Unblocking sale of house - Interim Charging Orders

[NCSomerset]

Hello

I would appreciate any help regarding unblocking the sale of my joint owned property. There are two interim charging orders (the standard Form K wording is used on the Land Registry) from 2009 for historic credit card debts in my sole name. We've found a buyer for the house and there is plenty of equity in the property to settle the debts and move on. The problem is that my solicitor has contacted both banks multiple times and received either no response or a response that says that they have no record of the debt and/or me.

Without the creditor being able to effectively give permission to sell we are unable to proceed to exchange of contracts and also therefore unable to complete the sale to repay the debts. My solicitor is adamant that exchange can't happen until the banks make contact and provide the certificate to the Land Registry to remove the restrictions.

Is there anything that I can do to unblock this catch-22 deadlock of not being able to make contact with the banks to repay the debt owed through selling the property?

Any advice would be very appreciated!

[echat11]

Hi NCSOMERSET

What you can do personally (not your solicitor), is for the debt that has not been recognized by the bank is send them the following template, explain that an error has occurred and that they are responsible for the error. If they fail to rectify the error, you can lodge a complaint with the ICO.

https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/raising-concerns/

For the bank that is not responding, write a Formal Letter of Complaint, mark it as such, explain what's happened, that potentially you could lose a house sale and what you want them to do about it. Explain that they are breaching the Financial Conduct Authority's Rules, Banking: Conduct of Business Sourcebook states that banks must provide it's customers with information when requested. Which bank is it?

https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/BCOBS.pdf

[NCSomerset]

Thank you for the suggestions and I'll action both of those today. I'd not considered using the ICO route as a mechanism to prompt some further investigation on their part into not being able to identify the debt owed. The two banks are Smile / Co-op and HBOS

From a conveyancing perspective, which is why I posted here rather in the debt sections, is there anything that can be done to move this sale on? I've seen a number of articles online outlining the ‘dangers’ of relying on the standard Form K wording of charging order restrictions from the perspective of a creditor who has obtained a charging order. The suggestion is that the certificate stating notice of transfer is supplied to the Land Registry not by the creditor but by the purchaser. For example, the two quotes below, and I am wondering if that is a correct and valid route to proceed:

1) “The practical effect of this type of restriction is that the purchaser of the property must give notice of the transfer to the creditor with the benefit of the charging order and then send to the Land Registry a certificate that this has been done. The problem with this loose form of wording is that the notice can be given after the transfer has taken place (but before registration of it at Land Registry) and this can be after the proceeds of sale have passed into the hands of the judgement debtor.” https://www.bdbpitmans.com/insights/...er-what-now-2/

2) “The standard form of restriction entered upon obtaining an interim charging order (form K) merely provides that no disposition of the property “is to be registered without a certificate … that written notice of the disposition was given” to the creditor with the benefit of the charging order. There is no requirement for notice to be provided in advance of the disposition (or before the sale proceeds are paid) so that the creditor can obtain an undertaking that their debt will be paid before completion monies change hands. Therefore, it is possible for a judgment creditor to be notified of a sale after completion and, if they do not react quickly enough, the transfer of the property will be registered (and their restriction removed) without receiving payment under their charging order. In such circumstances, the judgment creditor will lose the benefit of their security and rank as an unsecured creditor of the seller.” https://www.stevens-bolton.com/site/...se-of-security

For the sake of clarity, I am not in any way trying to avoid repayment of the two debts - and will be very happy when they are repaid from the proceeds of the sale - but I am concerned that any further delay will lead to our buyers pulling out of the sale.

thank you again

[echat11]

des8 Can you take a look and advise, many thanks.