Land Registry Search

Pere_Ubu

Some of you guys will be familiar with my situation, receiot of court papers etc.

We received a telephone today from First National. My husband took the call. They told him they had done a search at Land Registry to see what property we own. Can they do this? We do own our house but we only bought it last year so the equity is minimal and certainly not enough to cover the debt. I own 95% of the house my husband 5%.

If they can search Land Registry what else do they have access to? I found it quite worrying. We owe them 6k.

gustav

I've dealt a bit with LR in the past, and know you cannot search for a property by "owner".
Also, the term "owner" means different things to different people - especially LR..
Also, LR records are kept at several different offices throughout the country, very many in hard copy form only. It would be impossible to search national records to identify all properties somebody might own
The only info they can get from LR is the date you bought your home, and the name of the building society/bank you took out the mortgage with.
If they tell you they know more than that, they're fibbing.

Stare them down, call their bluff!

jonesMUFCforever

Anyone can do a search at the Land Registry. I think it costs around £4(or used to when I was in that line of work)They can only put a caution on your file there with good reason (if the debt is unsecured they can't do anything to your home)
Eric

grumbler

Pere_Ubu wrote:

If they can search Land Registry what else do they have access to? I found it quite worrying. We owe them 6k.

They know your current address and some other address' from your credit files. For every address they (and anybody) can get a copy of a title register:

http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/index.html

This is an example of a title register.

Ember999

Yes, this is true. I purchased a copy of info held by Land Registry prior to buying my home in Scotland. The Registers of Scotland Executive Agency (it is Land Registry in England) allowed me to purchase all details, namely: copy of title deeds, who owns the property and if there is an outstanding loan on it eg. Mortgage. I personally wanted to find out what the owners had paid for it (to see how much profit they made when I bought it :eek: ) and if it was freehold or freudal etc.

You cannot find out what person owns what property, only what property is owned by whom. I think this company are pulling your leg, If I was you I'd call their bluff.

Pere_Ubu

Thanks. It's creepy getting the telephone calls. I feel that if I look out my front window they will have an employee watching the house so they can call me later and tell me what time I wen to bed etc!! Sounds mad but I guess they are having their desired impact.

Ember999

Pere_Ubu wrote:

Thanks. It's creepy getting the telephone calls. I feel that if I look out my front window they will have an employee watching the house so they can call me later and tell me what time I wen to bed etc!! Sounds mad but I guess they are having their desired impact.

The problem with all these companies is they use 'scare' tactics because they know it gets to people. My advice is change your phone number. You are not obliged to give 'any' company your phone number and if you phone either BT or Telewest or whoever you pay your line rental to, and inform them that you are getting distressing calls and wish to change your number they will, usually 'free of charge'.

If this company persist in harassing you there are further steps you can take, but change your phone number and the distressing, annoying calls will stop. Make you new number ex-directory and register with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service) so that NO company can call you at home as you have requested they do not. Only give your number to trusted people and be selective.

With regards this company, it is much better for you to have all communication from them in writing anyway. You have no proof of anything that is said or agreed in telephone calls. Get all communication in writing.

If you need any more help, just ask

Don't let it get to you hon,

Ember xx

gustav

Pere_Ubu wrote:

I own 95% of the house my husband 5%.

Just as an aside (because i'm intrigued), is this arrangement formally and legally documented and registered at LR?

PS. Don't comment if you'd rather not

Xbigman

They may offer you a secured loan in the near future to clear the debt. Turn this down. As mentioned before in other threads, they will do anything to get their claws into your home. Stay calm and don't sign or agree to anything. All this cr*p will go away after your court case is heard.
Regards



X

Turning_into_scrooge

grumbler wrote:

They know your current address and some other address' from your credit files. For every address they (and anybody) can get a copy of a title register:

http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/index.html

This is an example of a title register.

Does this mean then that if the names on the land registry haven't been changed they can't find you, or makes it more difficult?

Pere_Ubu

Update. I wrote a letter to First National and Asset Management who are acting on behalf of FN. I feel quite good today because they wrote back about this letter saying it arrived AFTER they issued court papers. I felt as if I had given them something to think about. I'm going to respond to them saying it's not too late to withdraw papers. That this letter still stands that there simply will not be any more money in the pot simply because they issue court papers. I might even mention the unreasonable costs they keep adding to the account quoting from The Guardian article last Saturday. It's worth a try.

"You indicate in your letters that you bought the debt from First National on ** March 2005. We have since this date received a number of telephone calls from First National regarding the money we owe to them. It seems quite bizarre that they continued to telephone us even though they had sold the debt on to Asset Link. We have communicated with First National regarding the fact that we are unable to meet the monthly payments and have contacted a free debt management company (Payplan), who in turn have made offers of payments to all our creditors. All our creditors have accepted the offer of payments and have also frozen all interest and charges on our accounts thus enabling us to reduce our debt.

First National is the only one of our creditors that has not agreed to accept a reduced offer of payments based on our income and expenditure, they have continued to add charges and interest to our accounts, therefore, even though Payplan have been making payments on our behalf the actual debt to First National has been increasing.

This brings us to the recent communication with yourselves. We have read the letters sent to us. Asset Link telephoned Mrs ***** to discuss the debt and to explain the amount paid each month was not acceptable. The telephone conversation ended with the Asset Link representative telling Mrs ***** that the file would be sent to litigation department and court papers would be issued within the next 2 weeks.

We are not sure what Asset Link are trying to achieve by issuing court papers as our income and expenditure will not change simply because you issue court papers. What is being offered each month to each of our creditors will remain the same.

We believe the commencement of legal proceedings under such circumstances could be counter to the “overriding objectives” of the new Civil Procedure Rules where the courts expect parties to act reasonably. We have acted reasonably. We contacted all our creditors as soon as we experienced problems meeting monthly payments (First National included). We contacted a free debt management company (Payplan) who act on our behalf and make regular monthly payments to all our creditors (including First National).

Finally, continuing to charge us interest at the contractual rate only exacerbates an already difficult situation. If you truly are only interested in recovering monies owed then it would, per se, seem only sensible to freeze interest charges for the time being. "