When a Charge on a property is not paid

[Lincoln]

Hi - my husband has a debt of £334,000 and has no assets apart from our joint mortgage and we have 3 small children.

Due to the massively high amount owed it may be only a matter of time before he has a CCJ made against him and in turn a charging order will be put on to our jointly owned property.

The property is currently valued at £200,000 and we only have £50,000 equity between us. The mortgage will be paid off in 2032.

Question: If we stay in the property until the mortgage is paid off in 2032 and this still does NOT cover and pay the debt off where would that leave us? Can they force us to sell the property and take the full amount it's worth including my share?

Thank you for any advice, we are obviously in dire straights and just trying to hold on.

[nemesis45]

Re: When a Charge on a property is not paid

[QUOTE=Lincoln;708245]Hi - my husband has a debt of £334,000 and has no assets apart from our joint mortgage and we have 3 small children.

Due to the massively high amount owed it may be only a matter of time before he has a CCJ made against him and in turn a charging order will be put on to our jointly owned property.

The property is currently valued at £200,000 and we only have £50,000 equity between us. The mortgage will be paid off in 2032.

Question: If we stay in the property until the mortgage is paid off in 2032 and this still does NOT cover and pay the debt off where would that leave us? Can they force us to sell the property and take the full amount it's worth including my share?

Hello welcome to LB,

Your " share " can't be touched.

Can you tell us how this huge debt arose please? Is it being chased at present?

My first thought is you need qualified legal advice close to home, as I suspect this because of the amount lead to a petition for bankruptcy.

nem

[Lincoln]

Re: When a Charge on a property is not paid

Hi - thanks Nem

This is a long story!

My husband forgot to inform his Car Insurance of his 9 points which he received over a 2 year period. Within that time frame he had (and still has) mental health issues. Maybe not an excuse but he genuinely thought he had informed the insurance company of the points.

Then 2 years ago this month he entered a roundabout as a cyclist was coming around it. Due to low winter sun his visibility was bad and he did not see the cylclist on the roundabout, the cyclist therefore went into his car.

He waited with the police, cyclist and ambulance until the cyclist was taken to hospital, he admitted that it was his fault, the police sent him on a driver alert course and said it was just one of those things. When he informed his own insurance company of the accident they contacted the DVLA and found out about the points. They said their underwriters would not insure him and they voided his policy, returning his annual fee of £600.

My husband kept in touch with the cyclist and started counselling himself (which my husband still has today) and the cyclist and he met up twice after the accident and emails were exchanged on his progress. The cyclist went back to work on a phased return 4 or 5 months after the accident (July 2015) and he said he was doing well. They even agreed to go out on the bikes together at a later point. No further contact was made after this with the cyclist.

My husband then receieved a waiver form from his insurance (in September 2015) asking him to sign it and when they pay out whatever costs the cyclist is entitled to they would then seek to recoup these costs from him. At no point was he asked to seek his own legal advice and at no point did he ever imagine the third party pay out would be £300,000 (plus £34,000 legal costs), there was never any indication or contact from his insurance company. He had thought the cyclist was going to be fine. So he signed the waiver form.

September 2016 he received a letter from his insurance company's solicitor requesting he now pay them £334,000 within the next 21 days. To say this was a shock is an understatement for all of our family, my husband is very ill and I am now seeking my own legal help to ensure the children and insulated from anything that now happens to us because of this.

Apologies, as the thread is very long, but it all seems very complicated. We are unsure if we should fight for the point that his state of mind was in when he first set up his insurance, fight for not being warned further in advance of what the outcome might be financially, or fight for not urging us to seek legal advice before signing the waiver form. For something which was quite honestly a mistake, the penalty is the harshest imaginable.

It feels like if my husband had driven his car without any insurance the penalty would not have been this life changing for many, many people in his life and his own.

My question about the Charging Order on the house is because after seeking my own legal advice today I was informed I will always be tied into the house as it cannot be sold unless the debts are fully repaid, and this will never happen, even if he pays them back for 100 years out of his monthly salary. So how can a Charging Order cease in this instance?

Thank you

[des8]

Re: When a Charge on a property is not paid

Going back to the beginning of this saga;
presumably the car insurance that was voided was a renewal of an existing policy.
At the time of renewal did the insurer just ask if there had been any material changes in information?

The problem is that if the insurer did not ask specific questions the policyholder may well have forgotten or not realise he has to mention particular matters.
There is an onus on the insurer to ask clear questions about the nfo a policyholder can be expected to hold.
It is possible (just so don't raise your hopes please) that the insurers should not have voided that policy

Do you by chance have the last renewal invitation?