Charges against property!!Help!!

terriS

Can someone in the know please advise me?

Firstly...
We have recently been notified of two charges made against our property by Credit Card companies. When we took out these credit cards it was as an unsecured loan, so is it legal for them to turn it into a secured loan without warnings as you get on a secured loan stating that 'your property is at risk if you do not keep up payments'? Surely this can't be legal

Secondly...
Also we have heard that a charge on a jointly owned property is unenforcable if the contract was in one persons name only. This relates to The Land of Leather on a suite that my husband bought using their own finance company but it was only his signature on the paperwork and our home is in my name also. They now also have a charge on our home, is this legal?

I eagerly await your replies and thank you in advance

Poosmate

Hi Terris and welcome to DFW on MSE.

I've read an article on these charges only in the last few days. I don't know what the legalities are but I think they may be able to do that, I mean as your property is jointly owned, your husband effectively owns half of the equity in it - that's how I see it thinking logically but I might be wrong.

I'll see if I can find out where I read that article for you.

Hopefully someone else with more knowledge of this will post soon.

Poo

penguin83

Have either of these creditors taken you to court and obtained a CCJ against you at all? x x

Poosmate

Terris,

Here's the place I found the article I told you about:-

www.fool.co.uk 2008/04/28/when-debt-brings-down-the-house

It's not a link because I don't think I'm allowed to put that up but you have the name of the site and the name of the article and the date it was written/posted.

I have searched this site but couldn't find an article on this, maybe Martin could do one?

Hope this helps

Poo

terriS

Thank you to Poo for your info

Penguin83 yes i believe so, i think they have to go to court to obtain the Charge against the property. Not sure about the CCJ though. My husband didn't attend the Egg card court hearing (rather foolish on our part, but had no idea they would be able to put a charge on the house.):embarasse
The finance company for the suite hearing he did attend and the judge ruled in their favour because our arguement didn't involve the finance company. (In a nut shell, the suite was faulty from the day it was delivered to us, Land of Leather came to look at it, did a small repair and left, it remained faulty and we kept calling and writing to the shop but never got any replies so we said until it is in a satisfactory state we will not make payments, or alternatively they could come and collect it, again no response)

terriS

Just read this to my husband and he has prompted me to say that i think we knew the official response, that they can turn an unsecured loan into a secured loan but how can they do that without notifiying you that if you default your home may be at risk, as mortgage lenders have too. Is this a loop hole? If mortgage lenders have to how can others be exempt from informing you?

Thank you once again

Lorne

bump up the board

coops024

I'm not sure 'Your home is at risk' only the equity if you decide to sell the house

So they cant reposess the house or force you to sell... but.... if you do sell the house, then both companys will get their money from the profits you make !

Thats how i understand it anyway

hope that helps

itsnever2lateisit?

This seems to be an increasing trend at the moment, companies seeking charging orders in order to 'secure' defaulted debts. They have to obtain a court order to do so. However this does not turn an unsecured loan into a secured one in that your home is not at risk. The charging order does not give the lender the right to sell your home. What it does do is legally require you to settle the debt from the proceeds of the sale of your home when YOU choose to sell. This might be because you want/need to move, so if you are in the house in which you expect to leave only in your 'wooden suit' then they will have to wait for their money until your death. They might be able to add interest in the meantime, so it is in your best interest to try to settle the debt and so lift the charging order

peb

Hiya; you know the official position - is it actually a charge on the property? A charging order is usually registered as a UN1 - unilateral notice and that is what I would expect you to have. Theoretically they can enforce a sale under this order but (although I know it has happenned to someone here) it is unlikely. They are more interested in making sure you pay when you sell or remortgage the house. Same applies to your husbands debt - expect that theoretically it comes out of your husbands equity.

The situation re "you may lose your home if repayments are not made" I am afraid is irrelevant; you are not talking about missing payments on a secured loan but a judge has allowed a lender to register their interest against this property. It suddenly seems to be more common; maybe it protects them should you become bankrupt.

roxy84

We have just got a Charging Order put on our property by Northern Rock for £30k, we went BR before the actual hearing date so it is now getting removed but that is a different story.
We hadnt paid this loan for about 6 month and they took us to court for a CCJ, this was granted and we were ordered to pay the full amount (which we couldnt) we then got an Interim charging order in the post. They dont have to tell you that this is what they are doing but they do have to inform you of the hearing for it to be made final. We never attended the final hearing but we did write a letter of objection as advised by national debtline, this was totally ignored.
It doesnt really make a difference if your house is in joint names or not, if the debt is your oh and his name is on the house then they can put it on.
If you sold your house and for example there was 20k equity after the mortgage and the charging order was 10k then this would be paid and the remainder would go to you, your oh wouldnt get anything. Im not 100% but i think they can also object to the sale of your house if the sale doesnt cover there order, you would have to pay it off by other means before they would let you sell it.