Charging orders

[gramtrad]

Hi All,


The house that I share with my wife is in my name only. We bought it 17 years ago after selling our jointly owned house. We decided to keep her off the current mortgage so that she was free to buy another property.


My business went bad on me a few years ago; as a result a few of my creditors put charges on the house. I have these in hand and am paying them token amounts.


In the event of an eventual sale, the equity will be soaked up by the charges. My wife is concerned that she should be entitled to some of that equity before the charges are paid off. Ideally she should have registered her interest at the onset and before any charges went on. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!


Is it possible that she could still somehow be able to claim what she is , in my opinion , legally entitled to ?

If so, this would at least allow us to exit our mortgage, when it ends in five years, with some money in hand!

if not, we are tempted to cut and run as it is very doubtful that there would ever be sufficient increase in house prices to allow the charges to be cleared in full.

I should be grateful for any helpful advice.

[labman]

Re: Charging orders

Although quite a read, this has all the information you are looking for:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/...ing_orders.htm

:beagle:

[gramtrad]

Re: Charging orders

Thanks, Labman.

I have seen seen that particular information previously. Read up on it when I decided to attend court and challenge one of the attempts to put a charging order on my house. The old boys network kicked in and the judge would have none of my arguments (prejudicial to other creditors, wife not part to debt etc). Gave up after that.

Having studied the info on the link, again, I cannot see anything there that gives me the clarity that I am looking for in this matter.


What I need to know - is there any way in which my wife can secure her stake in the equity of the house if and when in is sold, given that others have jumped the queue in front of her by placing charges in the property.

[labman]

Re: Charging orders

The Charging Order is placed as the situation is at the time. This can't be undone for obvious reasons. The only was, from what I read last night on your behalf, that your wife would be able to maintain an interest, is in the case of a forced sale where her case is argued to a judge.

I don't know the legislation which underpins this, though it may be mentioned in the link above. However, I read a fair bit of stuff last night, both before posting and afterwards, and I didn't read anything which said different to the above. I will hunt again for you later on. :beagle:

[gramtrad]

Re: Charging orders

Thanks, Labman.

The issue is important to us. If there is no chance of my wife getting any of the equity, we may as well abandon the house and high mortgage now, go off and rent somewhere and save money each month.

The mortgage has 6 years to run. If it went up by 4% per annum, we could be looking a £50 k for my wife, which would help towards our retirement.

One option might be to allow a forced sale as we get towards the final years. And then get my wife in front of the judge. I don't like to resort to skulduggery but in my book (if not anyone else's !) she is entitled to the money since the house was bought with joint savings and process of a previously jointly owned house.

Also, I would like to clock a snook at those leeches who put charges on the house in order to turn unsecured lending into secured lending!

Any further pointers or views would be appreciated.

[draknarz]

Re: Charging orders

hi gramtrad,
charging orders - the order to sell your property is never usually given, they just remain there and are paid off when you sell your property. you can make token payments or just not pay. that is my understanding of charging orders, though i could be wrong.

as for your wifes equity, - i do not think you would be able to help her get this back. hopefully someone else can help you with this.

a scenario for you both: if you did decide for your home to be repossessed / sold, your wife could ATTEMPT to buy it back at a cheaper price from your lender. This would hopefully give her the equity you both believe she should have. Just a scenario, but the only suggestion I can make.

Good luck!