on their own heads.

ceri123

Thank you. I think I'm going to send a letter to the solicitors in response to their letter, simply stating our bankruptcy details and telling them that we wrote to HSBC with the very same info before xmas. This is the first contact from these solicitors and HSBC may have conveniently omitted passing the bankruptcy info onto them. I will also make a point of saying that this is the last response they will get from me and that they need to be in contact with the OR instead. Does anyone see anything wrong with my intended approach?

Re. the cars I think I will get DH to ring the hire purchase companies (both are in his name) and point out that they are to be left outside an uninhabited house on a fairly undesirable street so it's in their best interests to act soon to repossess them. Thankfully neither are Welcome Car Finance (GMAC and Black Horse) but I'm sure they'll be awkward nevertheless.

Ceri

Richard_S

Hi ceri,

I don't think you can do much more than that really. I think it was shoosmiths we dealt with, and it felt as though we were discussing something that could have a profound effect of the future of the world; bloody dramatists.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I remember one of their solicitors sternly informing me that if we didn't address the issue of arrears it would affect our credit rating for six years; what was it about us being bankrupt that she didn't understand.

As for the cars, I think the only other thing you need to consider there, is are you still the Registered Keeper? If you are then I think you're still responsible for the vehicle in terms of Road Tax and insurance. I think it was debt doctor that said if you transfer the Registered Keeper back to the finance company then the responsibility is theirs, and tends to speed the process of recovery.

Richard

ceri123

Ah yes, DH is still the registered keeper on both. We have done the SORN thing with both where tax is concerned, but neither are insured. We obviously aren't using either of them.

How do we change it so the finance company are the registered keeper? Do we just fill in their details on the V5 and send it off?

Ceri