Liens on my property

[Big Kitty]

Hi,
I'm very happy to have found this site - have been desperate for advice but didn't know where to look (apart from going to a solicitor, which I can't afford)! Any help at all will be greatly appreciated.
My husband and I bought our house in 2000 as joint owners. Over the years my husband built up a lot of debt, mostly credit card, which led to 7 liens being placed on our jointly-owned house. Luckily the debt is in his name as I was clever enough not to have a joint account! The liens were placed during 2007 and 2008 and we got divorced in 2007. As we had a 3 year child at the time I stayed in the house and he told me he had no problem with signing his share of the house over to me as I had always paid the mortgage and he had left me with other debts. However, we found out that he couldn't sign his share over to me due to his debts secured against the property. I was very worried that his creditors could force me to sell the house to pay them but my divorce lawyer said this was very unlikely to happen as a child lived in the house.
Over the years I have tried not to think about this debt hanging over our heads as I couldn't get anyone to explain how things work but it is limiting my choices e.g. I can't remortgage or try to get a better interest rate and I can't afford to move and pay of the liens. I have now bitten the bullet and am going to try to sort this out.
So....... my plan is to try to find out how much money is owed, whether the creditors will settle for an amount I can afford and get my ex to give me a written guarantee that if I pay off these debts he will sign his half of the property over to me.
So far I have managed to:
1. Get a copy of the Title Deed with a list of creditors who have liens on the property - there are 8 (one being our original mortgage provider, Natwest)
2. I have statements from 3 of the companies (which come in the post on a regular basis) for roughly £12,000; £7,500 and £4,600.
3. I have contacted 1 more - an accounting company - who quoted the original amount at £7,700 + £212 court fees + interest (not stated).

My questions:
1. Am I going about this the right way?
2. One of the creditors is Egg which no longer exists - how do I find out who holds the debt now? All I have is the court reference number.
3. Another creditor is CL Finance but I can't find a website for them - how do I contact them?
4. I'm not sure what this last Restriction means - it states:
10 (15.09.2008) RESTRICTION: No disposition by a sole proprietor of the
registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital
money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the
court.
5. Are these creditors likely to settle for a much smaller amount - as you can see the amount of debt is likely to be way more than I can ever pay back?
6. And this I should have asked before starting: am I opening a can of worms, are the creditors likely to have a renewed interest and put pressure on me to sell the house and should I just leave this alone??????????????

So sorry for the looong post but I am really struggling to get anywhere with this!

Thank-you!!

[MissFM]

Re: Liens on my property

Hi Big Kitty & to LB,

You've come to the right place - there are some very clued up Beagles here to help you find the best way to tackle this.

Good luck xx

[Big Kitty]

Re: Liens on my property

Thanks, MissFM! It is such a relief to have somewhere to come for advice!

[MissFM]

Re: Liens on my property

You are most welcome Big Kitty. You may need to be a little patient - although many Beagles are night owls - just bump your post as a reminder if you don't get a fount of wisdom replying over the next 24 hrs or so! xx

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Liens on my property

So far I have managed to:
1. Get a copy of the Title Deed with a list of creditors who have liens on the property - there are 8 (one being our original mortgage provider, Natwest)
2. I have statements from 3 of the companies (which come in the post on a regular basis) for roughly £12,000; £7,500 and £4,600.
3. I have contacted 1 more - an accounting company - who quoted the original amount at £7,700 + £212 court fees + interest (not stated).

My questions:
1. Am I going about this the right way?

The Land Registry should have a record of all charges on the property.

2. One of the creditors is Egg which no longer exists - how do I find out who holds the debt now? All I have is the court reference number.

The Egg card portfolio was sold to Barclays in 2011.

3. Another creditor is CL Finance but I can't find a website for them - how do I contact them?

I think they are owned by Hoist.

4. I'm not sure what this last Restriction means - it states:
10 (15.09.2008) RESTRICTION: No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court.

That means the property is jointly owned as a tenancy in common.

5. Are these creditors likely to settle for a much smaller amount - as you can see the amount of debt is likely to be way more than I can ever pay back?

6. And this I should have asked before starting: am I opening a can of worms, are the creditors likely to have a renewed interest and put pressure on me to sell the house and should I just leave this alone??????????????

Are payments being made towards these judgments secured on the property? If not, then you're most certainly looking at a can of worms. :scared: They can't put pressure on you to sell the house to get paid, a creditor would have to apply to the court for an order for sale and the courts don't grant them often, it's even harder to obtain an order for sale for jointly owned property, however, they would want to be paid and a charge on your property does not preclude other methods of enforcing the judgment.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Liens on my property

You are most welcome Big Kitty. You may need to be a little patient - although many Beagles are night owls - just bump your post as a reminder if you don't get a fount of wisdom replying over the next 24 hrs or so! xx

Not exactly an owl but also a nocturnal bird... :lol: xxx

[Big Kitty]

Re: Liens on my property

Thank-you, Flaming Parrot.
I have e-mailed the Land Registry to ask for details of the charges against the property.
I e-mailed Barclaycard to try to find out if the charge was taken over by them but they said they could only give out this information to my ex-husband (as it was his credit card debt). However, the charge is against a property I jointly own so am I not entitled to details of the charge?
No payments are being paid against these judgements at present - my ex-husband does not have a job and I don't think the creditors know where to find him ( he won't even tell me his address!). I am getting really fed up with him as he is just pretending this doesn't exist and has absolutely no intention of ever dealing with it! As I am living in the house and paying the mortgage I am stuck in a mortgage deal which I can't change. Also, any money I pay off the mortgage will mean a larger profit if I do sell the house and he will get 50% of this! For this reason I want to get the house signed over to me and the liens paid off - even though they are not my debts!

Thanks so much for you help.