The registration of a statutory charge and the limitations act

[paybacktimeagain]

Hello All,

Can someone help me?

I need to know if the registering of a statutory charge created by a consent order can be statute barred if it is not registered within the six year period under the Limitations Act 1980.

reason I ask is that the LSC sent me a letter that we owed them nearly £3000 due to them financing our case back in 2001. The case itself was a fraudelent mortgage case in which my wifes ex- partner remortaged the family home without her knowledge and took off abroad. When she found out she challenged the mortage and the case dragged on through the courts for nearly 10 years. Eventually the mortgage company realised their mistake and agreed to negotiate a deal where they would re-possess the property and my wife could walk away with a clean slate. We accepted the offer on condition we could buy the property back. They said yes and had the property valued, the valuation report came back at £25,000 reposession value and £35,000 open market value. They wanted £35,000 and we offered them £30,000 which we thought was a more realistic value, they accepted and the deal was done.

For some reason our solicitor told us that we will have to pay back the LSC for their costs, he said that this would be limited to £5,000 as this was the difference in the sum we paid for the property to what it was valued at(equity). We argued this with him at the time but he was adamant that there was nothing he could do about this. He told us that the property would be preserved under the Legal aid Act. we couldnt understand this as we thought we had paid a fair price for the property as it was in very poor state of repair, the valuation report did not take into consideration the state of repair or structural issues.(basic valuation)

 

Anyway as we were at the end of our tether and wanted it over and done with finally, we decided to sign the concent order and bought the property(paying our own conveyancing fees). The legal Aid certificate was discharged in Nov 2001 and the case was over.

We did not hear anything from the LSC after this, we waited for some notification as to what we owed them as we had the money back then to pay but no contact from them was made. We checked with the Land registry in 2005 to see if there was any type of charge on our property and it came back clear. So we assumed we did not owe them anything.

 

Then few weeks ago, they wrote to us stating that our case had been overlooked and they were now going to apply to register the statutory charge after 7 years. A week after that, we got a letter from the Land Registery stating that they had received an application. We objected to the application stating the Limitations Act 1980 after reading a similar thread on this site. The Land registery are now treating this as a dispute and are waiting to see if we can come to some agrrement or they will refer it on to the Adjudicator for a decision.

In the meantime the LSC have wrote to us claiming "that the statutory charge is exempt from the Limitations Act and has no time limit so therefore it cannot be removed"

They quoted a Gotham V Doodes {2006} case

 

What do we do now?

 

Somebody please help!!

[MARTIN3030]

Yes it was appealed.

 

http://www.lawreports.co.uk/WLRD/2006/CACIV/jul0.7.htm

[paybacktimeagain]

Hi Martin, Sorry the link for Lawreports does not work?

[Sue Lloyd]

I have a similar problem. I got divorced in 1998 and received Legal Aid - costs were about £4,500. I was aware that a Statutory Charge would be made on the property I preserved. I did not hear anything from the Legal Aid Board until this week - some 9 years later advising they are applying to have a charge placed on my property and the Land Registry have written saying I have two weeks to make any objection. I called Legal Aid and they said they tried to register the charge in 2000 and were unsuccessful - they could give no reason why it has taken so long. They advise if I don't pay in full I will be charged 8% interest. Has anyone had a similar case and made a successful appeal?

[paybacktimeagain]

Just to update you,

 

The land Registery wrote to us and said that they were not satisfied that the objection we had lodged that the statutory charge was statute barred by the Limitations Act 1980 was a valid ojection.

 

They said that:

"This is because the application to register a restriction is not an action to recover a debt and the statutory charge is not a simple contract date. The Limitations Act 1980 does not apply"

 

We then lodged a further objection on the grounds that we had not recovered or preserved any equity in the property as we had paid a fair market price for the property at the end of the case.

 

They wrote back and and said that that this was a valid objection and they have served notice on the applicant (LSC). If they wish to proceeed then this matter will be referred to the Adjudicator.

 

So waiting to her whats next?

[paybacktimeagain]

Hi,

Update...

The case went to the Adjudicator and the LSC could not present their case within in the given deadline. They asked for an extension as they said they needed more time to collate their eveidence, an extension of 4 weeks was granted but the date passed and nothing.

They eventually sent a letter asking for the application to be "withdrawn at this current time" Whey hey!!

The case has now closed for the time being, just hope they dont come back with another application in the future!!

I suppose they could not get anything together to challenge my objections!

 

Cant believe it!!.. never thought I could win against the mighty LSC!!

 

I suppose they bank on Joe public with their limited resources to just roll over and pay up rather than fight it.