Long shot. Northern rock. Gave up home.

Shewolfmegadeth

This is probably a long shot that I can't imagine I'll get an answer. 
In short, my husband had a mortgage with Northern Rock, just as they were going under.
Due to financial issues he decided to sell the house, unfortunately at the time he needed some paper work from northern rock for the potential sale to go through. Months past and they didn't send him it.
He literally walked away from the house. At the time he was having a lot of issues with his ex so mentally couldn't cope with the added stress. He wrote them a letter and posted the keys through the letter box and that was that.
He also ended up going bankrupt just after. 
So to me, I'm thinking what the heck!! Can he do anything about this??? He walked away from a house! Or is it tough as it was literally like 20 years ago.
Any advice if even possible would be appreciated. 

Hoenir

 Walking away suggests that was no equity in the property. Nothing to pursue.  Time to move on. 

BarelySentientAI

Had a debt that he wasn't paying because he gave the keys back and then declared bankruptcy?

No, there's nothing to chase.  Nothing 'tough' about it.

silvercar

It may depend on the values, if there was say a 40k mortgage on a property worth 200k, there is 160k to account for. Some will be swallowed up by repo costs, selling costs etc. Still a sizeable chunk left. The bankruptcy would be the next call on the money, so if he went bankrupt owing say 30k, you may find there is still a chunk left. 

Does he know the size of the mortgage at the time? You could use zoopla house prices page to find the price the property actually sold for. That would give you an idea how much equity was left. Then judge how much he owed at the time of bankruptcy.

caprikid1

If he had a northern Rock together mortgage he may have actually owned less than a house !, they may have actually lent him c £115% of the value.

Almost certainly he owes them money , not the other way round. No one had equity with NR !

Skiddaw1

We did. Our mortgage was with Northern Rock and we paid it off in full. I still remember us going into the local branch and paying the final 5k . We celebrated with pints of Guinness in the Irish pub opposite. Mind you, that was some years before they went down the pan.

caprikid1

"He also ended up going bankrupt just after. "

That tells you Mortgage - House Sale Price = A Minus figure.

He walked away from negative equity , a 115% mortgage and other debt.

No way would he have gone bankrupt in any other circumstance, he owes them money.

RHemmings

Can I ask: what research have you done on the house? The sales history is available online, for example on Zoopla. Though, I don't think that will have many details from 20 years ago, you can still see if the house has been bought and sold since then. Having a look at the title register will tell you who currently owns it.

I'm not sure that there's anything practical you can do with that information. But, if I was in your shoes I would want to look it up.

It seems that many assets of Northern Rock were sold to US private equity firm Cerebus. https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/the-13-billion-sale-of-former-northern-rock-assets/  If those assets included that house, then they almost certainly would have sold the house on. So, again, I'm not sure that you can do anything with that information. 

But, you could try contacting them: https://www.cerberus.com/contact/    However, if your partner effectively still owes them money, then for 'normal' debts contacting a creditor can reset the clock and they can chase you for the debt again. Could it possibly be a bad idea to contact any successors of Northern Rock? I'm not sure. More info here: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/help-with-debt/dealing-with-your-debts/check-if-you-have-to-pay-a-debt/

As others have said, if he posted back the keys then probably no equity. Surely the OP's partner might know. Might be best to leave well alone. 

user1977

If there was any equity in the property, then I'd expect whoever was handling the bankruptcy to have picked up on that (and used it for the benefit of the other creditors).

pinkshoes

You can start by finding out what price it sold at.

You would then need paperwork showing how much the mortgage was.

As he made himself bankrupt I assume he had other debts? 

Its highly likely that he owed more than the house was worth but they didn't pursue him for the additional money owed as it was written off with the bankruptcy.

Shewolfmegadeth

He hadn't fallen behind on repayments or anything, in short he was going through hell with his ex and paying out thousands in court costs. That's why there was issues with money and mental health problems over it all.