Equitable Charge

sofrustratedinderby

I'm hoping someone can help point me in the right direction. I've been coming to a dead end with every attempt for 5 years.

When my now ex wife and I separated 5 years ago we applied to remortgage to pay some equity and have her name removed from the mortgage (at considerable cost for solicitors). We received notification that there was an equitable charge against the property predating our purchase of the house.

Looking back at our sales contract, our solicitors had raised the issue and a reply given that the charge would be paid and cleared upon sale. Both our solicitor and the sellers solicitors are no longer in business so couldn't address the issue with them. I contacted the land registry for details who confirmed the amount and who had raised the charge against the previous owner.

Finally I found the correct department and contacted them to tell them that the charge on the property was not mine but they said until it was paid they could not remove the charge.

Next I tried to find the seller (finally found his details and was able to contact him) He assumed that it had been paid and said that the charge was against himself and 2 other directors of a company he had had at the time and that he has no contact with them. He offered to pay a third of the charge to the company who made the charge but this was rejected. He has since retired, moved and I have not had any contact for almost 2 years. I have been to a number of solicitors for advice, all whom have confessed to not being able to help.

I have no idea what to do. Thankfully my ex wife and I are still friends, the divorce was amicable but 5 years after separating, her name is still on the mortgage and she has still not had any funds that we had agreed on.

Somebody please help.....

DE_612183

@Land_Registry is someone on here who may be able to help.

sounds complicated - but have you got anything in writing that confirms the charge would be removed?

I presume the previous owner should have had the charged paid and removed ( presume it has not been paid and is still outstanding? )

sofrustratedinderby

I have the correspondence from our solicitor to his solicitor asking if the charge will paid upon completion. Their reply was yes but clearly it wasn't done. I don't even know if that was the lenders responsibility, the sellers solicitor, or the seller.

Land_Registry

OP has been in touch with HMLR already
Redeeming and clearing the equitable charge would have been the seller/their solicitor's responsibility. Your won solicitor would normally have had an undertaking from the solicitor to do that before they then completed the process and applied to register your purchase

sofrustratedinderby

Both our solicitors and the sellers solicitors are no longer in business so am unable to raise the issue with them.

DE_612183

I would guess you need to either pay the charge yourself ( any idea how much it is ), and then try and recover it from the original seller.

saajan_12

Dig out your exchanged contract - does it say anything about removing charges? 
What I'm thinking is if the seller is obligated to you to get the charge removed - if so, you can sue them to, or pay it and then claim it back from them. 
Agree with the others that usually the advice is to contact the solicitors who are more traceable and solvent, but just if that's harder in your case. 

sofrustratedinderby

DE_612183 said:

I would guess you need to either pay the charge yourself ( any idea how much it is ), and then try and recover it from the original seller.

only that his solicitor responded to our solicitor confirming that the charge would be paid and removed on completion. As of 2021 it was over £18,000. 

DE_612183

sofrustratedinderby said:

DE_612183 said:

I would guess you need to either pay the charge yourself ( any idea how much it is ), and then try and recover it from the original seller.

only that his solicitor responded to our solicitor confirming that the charge would be paid and removed on completion. As of 2021 it was over £18,000. 

so it was part of the contract that has not been fulfilled - it the seller has moved and you can't contact them, them is not much you can do - the company that is owed the money put a charge on the property to ensure they got paid.

As no one is going to stump up the cash, then you are left with it to sort out - unless the company that the charge is for agree for it to be removed - have you contacted the company?

sofrustratedinderby

DE_612183 said:

sofrustratedinderby said:

DE_612183 said:

I would guess you need to either pay the charge yourself ( any idea how much it is ), and then try and recover it from the original seller.

only that his solicitor responded to our solicitor confirming that the charge would be paid and removed on completion. As of 2021 it was over £18,000. 

so it was part of the contract that has not been fulfilled - it the seller has moved and you can't contact them, them is not much you can do - the company that is owed the money put a charge on the property to ensure they got paid.

As no one is going to stump up the cash, then you are left with it to sort out - unless the company that the charge is for agree for it to be removed - have you contacted the company?

I have contacted them. They won't remove unless the money is paid. It's immoral. It is not my debt and surely someone, somewhere is responsible and should be held accountable. Does the mortgage lender have anything to do with paying monies to the debtor before releasing the rest of the funds to the seller? Am I now legally responsible at the property owner? I've tried different local solicitors including conveyancing solicitors for advice but none have been able to give any advice. I can't be the 1st and only person to have had this happen.....sorry, it's so frustrating and upsetting,

DE_612183

sofrustratedinderby said:

DE_612183 said:

sofrustratedinderby said:

DE_612183 said:

I would guess you need to either pay the charge yourself ( any idea how much it is ), and then try and recover it from the original seller.

only that his solicitor responded to our solicitor confirming that the charge would be paid and removed on completion. As of 2021 it was over £18,000. 

so it was part of the contract that has not been fulfilled - it the seller has moved and you can't contact them, them is not much you can do - the company that is owed the money put a charge on the property to ensure they got paid.

As no one is going to stump up the cash, then you are left with it to sort out - unless the company that the charge is for agree for it to be removed - have you contacted the company?

I have contacted them. They won't remove unless the money is paid. It's immoral. It is not my debt and surely someone, somewhere is responsible and should be held accountable. Does the mortgage lender have anything to do with paying monies to the debtor before releasing the rest of the funds to the seller? Am I now legally responsible at the property owner? I've tried different local solicitors including conveyancing solicitors for advice but none have been able to give any advice. I can't be the 1st and only person to have had this happen.....sorry, it's so frustrating and upsetting,

Yes, it is an issue - but the money that was owed was secured against the property - and unless paid then the charge sits there - whoever owns the property.

The issue lies with the two solicitors - who now can't be accountable for it - one failed to do their job properly, the other failed to check the job was done. You could I suppose try the Law Society - after all two of their former members have failed in their duty - they may have a fund to cover things like this where members no longer in circulation have cocked up.

Nothing to do with the mortgage lender - they would have been aware of the charge, but as it's a 2nd charge then they would not be worried as they would get their money first anyway.