Hi there

We recently completed a Voluntary Repossession on our old house. We have not been living there for 4 years and were renting it out, which was not covering the mortgage cost anyways, we were adding more ourselves on top of it so we did not default. The tenant stopped paying so we evicted him and gave the house to the bank.

Within 2 months they had sold it for way under the value rate, obviously selling it at auction for as fast as they can, rather than as much as they can.

First of all, is there any way I can dispute the amount they sold it for? As it has left me with a deficit of £35k to pay.

Secondly Mick and myself have been calling HSBC to arrange paying this off a certain amount each month. We have both been calling since receiving the first letter. Each time we call they say they cannot do anything about setting up a payment plan at this stage. On the 21st we received another letter stating as we had not contacted them with regards to making any payments they demand the whole balance at once. Again we both tried calling them. On the 21st Mick was advised the debt had been passed to a collection agency. I called Jan 11th, spoke to a lady called Anet who agreed to call me back the following Monday to arrange the plan. She did not call back till Tuesday at which point she told me the debt had been passed to Metropolitan debt collection (again?) that day so she could not do anything. She did not call on Monday as she had a training course she did not know about.

Well that’s not my fault as far as I’m concerned. She made an appointment to call me to arrange this but did not keep it deciding instead to call me the next day, which by that point was to late. I should not be forced to deal with a collection agency because Anet did not want to call me on Monday. She could have arranged for a colleague to do it, or just kept to the appointment!

Not to mention all the other times we called and kept getting fobbed off.

I have no idea where I stand with this, and even if I dispute the handling of this, I have a horrible feeling I will be continually hounded by Metro.

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.

Dcas have no legal rights at all. You can ignore them and continue dialogue with the bank.

Give it a few hours as ots still early and someone should be around to advise on the sale.

Firstly - you should stop doing things on the phone - unless you record your calls.

Already you can see that you have been making efforts to contact them but you have no evidence. Stop using the phone.

Make a detailed account of what has happened so far - dates, times, who you spoke with, numbers which you tried etc.

Then begin a complaint to the bank about their inaccessibility and tell them that you want this put to the Ombudsman. Let me tell you that none of this will do much good. They will try to fob you off and so will the FOS - but you may as well start laying down a paper trail.

Part of your complaint to the Ombudsman should be the fact that they sold your house at an undervalue - although your complaint will come to nothing.

Banks and other lenders are selling houses at undervalue everyday. It is a scandal and it would be nice if someone did go to the trouble of standing up to them - but no one ever does. The banks don't care. They have the whip hand and the customers are too harassed and two broken to stand up to the bullying. In fact the B in HSBC stands for "Bullying" ... or is it Heartless Sons of Bitches - but I can't remember what the C stands for.

The bank has a legal duty not to sell at an undervalue. However, by selling at auction they will be able to argue that they have achieved the market price. No one chalenges them - partly for the reason above but also because the value of the claim would always be over £15k which means that a county court claim would be allocated to the Muti-track so that if you lost you would incur very serious costs which would take a lifetime to repay.

You need to understand that you don't matter to the bank anymore - if you ever did. You need to start putting together a proper repayment plan and deal with it as effectively as you can. Otherwise, the bank will come for your other house

However, even if you manage to get the debt back to the bank, it will soon go back to the DCA again because the bank will eventually reject it and the debt will be sold on. This might even be a good thing because you may be able to negotiate a reduced full settlement.

I'm sorry to be negative about it but there is probably not much you can do. People should never hand their keys in. It always leads to an undervalue and further debt.

Metropolitian are in house to HSBC they do tend to try to contact you on the phone refuse to go through security say in writing and hang up

It may be that this will get passed on to DG solicitors but again in house to HSBC

Hold on a sec.

Your house gets repossesed because you can't/didnt pay the mortgage - fair enough.

But when they sell the house it should be sold at the price you owe the bank money not for £35k less. (I know that's logic and common sense but I dont know if that is legally binding...)

In order to do the above ^ even at an auction, there is a facility called a "reserve" so the house isn't under sold for the amount they're actually owed...

And like the others have said, sod the phone calls and ask them you want it in writing. Even email will be fine its just as quick as a phone call. £35k is a huge amount they might even make you a reduced offer at that point (they did for me at £886 and then screwed me over)

PS - the "C" stands for Cowards/Corrupt lol...

but I can't remember what the C stands for.

I know exactly what the "C" stands for, however, as I cant type that in, I will settle for "C" = Cretins.

and remember under MCOB's they have a duty to act in your best interest so what other options did they consider/try before selling your house by auction.

It may be better to move this to the mortgage forum -

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?171-Mortgages-and-Secured-Loans