I would like to thank this site for the excellent helpfull information which I obtained from it regarding SARN's and negotiations. I did however ignore your advice on completing Income & Expenditure forms. I was helping a friend who had a £12.5k shortfall. We settled with the Buildind Society for £1k within 2 months of the first letter being sent. It took 12 letters and 1 completed Income and Expenditure form. Fortunately for us the Building Society were totally professional in their approach and answered every letter within 2 days. My friend is now able to start rebuilding her life. Thankyou for all your help and Good Luck to everyone who has found themselves in the unfortunate position of having a shortfall.

-- (von6@uboot.com), June 10, 2002

Answers

Who was the Building Society/solicitors? I think my next (and only) step is the I&E form, just hope YBS are as keen and willing to settle !

-- Jessie (jessie01@talk21.com), June 10, 2002.

Good for you. For some, assuming that is the end of the matter (your friend did get the sign-off I hope)this seems to work. For others, like me, it spelt the beginning of the end.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), June 10, 2002.

BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THIS POSTING. VONBOOT MAY BE ACTING FOR A LENDER OR DEBT COLLECTOR. IF NOT, WHY MAKE SO MANY POSTINGS ENCOURAGING US TO FILL IN I&E FORMS?

-- Gordon Bennet (arsenewhinger@hotmail.com), June 11, 2002.

In reply to the above postings. I am not a debt collector or lender just someone who was trying to help a friend out of a miserable situation so that they could get on with thier lives. I do not encourage people to complete an I&E form, I simply give details of our experience as I believed this site is here to help people share experiences, an in our case completing the I&E form helped. However if you are the the type of person who can afford to repay a a legitimate shortfall and are just trying to avoid payment then completing an I&E form is probably going to do you no good. It is up to the individual to decide taking into account thier own circumstances. We did getter a letter from the Building Society stating that the payment was in 'full and final settlement to both them and the MIG company', that my friend 'liability to the Society had ceased and thier files had been closed' and 'that they would inform the credit reference agencies that the debt had been settled'. I will email you Jessie with the name of the Society and their was no solicitors involved. We simply worked with information received from this site together with commensense.

-- (von6@uboot.com), June 11, 2002.

So why trawl back to an April thread to post about completing I & E forms? You had already posted your comment under your own heading so surely this should have been enough. Like I said everyone, be careful not to be duped. Some lenders may treat I & E forms fairly and in a spirit of reasonable settlement, but there appears to be posters here who have found out to their cost that this is not always so.

-- Gordon Bennet (arsenewhinger@hotmail.com), June 11, 2002.

I went back to letters which asked a similar question to which I had 2 months ago and only received negative answers. I was just trying to let this peoply know of our experience. Each person has to make up their own minds regarding their own situation. I have told the truth and only posted our experience on this site as apart from the information regarding I&E forms I found the other information contained on it excellent and very helpful. I am very greatful to this site for the information I obtained from it and was only trying to give details of something which I thought would help others in a simialr position.

-- (von6@uboot.com), June 11, 2002.

Income & Expenditure forms! What a brilliant idea. Yes i think these should be filled in and returned to the lender (only when the debt has been put to strict proof). In my shortfall case, which went to court late last year of which i lost to the tune of a 74K judgement and charging order on the property of which i now own, i competed I & E form complete with an offer of 4K in full and final settlement. Guess what? They accepted. (Eversheds/Nationwide).

Goodluck to you all.

Regards Daren

-- Daren Otsay (darenotsay@blueyonder.co.uk), June 12, 2002.

Really? Congratulations!! Must be nice to have your life back. Glad it worked out for you.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), June 12, 2002.

Bizarre that your lender went to court only to settle for £4k! Makes you wonder why they bothered? Perhaps if the lenders that read this site were to offer us all a full and final settlement of 5% of their shortfall claims most of us would accept! I know I would!

Trouble is, the way things stand at the moment their approach is inconsistent.

In my own case I am simply not prepared to accept as a debt a claim that is built on unfair treatment, incompetence, mis-selling, underselling, and harassment.

-- Gordon Bennet (arsenewhinger@hotmail.com), June 12, 2002.

The reason lenders are more open to settle even when they have a charge is that they rarely want to force sale when they have a charging order especially where there are family units are involved sale bad PR, there may be none or little equity in the prop so why enforce ?

In my opinion fill the I&e in be economical with the truth and try and settle, it appears that from the many of the posts on this site that when contributors go to court they invariably lose. Why be stumped with a judgement for 10's of thousands when lenders/lawyers will usually settle for much less.

-- Shazana Hewittson (Shaz@Hewitt19.freeserve.co.uk), June 12, 2002.

In the full knowledge that the last poster clearly works for the industry, I have to say that I filled in the I&E form right at the beginning...then again six months later..again six months later..get the picture? Never once was settlement offered - it was pay up or be bankrupted. I was watched, phoned at work and accused of having assets I had never even heard of. Neighbours were quizzed, a boyfriend was listed as living there (when he had never even stayed the night)and my elderly father and other relatives were harrassed at home. The reason? The I&E form "indicated" that I had good earning potential in the future because I was promoted fairly quickly in my field. They had an earnings forecast based on average salaries and worked out that if I lived on the bare minimum, added in non-existent child support and didn't pay any other debts, I could pay them wads every month. Yeah. Good move. I had to leave my job - so they got s*d all in the end.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), June 12, 2002.

You've probably told us before 'Iwasduped' but who is your lender?

-- Gordon Bennet (arsenewhinger@hotmail.com), June 13, 2002.

To Darenotsay,

I'm glad you have resolved your situation, but would you be kind enough to give us more details of your case last year. Was it an Appeal Court case ? I believe you used Eagle Star v Green & Challis as a defence,is that correct ? Can you give us the date and name of the case so we can all benefit by reading it ? I have tried contacting you a number of times re this to no avail. Many thanks in advance.

Mark.

-- M Amos (idgroms@hotmail.com), June 13, 2002.

Gordon Bennet (love the moniker by the way)I haven't posted who the lender is, but Lee and few others know. It's a particularly nasty case and I am so close to winning the battle I dare not jeopardise my position by revealing who I am. Suffice to say that they are trying really hard to make my life a misery but I will not be beaten down for money I absolutely do not owe. When I get to twelve years from repo - which is soon - I will give Lee the whole file and he can publish what he likes with my blessing. This Lender has no scruples and knows it/it's representative acted fraudulently in my case. I don't use that term lightly either, I mean it in it's full legal sense.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), June 13, 2002.

You would be pretty close to the mark with your assessment of me Too scared to say, however I still stand by my comments based on a number of years experience in such matters.

-- Not Important (Shaz@Hewitt19.freeserve.co.uk), June 13, 2002.

Sounds like you are a potential source of inside information Shaz, depending on where your sympathies lie of course. I find it hard to believe that everyone who works for Building Societies and Banks supports the way they pursue the likes of us for blood money years after the event.

-- Gordon Bennet (arsenewhinger@hotmail.com), June 14, 2002.