Think it's going to get messy

tiggerbodhi

Hi,
After some general advice, accept we are going to have to engage a Solicitor to finally sort it, but the more information we can gather first will help understanding and hopefully the bill!

Situation is that my Daughters father in law passed away and she is helping his wife with sorting out the finances etc, in doing this a few "surprises" have come to light, the main two are:

He went Bankrupt in 2008 and there is a Insolvency charge on the house, how do we find out how much this is for and is this only payable from his half of the house equity?

There is an outstanding mortgage on the house from 2006 (Pre Bankruptcy) from a "sub prime" lender, have a redemption figure of around £85K which is about 30% of the current value of the house, this is a Joint mortgage BUT the sife does not remember signing the loan document, we now have a copy of this and the signature is a very poor copy of hers so we assume it is forged.

In the above case, is the estate due to pay off the the BR charge and all of the joint mortgage if she sells the house or is there an argument to be had that she knows nothing about the mortgage so we could negotiate paying half or a reduced amount of the mortgage.

The above is the biggest dilemma, but we have a £13K personal loan taken out in the last 6 months, borrowed £7.5K from a "friend" and tool a 25% lump sum from his Pension therefore reducing the DIS payout and widows pension.

The poor woman thought she would be financial secure with a DIS payout and the house being "hers" but it now appears she will be lucky to what remains after the insolvency service and mortgage company get first dibs.

RAS

You definitely need advice because if the property was jointly owned then that limits the action the Official Receiver could take. 

And if the mortgage was taken out in 2006 and has not been paid since, then I suspect that it is no longer enforceable. Secured debts have to be enforced with 12 years AFAIK. 

RAS

The fact that she may or may not have signed the mortgage document does not have any impact on whether the house was owned as a joint tenancy.

It seems to be evidence that it was a joint tenancy as the husband required both signatures. But it is the deeds that matter.

tiggerbodhi

RAS said:

You definitely need advice because if the property was jointly owned then that limits the action the Official Receiver could take. 

And if the mortgage was taken out in 2006 and has not been paid since, then I suspect that it is no longer enforceable. Secured debts have to be enforced with 12 years AFAIK. 

He was paying the mortgage every month since 2006 from what can be seen, interest only, occasionally going into arrears then borrowing unsecured to clear the arrears, a bloody mess TBH, 

Alphatauri

Start with Land Registry https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry The Register should show if th3 house was owned as joint tenants or Tenants in Common. It should also show all charges against the property. You should be able to get copies of documents such as the mortgage to get full details.

tiggerbodhi

Alphatauri said:

Start with Land Registry https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry The Register should show if th3 house was owned as joint tenants or Tenants in Common. It should also show all charges against the property. You should be able to get copies of documents such as the mortgage to get full details.

Can't see on the Land Registry where it notes Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common, just has them both listed as Registered Owners.

There is one Charge on the property, the Mortgage Company from 2006 the Insolvency service have a "restriction" on the property:
 "RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate, other than a disposition by the proprietor of any registered charge registered before the entry of this restriction, is to be registered without a certificate signed by the applicant for registration or their conveyancer that written notice of the disposition was given to Kenneth Reginald John Mace Official Receiver (the trustee in bankruptcy of C***** M***** D***** (P***** *** of 2008)) at The Insolvency Service PO Box 10089 Birmingham B2 4WH."

Assume we need to contact The insolvency Service at the PO Box for Information on this.

The odd twist now is that on asking for authority for my Daughter to speak to the mortgage company on her behalf (the Widow) they have written back saying the Widow's signature does not match the one they have on file and on the Loan Agreement, is this almost tantamount to an admission the signature is a forgery by her late husband? and in this case what happens next? she cant report a dead man for fraud...