Today I received a letter from The Halifax saying that they are going to accept our offer of £2,500 in full and final payment etc., I would like to quote you the exact text and ask you if it sounds like the end of the matter as I know that they can be sneaky in their wording..........please let me know what you think.

"I confirm that payment of a sum of £2,500 is acceptable to the Halifax in full and final settlement of your liability in connection with the loss. As long as this payment is made by the agreed date, the Halifax, and the Additional Mortgage Security Company (formerly Mortgage Indemnity Insurance), will not take any further recovery action against you in respect of this matter, but reserves the right to pursue all other parties to the mortgage (including Guarantors if applicable) for any remaining loss."

Can I really breathe a sigh of relief and get on with my life or do I need to get this wording looked at by a solicitor? Also if this is the end of this situation, is their a sample of a letter that I can send to them to accompany the cheque so that i can get my wording right?

I cannot say enough thank you's to the amazing people who calmed my nerves and helped me out during this last traumatic year of fighting. If this truly is the end of my situation then I owe it all to following the steps advised on this site.

-- ithinkitsover (tequilaslammas@yahoo.co.uk), March 14, 2002

Answers

That does look like good news. Well done.

The wording of the letter looks fine to me provided the names of insurers in it includes all the insurers that you think were involved with your mortgage.

I presume you know if there were any guarantors or partners that could now be chased.

Others with better legal brains may well comment on the wording of a response letter. I will try to find one for you. I do have one somewhere.

Remind me if you don't hear from me in a couple of days.

Well done!

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@bigfoot.com), March 14, 2002.

I assume from your posting that £2,500 is a good settlement and that you are happy about it.

Make sure that you spend ten minutes checking the wording of the agreement, maybe see a solicitor even. And, think about your chedit standing at credit reference agencies; Make sure that Halifax remove any adverse registrations, make sure that anybody else on the mortgage agreement is not still liable. If all this is covered, go out and have a jar!!!

Great, just great. I'm real pleased for you. I'm glad that the good people on the site have helped you as well.

Everytime somebody wins, and they post it up on the site, then people who access the site looking for a solution can see that there is somehting that can be done. They can see that they don't have to accept the statements of lenders and debt collection agencies as fact, there just might be a better way.

Well done.

Good Luck.

-- Harry (pearson_harry@hotmail.com), March 14, 2002.

Hi there and congratulations!

i was just wondering if you could tell me what the overall shortfall was that they were chasing you for and if this was the first offer you made them. We are in a similar situation with them too.

Thanks

-- lisa (lisajh29@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

See my question on "What is a full and final settlement"! A solicitor has told me that this only valid in cases of damages. Only when they provide a "Deed of Satisfaction" is the matter ended. I reproduce below part of the advice from my solicitor.

"You definitely have a bit of a problem here with HMC. Even if you had gone for bankruptcy at the time of the repossession this apparently wouldn't have discharged the debt, and would also have greatly affected your credit rating. The HMC are able to call on some strange shipping precedents which are always quoted in debt chasing cases. The only way you can prevent them from continuing to chase you for the amount owed is if they agree to supply you with a Deed of Satisfaction, which they are very unlikely to supply. We have a similar case here with another building society who are also unwilling to provide such a Deed, although the client is offering a lump sum in full and final settlement. If they agreed to a Deed of Satisfaction it means they are agreeing not to pursue for the amount owed."

HTH

avril

-- avril smith (av@totalise.co.uk), March 15, 2002.

I slightly disagree with the previous posting.

If a person is bankrupt then all his/her liabilities are discharged and become the responsability of the official receiver. This is the law, there is no way that a bank can chase a bankrupt for an old debt, this is a criminal offence. (Harrassing a bankrupt) If the lender has security on a property then bankruptcy will not release the secured charge.

The other part of the previous posting, are valid concerns, and qualified legal advice should always be obtained before committing to any such agreement.

Good Luck.

-- Harry (pearson_harry@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

The OR told me..that *some* Lender's can apply for a bankruptcy petition to be partially aside and have the amount relating to the mortgage removed from the list of debts the petitioner has filed. They can only do this if fraud is suspected in the creation of the shortfall. The debt then becomes a criminal instead of civil matter and different rules apply. I think Avril's solicitor may be referring to a very very old statute of Law which pre-dates Victorian records. Coincidentally I am ploughing through something possibly related at the moment, in relation to a theory I am thinking through. I would hate to be a High St Lender trying to defend that using that one in Court though.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), March 15, 2002.

I was shocked to hear that bankruptcy didn't discharge mortgage shortfalls as Citizen's Advice were helping me with preparation to become bankrupt as a way to solve my terrible terrible nightmare problems. So apparently they don't know that either!

Anyway, I did a web search and found a page which supports what my solicitor has told me.

http://www.ukadvice.com/bankruptcy/bankruptcylaw/index.html

I wish I had known about this web site when I was first going thru my problems, which started in 1991.

hth, avril

-- avril smith (av@totalise.co.uk), March 18, 2002.

Too scared to say, regarding the last sentence of your posting above - you'd wonder how they'd have the brass neck wouldn't you? But of course they probably would!

Good luck Avril. Joy

-- Joy Harker (fightingback@harker.go-plus.net), March 18, 2002.

I went to the solicitors today to get the wording of the letter checked, incase of any small print that I didn't understand. It is definitely the end of the matter once I pay the £2,500, it has been a very worrying year but I am satisfied that the result I got was the best that I was going to get. I wish everyone the very best and will help with anything that I can. Don't let the ******** grind you down!

-- hiphiphooray (tequilaslammas@yahoo.co.uk), March 19, 2002.

Excellent news for you. I'm very very pleased.

Can you help me please? Your wording isn't very different from that in the letter sent to me by HMC, I'd like to use your solicitor to check my letter and advise me. Could you post solicitor address and name, or email me privately. (I have now written to HMC, my MP, and citizen's advice.) TIA,

avril

-- avril smith (av@totalise.co.uk), March 21, 2002.