Thread: New here. Need help with an insane situation

Hi everybody,
My name actually is not Nanny - it's Paul

How to start? Well - our problems started at the end of last year. Up to that point, I would have considered myself comfortable. We have several (or had in a couple of cases now) successful businesses, a hotel and property worth around £2M which (having owned most of them for over a decade) around £1.2M that belongs to us.
Our problem is with our bank (one of the High Street 4). We have been a customer for over 12 years, never did anything wrong, have borrowed and repaid very large sums (all secured) in the past in the course of our businesses.
Toward the end of last year, we agreed a further loan of £70K with the bank - for which they required further security (not a problem) so we agreed (no reason not to). Then all this lunacy hit and the banks had no money - so, the loan (which has never been refused) was never made and we suddenly received a demand for our working O/D of £30K back. So, instead of the agreed facility, we gave the security and received a £100K hole in our cash flow.
Undeterred, I then set about obtaining the money elsewhere - and this is where it all descended into farce. The bank will not tell me, or anyone willing to lend the money, what they have done with the security taken for the loan that was never made. They ignore my letters and, despite 2 meetings with them (where they undertook to give me the details) - I have heard nothing.
Our total indebtedness to the bank is £164K and they actually hold securities in excess of £500K and, because of their actions, the balance of over £330K has simply disappeared and I cannot use it or even find details of the, so called charges.
Wind on a few months and, having suffered a £100K hole in my finances, our situation is fast becoming untenable. I have actually managed to keep all but one mortgage company sweet and we are making progress (the one that is getting nasty is mortgage Express - 100% owned by the Government). I have, in short, spent the last 6 months "knitting fog" to keep us as afloat as we can be. Credit card bills have gone unpaid and our once platinum credit rating has been destroyed - simply because the bank has "stolen" over £300K of my assets. Perhaps I should have tried to capitalise on some of our other assets a few months ago but, having been assured by the bank twice that the details would be available, I re-arranged the finance 4 times - only for it to fail on every occasion when the undertakings were not honoured.

We are now in the situation of simply not knowing which way to turn. Everything I try now hits the same buffers - the second charge taken for the Non loan - strangely, people want to know the details before lending - and I can't give it to them.

I have even arranged finance to simply pay the bank off - but the same intransigenece is always the downfall. I even tried to transfer money into one of our accounts (on line) and it came back - "account closed" (which was news to our business manager).

My "crime" (in the eyes of the bank) was the publication of a full page article in the Daily Mail - demanding an explanation of what was happening (just after Christmas) and, since then, I have been totally ignored.

There is no doubt in my mind that the bank is simply trying to "starve me out" and, in some ways, they are succeeding.

Just to make my life even more fun, in March, the operation I had to fix my broken back simply went "twang" and failed, severing most of the nerves that make my legs work. So I am now on a cocktail of nerve drugs and pain killers that many hoodies would pay good money for - making working all this out almost impossible.

The Banking Code went out of the window months ago. I did think of going to the Ombudsman but, the rules of engagement clearly state that I need a letter from the bank (stating that all negotiations has broken down) before I can do that. As they won't even reply to hand delivered letters, I somehow can't see that arriving any time soon.

I am truly at the end of my tether. I have had to close one business (that was the biggest of its kind in the UK), as I cannot afford to re-stock for growth (what some of the £70K was for). The other ones I have managed to keep going (without "normal" banking facilities) and we have managed to refurbish the hotel and open for the season.

I have to be honest, I sat in my recording studio today (forgot to mention that ) and looked at my drug cocktail and though "if I took the lot"????

I didn't - because that is what they want me to do.

Anyone up for suggestions as to what I should do now?
I have done more or less everything I can think of. I have been on every website I can think of. There is no point in contacting a solicitor - I know more than most of them do. I can't even leave the bloody house now and am fast losing the will to carry on.

I have to face Mortgage Express in court next month and, unless we sell our narrow boat or complete on the sale of one of our houses (both of which are in the pipeline and agreed) and get the money to pay the arrears (we are paying the mortgage but have a backlog of £2.5K that they will not capitalise) - we lose one of the houses, the income from it (that now pays the mortgage) and control of how and when it is sold. They will simply sell it for the cost of the mortgage and I will lose around £90K.

I need practical help (I can pay expenses) - due to my disability and I need ideas and suggestions - most of which (due to the drugs), I will struggle understand and am so "down" and feeling so crushed, I will probably misunderstand.

"smile they said - it could be worse" - I must have smiled I think.

Paul