Hi all,

I had a 50%/50% mortgage with an ex partner in 2004 - 2006 when we broke up.

The property was repossessed in 2007 (I moved out) and was sold at a loss.

In 2009 I received a letter from Drydens Fairfax stating that I/WE owed £32,xxx by way of shortfall.

I contacted a solicitor and ended up due to circumstances paying £40/month which I have paid religiously for the last 9 years.

BY my reckoning I have paid approx £4,500 to them.

A low amount for sure, but I have young dependants and being self-employed my finances aren't what you'd call brilliant or consistent.

In 2012 I rang Drydens asking if my account was up to date and they said yes, there was no problem, so I continued paying.

Up until today - I have received a refund in my bank from them, with the reference of "Archived Ca Account" of the £40 I have just paid.

The problem is, I

have moved home and never updated my details with Drydens .

. actually I moved in 2010..

so I do not know the "status" or anything of the account.

My reference number has never worked on their online portal for checking the status of the account, but I figured since I never missed a payment and that I had rang up asking if everything was okay with the account,that it didn't matter much and I've just been getting on with life.

My question is - why would they suddenly reject the payment? And what do I do for the best here.

I have no contact with my ex, so no idea if she has paid anything toward the debt (highly doubtful!!!) but equally I have no idea if the debt has been transferred elsewhere, or simply written off.

I have a hard time believing that they'd write off the remaining £27,xxx but I'm not sure what to do for the best here.

I'm now married and have a mortgage with my wife who is worried we'll lose our home because of this - all I want is a peaceful life and have been paying regularly what I agreed to pay.

I plan to ring Drydens in the morning but I'm scared it will open up a can of worms.

There's nothing showing on my credit file - no searches, no CCJs or anything like that.

Any help would be most appreciated.

In summary:

2004 - Mortgage starts

2006 - breakup, both moved out.

2007 - repossession due to neither of us paying the mortgage

2009 - Shortfall letter, solicitor contact, £40/m payments start

2012 - Rang up and made sure account was okay - was advised it was fine.

2018 - £40 payment gets rejected and refunded.

Thank you.

Simple. Cash cowed for years and they sold the debt on. Dryden no longer chases for the previous owner.

Ok... so what happens now??

who are drydens client please?

hopefully the original creditor

if not I suspect you've been paying for their nightly pub crawl as do 10'000 of people blindly for the last 9yrs.

thread retitled and moved to home repo forum

Yes, their client (and the original creditor) was Halifax which is who I/we had the mortgage with.

oh that's good news.

pers i'd be stopping any further payments.

send Halifax an sar

lets make sure those payments HAVE been getting through to them.

then await to see if HALIFAX write to you about resuming payments.

you wont and cant lose your home over this.

not blindly paying any other debts are you???

A few years ago when I pulled up my credit file, the debt was marked as "Settled" with the Creditor as Halifax, so I was under the impression that it had been sold on to Drydens. Although the house was sold at a loss, I never got a bad mark on my credit file for the reposession.

The "Settled" account for the mortgage no longer shows up anywhere on my credit file. Nor does any account with Drydens.

I'm very confused - and worried at the same time. I want to sort this out and know who I am dealing with, but scared of opening up a can of worms and ending up with bailiffs at the door or worse.

I assumed that Drydens had purchased the debt for pennies on the pound, and that I simply now owed them the cash - which is what I've been paying for 9 years.

1st stop worry about stupid things like bailiffs

not sure where you are getting this from

but bailiffs ONLY EVER get involved

IF you are taken to court

IF you lose the case.

IF you then fail to pay whatever the judge orders within 28days

IF the judge allows the use of bailiffs.

and even then they have no right of entry and can basically be ignored on a civil consumer debt.....

now on to the real issues...

are you 100% sure the Drydens letters state their client IS Halifax or HBOS?

drydens are solicitors a solicitor cannot buy debts

it puzzles me that the Halifax entry was settled to £0

that's usually a sign the dent has been sold to a fleecing powerless DCA

however it will be worthy for you to read as many threads as you can from here

https://cse.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-8889411648654839:6449422593&ie=UTF-8&q=drydens+shortfall&sa=Search+CAG

you'll soon get the idea upon what to do and they will inform yo of lots of things.

I would ignore drydens for now

get an sar running to Halifax and lets check they HAVE been getting your £50PCM for the last nine years..i really hope so.

dx

This is peeing me off a bit to be honest - am I right in thinking that I may not have been paying off the mortgage debt, and simply funding Drydens for 9 years? Where does that leave me?

I will dig the old letters out and see the exact wording.

sadly like 75% of sold debts owned by DCA's that people blindly pay ...you are being a dca cash cow.

get the info first

Thanks for your help on this so far - I'll grab some sleep and dig out the paperwork in the morning.

sure

glad to help

catch you over the w/end

Ok - I have not gotten the paperwork out yet but I did ring Drydens this morning to ask what was going on with the account and why my payment was rejected.

Apparently she said that the account had been handed back on the 3rd October after a "commercial decision".

She said it had been handed back to "Lloyds" - when I queried this and said the original creditor was Halifax, she said that "they were all part of the same conglomerate" ...

She also said that they'd received notification from "Lloyds" that the debt had been passed across to Moorcroft for recovery and gave me the reference number.

She was unable to confirm the balance still due, but did confirm that all of my payments had been made to the creditor for all the months/years I've been paying.

So - my question is what do I do now regarding Moorcroft. Wait for them to find me and ask for 27 grand? The address they will have is incorrect but presumably they'll spend time looking and then someone will rock up at the door.

Ok I have dug the paperwork out. The client referenced at the top was "Bank of Scotland, plc" although my mortgage company was Halifax.

It says:

Date: 01 October 2009

Our client: Bank Of Scotland, plc

Sum outstanding: £32,xxx.xx

Mortgaged property: ** address **

You have failed to respond to our previous correspondence. In an effort to avoid court action, we enclose an income and expenditure quesitonairre for your immediate completion and return together with copy documentation to substantiate all items listed.

if you fail to comply with the above, our client may apply for leave to enforce the Money Judgement (if applicable) obtained against you at the same time as the Possession Order and once leave has been obtained our client may consider either of the following enforcement options:

* Information Order - this means you will be ordered to attend Court on a given date and supply full details of your income and expenditure; all the information given will be under oath. Failure to attend the hearing may result in a Committal Warrant being issued for your arrest.

* Attachment of Earnings Order - this means that initially you will be given the opportunity by the Court to make voluntary payments however, should default occur, the Court has the power to order your employer to deduct monies from your salary.

Please be assured our client has no wish to take the above action and we trust that the completed questionnaire and copy documentation will now be forthcoming.

Yours Faithfully.

Mrs H Goldthorpe

Drydens Ltd

When I received that letter back in 2009, I got in touch with a solicitor who acted on my behalf and arranged for me to pay the £40/month which I have done until this month when it got refunded. 9 years later.

And that is where I am at.

God please never ever ring a fake/tame paper only solicitors or dca's

They are powerless.

Esp more that the debt is owned by the oc here

Ignore moorcroft totally!!

Dx

Deal with the oc direct. Fill in a basic i&e and send it to them.

Ignore all dca's. Especially moorcrap

So essentially you're saying make no further payments, wait for contact from the creditor themselves (and ignore any DCAs in the meantime), and then ask the creditor for details about the debt before considering any payment / payment plan of action?

Just come here ignore all dca's etc

Sar halifax

Ok - thanks for your help I'll await the next step - probably right before Christmas with my luck, lol

Imho stuff and all Halifax can do bar get some powerless lot to threaten you

They will never do court themselves anyway..prob sell the debt on.

ok got you.

How do I handle the inevitable contact from Moorcroft

- I imagine they will contact by letter which I can simply ignore,

but what if they turn up at the door?

What if I'm not in and one of the kids answers?

they are powerless and not bailiffs at all ...zero powers to anything. leave my property or i'll call police 101.

but they shouldn't never talk to minor? nor divulge any info to anyone

the basic rule stands always..you never ever no matter what discuss debt at your door nor over the phone - writing only.

dirty mac door steppers are commissioned based and some [if not all] of the money some people blindly hand over goes straight in their pockets

we've known some to even pocket the lot ..

To add, moorcroft dont do doorstep collecting. They MIGHT say they do but they dont.

Hi folks, me again

I just had a moment thinking about this and wondered... if I'm to ignore Moorcroft, how will I pay off the debt to Halifax?

I acknowledge the debt (through gritted teeth because it's their fault for selling the house short - it was worth nearly double what it went for... I mean, if I sold my car for half its asking price, I'm an idiot.) but...surely someone wants to be paid back?

How do I deal with this in "real life"? I don't want to screw up if

a) someone comes to the door

b) someone contacts me

c) anything else...

Easy. You just pay halifax with a reference number and tell them. Moorcroft cant do anything. Theyre just a talking shop.

Hi folks, me again

 

I just had a moment thinking about this and wondered... if I'm to ignore Moorcroft, how will I pay off the debt to Halifax?

 

I acknowledge the debt (through gritted teeth because it's their fault for selling the house short - it was worth nearly double what it went for... I mean, if I sold my car for half its asking price, I'm an idiot.) but...surely someone wants to be paid back?

 

How do I deal with this in "real life"? I don't want to screw up if

 

a) someone comes to the door - told you that above

b) someone contacts me - ignore

c) anything else...

you wait for Halifax to contact you.

bet I bet they wont

they'll sell the debt on

then we fight it.

throw the morality card in the bin.