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DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE
I have had an interest only buy to let mortgage with TSB bank for about 10 years and I have always made all the payments on time. The outstanding amount on the mortgage is about 67% of the current value of the property. I used to live abroad and moved back to Scotland last August. In March I received a letter from solicitors Aberdein Considine at my Scottish address asking me to contact them about my mortgage. When I phoned them they said that I was in arrears, which did not make sense to me, and that a court date had already been set.
A few days later court papers were sent to me indicating that a hearing is scheduled for 20 April at Glasgow Sheriff Court. There is a Form 6ZB that says “ Form of Citation in an application to which rule 2.7(7ZA)(b) applies”.
I phoned the bank on 13 March and they told me that the term of my mortgage had ended many months previously and they had tried to contact me but had been unable to do so. I had forgotten to tell them about my new address. They asked me how I was going to pay back the principal and I told them that I would like to extend the term of the mortgage. However, since I have more than 3 buy to let properties with mortgages (at another bank), they were not willing to consider giving me a new mortgage. They told me that they would give me until the end of September to pay back the principal of the mortgage, for example by selling the property, and I should continue to make monthly interest payments as I have been doing and that they would write to me within a week giving details. I agreed to this proposal on the phone. They said that they would instruct their solicitors to dismiss the case--which I thought meant that it would not go to court. I asked them to write to me to say that they were going to dismiss the case and they agreed to do this. One week later I had not received a letter from the bank, so I phoned the bank again on 21 March and they once more said they would write to me within about a week. I have not received a letter from them yet.
Since the bank said they were asking for the case to be dismissed, I assumed no hearing would be taking place, but to verify this I emailed the court yesterday and they (very helpfully) said:
“At the moment the case is still down to call in court, but as it is a first calling it may be the Pursuers’ intention to make a motion to dismiss the cause at the Hearing on 20th April 2018- The best thing to do is to check with their solicitors to ask how they intend to deal with the action and also if they will be seeking expenses against yourself. I would advise that you attend at the court hearing on 20th April- the pursuers may make a motion for an award of expenses to be granted against yourself, even if the case is dismissed- if you are not in attendance you wont be able to oppose this should you wish to do so”
The bank’s solicitors told me on the phone yesterday that they plan to make a motion to dismiss the case, but the hearing will go ahead. I now understand that the bank’s solicitors probably want to get an award of costs from the court so they want the hearing to go ahead. I guess they deal with a lot of people who have been unreliable about paying debts, so they want to be sure to get their money. I did not yet ask them if they plan to do this, though.
MY OBJECTIVES:
- Maximise the length of time I can continue to have the mortgage, as the interest rate is much better than a mortgage I could get now. In fact, since I have only lived in the UK about 8 months so, I may not be able to get another mortgage for another 16 months or so. The bank has given me until the end of September, but can I get longer?
- Minimise my legal costs. Roughly how much might these be? If they are in the low hundreds of pounds it isn’t a big deal for me as I am saving a lot in loan interest by having the mortgage continue for longer.
- Minimize any charges from the bank--I am not sure what charges, if any, they have made. I do not currently have access to any of the paperwork relating to the mortgage that I have had over the years.
- Minimise inconvenience for myself.
- Be fair to the bank.
Please could anyone give me advice about how to proceed.
