Voluntary Surrender.

Scarlett.1974

Good morning all

Having had the voluntary surrender form from Northern Rock which H is adamant he is not signing, I have drafted the following letter to them, copying the bits of the form that we're happy with and omitting the rest (that will be most of it then ) and would appreciate if anyone would mind scanning their eyes over it and telling me what you think:


31st January 2008

Our names
Our old address

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Account No. xxxxxxxxx. Address as above.

With reference to the above and your letter dated 14th January 2008 within which you enclosed a Voluntary Surrender statement for us to complete and return. We will not be signing the aforementioned statement and would request that you take this letter as our formal request for the voluntary surrender of the property.

We voluntarily surrender possession of the above mentioned property to Northern Rock and agree to the sale of the property.

We understand that the proceeds of the sale will be applied to the account to pay off in whole or in part the balance outstanding. Any surplus funds will be used to reduce the outstanding unsecured loan balance.

We note that Northern Rock are at liberty to remove and/or sell any items of a personal or household nature remaining in the property after the date of our giving possession.

We confirm that the property will be vacant from today's date, Thursday 31st January 2008.

For your information, we can now be contacted at the following address and would request that all correspondence be in writing only to this address:

Our new address

Yours faithfully,



Mrs Scarlett Mr Notgotapot


Thank you

Richard_S

Hi Scarlett,

Your H is correct about not signing the form; there is a clause in those forms that is particularly pernicious, and even if you're declaring bankruptcy you need to be certain that you've deleted the appropriate clause in the agreement.

I've not seen the forms personally, and it's a pity debt doctor's not around because he's bound to have had some experience with them.

Richard

fermi

Richard_S wrote: »

I've not seen the forms personally, and it's a pity debt doctor's not around because he's bound to have had some experience with them.

Neither have I.

The letter looks OK to me, since there's absolutely "**** all" NR can do if you are going BR. It's more of a courtesy than anything else.

Scarlett, if you PM debt doctor he will probably be able to look at it. The default setting of this forum (assuming he hasn't changed it in his profile) is to send an email to the address you registered with when you get a new private message, which includes the text of the message. So he might be able to look at that letter tonight when he's finished at CAB for the day.

Richard_S

fermi wrote: »

Neither have I.

The letter looks OK to me, since there's absolutely "**** all" NR can do if you are going BR. It's more of a courtesy than anything else.

Hi fermi,

I agree that any debt will be included in a bankruptcy regardless of when the debt crystallises, but there's a clause in those voluntary surrender forms that can cause problems, even if you're declaring bankruptcy.

I've had a look around on a number of occasions but can't find out exactly what it is. All I know is that a couple of people have been advised by solicitors to delete the relevant section before signing.

Rich

fermi

Richard_S wrote: »

I agree that any debt will be included in a bankruptcy regardless of when the debt crystallises, but there's a clause in those voluntary surrender forms that can cause problems, even if you're declaring bankruptcy.

Yes, I've mentioned that before.

The point above was that the above letter leaves all those contentious parts out, and so should not cause any problems.

fermi

When Mike had his forms he quoted those parts as:

I/We understand that in surrendering the keys to the property we are asking xxxxx of xx Street to take possession of the property and sell for the best possible price. I/We note that the names of all parties to the mortgage will be added to the credit registered as the property will deemed to be in repossession. I/We understand that I/We are responsible for all invoices, insurances and fees involved in the sale of the property.

I/We understand that I/We are responsible for any losses incurred if the sale price of the property is less than the mortgage, in addition to insurance fees and invoices incurred in the possession and sale of the property. If there is a loss I/We understand that we must make realistic proposals to xxxx to repay the loss. I/We also note that interest in the property will continue to be charged on the loan until the monies from the sale are received by xxxx>

I/We understand that if we change address and or phone number we must provide the new details to xxxx until such time as any loss is cleared in full and xxxx confirms this to me/us. I/We understand that xxxx can only accept the surrender of keys if this form is signed by all parties to the mortgage. I/We also note that xxxx request we immediately return the keys under separate cover and by registered post to us.

EDIT: But obviously each lender will have their own forms and wording.

Scarlett.1974

Thanks Richard and Fermi (sorry for the delay in replying, was on the phone to the court)

This is an extract from the form:

"We understand that the foregoing is subject to any third party charges there may be against the property or we becoming bankrupt or entering into a formal agreement with creditors prior to completion of the sale of the property and application of the proceeds of the sale".

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I get the general gist

I will pm Debt Doctor now, thanks for the advice

tigerfeet2006

Good luck with it all Scarlett.

debt_doctor

Hi all,
I see nothing wrong with your surrender letter, now that the " we will be responsible for the shortfall" etc has been removed. Altough the law is unclear and probably in favour of the BR person, no one should ever sign an " aknowledgement of debt"

Best

DD

EDIT; I think I would remove the reference to the unsecured borrowing, as this should go in to your BR.

Scarlett.1974

Thank you debt doctor, I really appreciate that

I shall remove the offending sentence and get it in the post tomorrow!