I wonder if you can help. I was repossessed by the Abbey in 1991 The house was in both mine and my ex-wifes names. Approx 2-3 years later I was contacted by their agents and a payement arrange was made. This lapsed after a few months as me and my wife divorced. I did not hear from them until about three years ago. They stated that I owed them £46,000. I challenged this and they subsequently halved this amount. I have an arrangement which I have stuck to. I moved house this year and informed them of my new address. When speaking to the receptionist she stated that they were due to send me an I and E form, and they were going to apply to the court to put a charge on my house. Should I complete this form given that I have kept up to date with the payements. Also I have a new family now, things are settled and my house does have a some equity in it, are they allowed to put a charge on my home?

ps. on reading some other questions, should I have disclosed that I had been repossessed when applying for my mortgage.

Thanks

-- Samuel Davidson (gigsy@tiscali.co.uk), October 30, 2002

Answers

Just to add re the above: There have never been any court hearings since the repossession.

-- Samuel Davidson (gigsy@tiscali.co.uk), October 30, 2002.

Unfortunately because you have been paying and have acknowleged the debt (albeit a smaller one than they originally asked for), the debt is not statute barred and therefore the short answer is yes, they can put a charging order on your new home.

However, this does not necessarily mean you will be dispossessed, it means that when you sell the house, you will have to settle both the mortgage and the charge.

As for declaring the repossession in 1991, it depends on what the new mortgagees asked you - if you were asked if you have EVER been the subject of a repossession and you answered no, then you could have committed an offence, but it is unlikely your new mortgagees will ever get to know or if they did, pursue it so long as you are paying them what they owe you.

As a thought - if the charging order is made, your new mortgagees will be made aware of it, but not what it is for.

-- David J. Button (davidjohnbutton@supanet.com), October 30, 2002.