Old Charge on Mortgage

Twirlybird9

My parents had a mortgage in 1974 which was completely paid off in 1995. It was a leasehold and they then bought the freehold on the property. They have since passed away and we are trying to sell the house but a charge has been found for their mortgage from 1974. Unfortunately the company the mortgage was with was dissolved in 2016 and now because this charge was not taken off at the time of final settlement of the mortgage and the crown is dealing with this, we are being expected to pay out a large amount of money to the crown to clear this. 

What I don’t understand is we have the leasehold certificate and the freehold confirmation. If this charge was still a live charge wouldn’t there have been debt collectors, court cases etc etc from 1995 to 2016? I know they paid it off as they had an annuity which didn’t cover it in 1995 and they had to pay the small balance to ensure the mortgage was then finished. I am so upset as they worked so hard with 5 kids to feed to pay that mortgage off and now we are having to pay again. We can’t risk losing the house sale but I wondered if there was any way of sorting this without paying this ridiculous amount to the crown just because some solicitor did not do their job in 1995! I have no paperwork from this dissolved company at all. 

fatbelly

Have you actually been given a figure for this?

That figure could only have come from whoever owns the debt now.

Do you have a conveyancing solicitor? Is the crown acting for the old mortgage lender?

 

Twirlybird9

It has come from the crown who now owns the debts fro the dissolved company

uptdale

fatbelly said:

Have you actually been given a figure for this?

That figure could only have come from whoever owns the debt now.

Do you have a conveyancing solicitor? Is the crown acting for the old mortgage lender?

 

If a company has assets when it is dissolved, those assets are "bona vacantia" and pass to the Crown.  It sounds as though that is what the Crown is claiming, presumably on the basis that the charge in favour of the dissolved mortgage company is prima facie evidence of a debt due to that company, so now due to the Crown.  The OP will need a solicitor to sort this out.  If there is good evidence that the mortgage was paid off in 1995, that should help convince the Crown's solicitors that the debt was nil.  There is a helpful article here: https://www.herrington-carmichael.com/remove-charges-dissolved-lending-company/

Twirlybird9

Thanks. Yes, we have the figure which is totally ridiculous from what they first borrowed in 1974 as you can imagine. I just can’t afford the lose the house sale. Would we have any recourse after we have paid this and sold the house to go after the crown to get this money back if I then sought legal advise? The sale has been going for a while and dragging since the crown got involved. 

uptdale

Twirlybird9 said:

Thanks. Yes, we have the figure which is totally ridiculous from what they first borrowed in 1974 as you can imagine. I just can’t afford the lose the house sale. Would we have any recourse after we have paid this and sold the house to go after the crown to get this money back if I then sought legal advise? The sale has been going for a while and dragging since the crown got involved. 

If I were you, I'd get the legal advice before you pay the Crown.  I would not rate your chances of getting it back afterwards.