2nd charge question

[AdeV]

Many years ago, I was one of several directors of a company which subsequently went bust. As part of this, I somehow acquired a company debt on my personal name - PSA Finance plc - outstanding hire charges on one of our vans. I have no recollection of signing the agreement which would give them this power, although we did have one rogue director who may have signed as me - not that I have any proof of that.

 

Anyway, the company went bust in early 2001. PSA finance threatened all sorts during 2001, and eventually (somehow) secured a 2nd charge on my house. During this time & subsequently, I have had no contact whatsoever with them. They continued to send threatening letters occasionally, e.g. we'll force you to sell up, etc. However, for at leas the last 10 years, I've heard zilch.

 

Later on, I was almost bankrupted by HMRC, I got out of that one at the last second but they put a flag on the house. They subsequentlty sent me a letter which I have to forward to the land registry to clear that flag, which I've not yet done (this was all in 2002-3-4 or thereabouts, a bit of a dark time in my life.

 

Anyway, moving on to 2014.... things are much better now, and whilst I still have some dodgy debts hanging over me, I'm pretty much straightened out. My credit rating is still crap, but that's another story... I now want to borrow some money to buy a 2nd property abroad. I have plenty of equity in the house, a decent income, and so on....

 

...however, I suspect that 2nd charge is still lurking somewhere... I don't see it in my credit reference file, however, and I'm wondering if it's got old enough to be void? IS that likely to be the case, or is it still there hiding & waiting to bite me when I apply for a loan?

 

Any assistance appreciated.

 

PS: I don't believe I should ever have been charged the money PSA finance demanded, as I'm 99.9% sure I never actually entered into a personal agreement with them... and I don't want to go writing to them now in case the old head-in-the-sand trick has actually worked & made it go away...

 

 

 

Cheers,

Ade.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Good morning welcome to CAG.

 

 

Sounds like this finance was secured on the property.

Check with the Land Registry before do anything else.

[citizenB]

You might want to send a SAR to the company that believes that you have signed a guarantee? You would be looking for any documents that you have signed - if you think that someone might have signed on your behalf, a look at the actual signature might reveal this.

 

A Subject Access Request entitles you to all the data they hold on you in respect of your financial relationship. It will cost you £10.00 - they have 40 calendar days in which to provide the information. There is a draft request in the CAG library.

 

Although as already advised, your first stop perhaps should be the Land Registry

[AdeV]

Thanks guys - the land registry was my first thought as well...

 

Would I be correct in thinking I need to use Form K15 [Application for an official search (not applicable to registered land)] for this?

 

 

Cheers!

Ade.

[AdeV]

UPDATE

 

(good grief, has it been nearly 18 months? Blimey....)

 

I eventually contacted PSA Finance by phone, they couldn't find my records. Wrote to them requesting either a settlement figure or for them to remove the Land Registry charge - they still couldn't find my account so they've agreed to clear the LR record

 

I also found details of how much the original unpaid bill was (£220 roughly): The charge they'd registered against me was for over £4000!

[maroondevo52]

Glad you've got that sorted AdeV, thank's for the update.