Negative equity and arrears need to sell.

[rangerover1]

I hope someone can help. Have a mortgage in negative equity with arrears, also suspended possession notice in place. I need to sell as cannot afford payments. I have had 4 valuations and want to sell home myself as I know I can get more than the bank would selling empty home if I hand the keys back. I have written to bank to ask their permission to sell and still waiting to hear back. If they say no can I apply to the courts to ask for permission be granted to sell whilst I stay in the property? I am paying the mortgage and will continue to do so until sold so unless I stop paying there is no fear of repossession.......yet. I understand I will have a shortfall to payback when sold which I will come to agreement with the bank to pay. Any advice would be appreciated as I don't know the order in which to do this.

[AndyOrch]

Thread moved to the appropriate forum.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[dx100uk]

As a side issue

 

Don't forget to get reclaiming

Letter phone arrears visit debt PPI building ins etc fees

 

Got every statement and letter

 

If not sat asap

 

Q

[Ell-enn]

Hi, obviously the bank will want to value the property themselves but if you can sell it for the best price it would be in both interests to let you do so.

 

When you got the suspended order, did the court order you to pay an amount on top of the mortgage towards the arrears?

How much is the negative equity ?

 

You could put the property on the market anyway and see what interest you get

 

If they do not agree to your selling the property and you start to miss payments they will go for an eviction order which you can defend in court by asking the judge to let you stay in the property till it is sold but you would have to make payments while you were there.

[rangerover1]

Hi Ell-enn, thanks for your reply. Mortgage £950,000, house value according to 3 estate agents £870,00. I think I could sell for £850,00 but I know if we left and the bank repossessed they would sell for £600,000, this is from experience from a friend.

 

We will continue to pay mortgage until sold so we won't be evicted unless they do so.

 

When we got suspended order the court did state about paying the arrears but the bank have not asked us to do so yet, they want to discuss this at the end of Feb.

 

My thinking is, put house on market regardless, get as much as we can say £850,000, when they object to sale (which they will without signing a Deed of Acknogledgement, which we won't be doing) we either go to court or give them keys back, when they are this far in with a sale imminent this would not look good in court if they pulled the sale and went ahead and sold for less.

 

What stage do you think we should submit the N224 as time scales are a concern?

 

thank you

[rangerover1]

As a side issue

 

Don't forget to get reclaiming

Letter phone arrears visit debt PPI building ins etc fees

 

Got every statement and letter

 

If not sat asap

 

 

Q

 

Sorry DX100UK. don't understand please elaborate

[rangerover1]

Hi, obviously the bank will want to value the property themselves but if you can sell it for the best price it would be in both interests to let you do so.

 

When you got the suspended order, did the court order you to pay an amount on top of the mortgage towards the arrears?

How much is the negative equity ?

 

You could put the property on the market anyway and see what interest you get

 

If they do not agree to your selling the property and you start to miss payments they will go for an eviction order which you can defend in court by asking the judge to let you stay in the property till it is sold but you would have to make payments while you were there.

 

Sorry forgot to mention, we dont have a problem with the bank valuing the property but it was Colleys (their valuer) who go us into this mess in the beginning by over valuing the house when we purchased. But due to case law we cannot sue. We did not get an independent valuation as we though as we were paying for the valuation it was for our benefit, we were not informed of this. I also consider it to be a conflict of interest as Colleys is part of the same group as our lender

[Ell-enn]

If I were you - I'd put the house on the market straight away and see what interest you get. If you then miss payments they will take action to evict, that's when you put in the N244 - it will be helpful to be able to put the estate agent's advert and the interest/offers in your N244 defence. It could take a month or so from you missing a monthly payment for them to begin action so you might have had an offer in that time.

 

It would also be helpful if you could get information on other properties in your street which sold around the same time you bought yours to show that yours was overvalued. There are quite a few websites which give you previous sale information - Zoopla is one of them.

[rangerover1]

If I were you - I'd put the house on the market straight away and see what interest you get. If you then miss payments they will take action to evict, that's when you put in the N244 - it will be helpful to be able to put the estate agent's advert and the interest/offers in your N244 defence. It could take a month or so from you missing a monthly payment for them to begin action so you might have had an offer in that time.

 

It would also be helpful if you could get information on other properties in your street which sold around the same time you bought yours to show that yours was overvalued. There are quite a few websites which give you previous sale information - Zoopla is one of them.

 

If we had an offer and went to legals in say March, we then didn't pay the mortgage so they repossessed the house, do you think they would abort the sale or do you think they would proceed? I am just really unsure as to when to do the N244

 

I don't want the stress at the moment of the fear of eviction as i don't know how long it will take to sell the house so we have agreed to continue to pay mortgage, just hoping it sells quickly as payment is £2,000 pcm

 

I have got a file together and had 3 of the areas best estate agents to value, they have all said in writing that the house should stay furnished as this will add to the desirability of the property so us being evicted will leave an empty, cold unmaintained house. We also have a RICS valuation.

[renegadeimp]

Sorry DX100UK. don't understand please elaborate

 

Since you were in arrears, they would have charged you a TON of different charges. Letter charges, phone call charges, visit charges, PPI, buildings insurance etc. ALL those are reclaimable but you will need to send a SAR ( click the word) to get all the info they have on your account.

 

You could potentially be owed thousands, especially if you are paying charges on that £2000 a month payment and have been in arrears for a while

 

The money will not go to you, but will be put towards the mortgage, so as you can see, its in your best interests to do this while you are deciding what to do with the sale.

[rangerover1]

Since you were in arrears, they would have charged you a TON of different charges. Letter charges, phone call charges, visit charges, PPI, buildings insurance etc. ALL those are reclaimable but you will need to send a SAR ( click the word) to get all the info they have on your account.

 

You could potentially be owed thousands, especially if you are paying charges on that £2000 a month payment and have been in arrears for a while

 

The money will not go to you, but will be put towards the mortgage, so as you can see, its in your best interests to do this while you are deciding what to do with the sale.

 

Ahhh, thank you. I know they charged visit fees for visits that never happened and a few other things. If I dig out the letters can you tell me what I can claim for if I tell you what they charged for please?

[Ell-enn]

As long as you keep paying the mortgage you should have no fear of eviction. What would you be asking the court to do if you put in a N244 before the bank took eviction action ?

 

Do you have statements showing the arrears charges and visit fees - did you at any time tell them you didn't want these visits ?

 

We have a mortgage charges template letter for reclaiming these fees and charges but you need to know how much to claim for.

 

Charges are added to the outstanding balance of the mortgage and cannot be classed as arrears, therefore any refund of charges will not reduce your arrears (missed payments), but will reduce the outstanding balance of the mortgage.

 

Who is the lender ?

[rangerover1]

As long as you keep paying the mortgage you should have no fear of eviction. What would you be asking the court to do if you put in a N244 before the bank took eviction action ?

 

Do you have statements showing the arrears charges and visit fees - did you at any time tell them you didn't want these visits ?

 

We have a mortgage charges template letter for reclaiming these fees and charges but you need to know how much to claim for.

 

Charges are added to the outstanding balance of the mortgage and cannot be classed as arrears, therefore any refund of charges will not reduce your arrears (missed payments), but will reduce the outstanding balance of the mortgage.

 

 

Who is the lender ?

 

Thanks Ell-enn.

 

Lender Halifax.

 

If the Halifax say no to selling due to potential shortfall we still want to be able to sell and keep house furnished to get a better price. They may say we can sell but they may want a DOA Deed of acknowledgement signing for the shortfall but we have been advised NEVER to sign this as if falls outside bankruptcy. We would like to negotiate a full and final after the sale. Thats why I mentioned the N244 as the judge may force them without the DOA.

 

In relation to the SAR, we have been charges legal fees, visit fees only 2 or 3 as we wrote to stop these and arrears fees at £35 Would this be per month or a one off? Also, if I send a SAR, do I need to specify it is for the arrears related charges?

 

Thank you

[renegadeimp]

Ideally rangerover1, you need to send a SAR to the mortgage company. This forces them to provide all info they have about you. That way you can spend some time, go over every little piece of info and make sure you get every last charge and reclaim it.

[rangerover1]

Ideally rangerover1, you need to send a SAR to the mortgage company. This forces them to provide all info they have about you. That way you can spend some time, go over every little piece of info and make sure you get every last charge and reclaim it.

 

Thank you I will do this and use it against the shortfall amount. Can I claim for:

1. Legal fees (from bank)

2. Visit fees

3. Arrears management fees

4. Interest charged on arrears

 

Anything else as it looks like they have not added that much on really, but as i dont trust them I am sure there will be thousands of pounds worth of charges.

 

Any information would help. I would hate to have egg on my face if i cannot claim for things i thought I would be able to.

[renegadeimp]

Not sure about number 1, but you can for the rest. Get that SAR off tomorrow and they have 40 days to supply all info to you.