House Repossessed + £96k debt - Update

ekimnas

Anyone who has been following this post may be interested to know that BBC World Service recently interviewed my family on and I for a series of programmes they are running regarding the effects of repossession on the family.
The series is being broadcast for a week starting on Monday July 21st as part of the outlook programme, our interviews are scheduled for broadcast in two parts on wednesday 23rd and thursday 24th July - the programme is on at 0930 but is repeated at 1330 and 2305 on all days.
Whilst this is not a campaign programme it may bring my situation to the attention of others who may be able to help me right this wrong.

Original post follows:


I have had some useful feedback which I am following up on now. I have a debt of £96k (according to the West Bromwich Building Society - see below)

I have been told that it may be possible to make a settlement payment possibly as low as 10% - can anybody tell me anything about this please?

Original post follows.......

House Repossesed + £96,000 !!!


I am placing this post here in the hope that someone may be able to help me. I could write a book about what has happened but think it better to just present the facts as they are (sorry that it is a bit longwinded) My life has been ruined by this and I am hoping that someone will help me put this right.

Everyones reaction when they hear or read my story is one of disbelief but I swear that every word is true, incredible though it is. Everybody says it isn't right but the only people that have offered any help have only been interested in what they can get out of it and I can't afford to pay a barrister to sort this out!


08/09/1989 Remortgage taken out with West Bromwich Building Society on my house for £50,000. Mortgage was a 5-year capped mortgage which meant that the interest rate was guaranteed not to go above the ‘cap rate’ regardless of prevailing interest rate fluctuations.

November 1989 I defaulted on the mortgage within the first six months (i lost my job), went to talk to WBBS but was met with a brick wall attitude. The WBBS activated a clause in the contract immediately a payment was missed. I went to talk to my local branch and they did not want to help. Clause in contract, which we were unaware of, was that the ‘rate cap’ was lifted and interest rate reverted to the going rate + 2% ie: 16%. This meant that repayments doubled from £444 to £888 per month.

1990 -93 West Bromwich apply for repossession @ six times, on each occasion I applied for a stay of execution which was granted every time until..

09/1994 – House repossession granted by Nuneaton Magistrates Court.

11/02/1994 - Possession order enforced

08/1994 - House is sold by WBBS for £50,000 even though they had valued it 2 years previously at £62,500.
I have just been reminded that the house was valued at £62,500 prior to the West Brom advancing the mortgage of £50k. The mortgage was used to pay off the existing mortgage and to have a 2 storey extension built which doubled the size of the property. I would estimate that the property was worth @ £80,000 at the time of repossession, it was then sold by the building society for £50k.

1994 – 1997 We spend three years living in rented houses until we manage to get another mortgage in 1997 and just as we are beginning to get our lives back together..

1999 - Having heard nothing at all from the West Bromwich since 1994 a letter drops through our door informing us that we still owe £96,000, this being the figure that we would have paid had we continued the mortgage for its’ full term !!!

4/10/2000 Judgement in favour of WBBS – I could not afford a solicitor to defend myself.

01/2002 – Attachment of earnings orders made. £250 + £75 per month.

A copy of all files relating to our mortgage was requested, the WBBS took every one of the 40 days it has to supply us with the documents, even then vital documents were missing. It took a further year to persuade the WBBS to release these documents, they were finally sent one day before we were due in court for pre-action disclosure.

Documents obtained from the West Bromwich show applied fines & charges totalling £24,000 (£7,000 being charged before possession took place) in connection with the repossession of our house, I wonder whether the judge would have granted repossession of our house if he had known the scale of fines and charges being applied.

Below are some of the fines that were charged before repossession took place (these are fines imposed for missing monthly payments of £444. (The following is exactly as it appears on West Bromwich statements that I first saw TEN YEARS after the fines were imposed!!)

02/04/93 Fine £572.04
02/05/93 Fine £593.14
01/06/93 Fine £614.24
01/07/93 Fine £635.34
03/08/93 Fine £620.44
01/09/93 Fine £641.54
01/10/93 Fine £662.64
01/11/93 Fine £683.72
01/12/93 Fine £704.80
01/01/94 Fine £725.88
01/02/94 Fine £746.96
01/03/94 Fine £770.31
01/04/94 Fine £793.66

The fines are a sample lifted from a WBBS statement, there are more ! and they do not include the increase in payments because of the cap being lifted

I cannot afford a solicitor and everyone we have spoken to so far has only been interested in what is in it for them even though they are astonished at what has happened.


The West Bromwich Building Society repossessed our house in 1994 and sold it shortly after for a little less than the sum of our outstanding mortgage. We heard nothing until the building society contacted us in 1999 to let us know that they were pursuing a debt of £96,000 made up of £24,000 in charges and £72,000 of lost interest !! The case went to court and was not contested because I could not afford to do so. I would like to state in writing that my belief (and the whole reason for pursuing this matter) is, purely and simply :
How can it be right that a Building Society can get away with doing this ?

I have been unable to pursue this matter as vigorously as I want to because I have been too busy trying to make ends meet and keep my head above water.

I am prepared to do whatever it takes to sort this out but I can’t do it on my own. If you can help me please do. My biggest concern is that I will go to my grave with this issue unresolved, leaving my wife with a frightening debt to deal with.

Everything in this post is factual so I have no problem in naming the West Bromwich Building Society, in fact the figures in this post have come from thier own records.
I have written to the building society ombudsman my M.P and Martin Lewis, I am waiting for replies. I have been so wrapped up in bringing my kids up and keeping my head above water, that the years have just rolled by. But I am not going to let this go. I've started so I will finish !! I am going to bring this to the attention of as many people as I possibly can.

I went to the CAB some years ago and was referred to an unscrupulous firm who talked the talk but did nothing because they realised there was nothing in it for them. I was contacted by a researcher from Trevor McDonalds programme a few years but they never followed up on it. You would have thought that the TV would be interested in my story considering the recent rise in repossesions. So if there is anybody out there who can give this some publicity, lease get in touch.

Payments of £325 are taken from our wages every month by court order.The court have been in touch requesting a statement of means. I have refused because the West Brom have refused consistently to reply to my requests for an outstanding balance. I have been told that I may go to prison if I refuse the information - that is fine by me as it would be great publicity !!


Mike.

minimike2

The last part of your post alarms me to be honest.

I cant really comment on the rest as you do not state the reason why you fell into arrears on the mortgage in the first place (if the payements at the capped rate were affordable, which surely they would have been otherwise you wouldnt have signed up to the mortgage, then why would you be missing payments?).

the_bread_baron

sounds like you should have stuck to renting. sounds like you owe them. best thing to do is move anything the bailiffs could grab and split the current place. put the new place in the name of someone else. same for poll tax and sit tight for 6 years. after that they cant touch you.

Mac_Sami

How much did you owe them on the mortgage after the £50k sale on 08/1994?

silvercar

the_bread_baron wrote: »

sounds like you should have stuck to renting. sounds like you owe them. best thing to do is move anything the bailiffs could grab and split the current place. put the new place in the name of someone else. same for poll tax and sit tight for 6 years. after that they cant touch you.

Not true. If they had failed to contact you for 6 years, you are then legally free to walk away from the debt. Having made contact and received a court ratified payment order there is no 6 year rule.

danm

ekimnas wrote: »

1999 - Having heard nothing at all from the West Bromwich since 1994 a letter drops through our door informing us that we still owe £96,000, this being the figure that we would have paid had we continued the mortgage for its’ full term !!!

This is the bit someone needs to explain to me.

The BS have enforced the sale. The OP no longer lives in the property and presumably the BS no longer have 1st ranking security.....so doesn;t this therefore render the mortgage contract obsolete.

What is to stop every lender refusing remortgages on the premise that they will sue you for the profit they would have expected to make if the loan continued to term.

silvercar

That confused me, but I think the 96k is actually the total of the outstanding mortgage (less sale proceeds from distressed sale) plus legal costs, court costs and repossession costs, sale costs, arrears and interest.

Whether it should be as high as that who knows. Though remember that interest rates were high at the time. So applying interest rates of 10-14% on any outstanding amount will soon add up - these debts are now 14 years old.

the_bread_baron

silvercar wrote: »

Not true. If they had failed to contact you for 6 years, you are then legally free to walk away from the debt. Having made contact and received a court ratified payment order there is no 6 year rule.

ahh, but then the debt collector post court judgement has to then find you first. and they have 6 years too !!!

silvercar

the_bread_baron wrote: »

ahh, but then the debt collector post court judgement has to then find you first. and they have 6 years too !!!

The fact that they have an attachment of earnings order in operation shows that they have been found.

The OP really wants to know if:
a) the total bill is reasonable;
b) there is any way to reduce the bill/ get out the obligation to pay;
c) the building society have overstepped the mark at any stage, especially if this means that some of the debt could be deemed unenforceable.

mightymouse

Hi

Since 2002 interest on mortgage debt is limited to 6 years only.

It follows that claims for interest will be governed by s 20(5).
Consequently, mortgagees have 12 years from the accrual of the cause
of action to sue for the principal debt but only six years to sue for interest.

there are therefore two problems:-

1) the op had a judgment entered against him in 2000 ie before the case law.

2) the debt could easily have been acknowledged.

Six years before 2000 would be 1994 but the level of interest even then seems high.

bryanb

I only read your first post, but noticed that there was a clause in your contract you were "unaware of" Why? Do you not read contracts before signing?