We had our house repossesed 10 years ago, for 8 years we heard nothing, since then applied and accepted for two other mortgages with different lenders in that 8 year period. Over the last 12 months have started to receive letters asking for me to contact re outstanding amount, complete statement of earnings etc. Rightly or wrongly i have completely ignored them.Today however my wife has received a letter hand addressed letter to her place of work. The Lender is C & G. The letter warns that someone is to visit in three days time unless i ring them. 1. What is meant by contact within the 6/12 year rule ie if i have never replied what proof is there of contact? 2. Should i do anything at all, and wait for them to make the next move before i start as this site recommends asking for stuff? 3. if someone should appear on my door step what action should i take?

For info we had MIG the shortfall was 30k and we have never received any info re the disposal of the property.

anyones opinions would be gratefull received,

Graham

-- Graham Gibbs (gdgibbs@MSN.com), June 25, 2002

Answers

If you've read the information on this website, you will see that there is no obligation on you to complete income and expenditure forms, although lenders and their solicitors imply that you must do as they ask.

I'm not sure what contact means as far as the 6/12 year rule is concerned. Again, as you will have read on this site, the 6/12 year rule is a grey area. Others might be able to give you more information on this.

I suspect that as the lender hasn't received any response from letters sent to your home, they have found (somehow) your wife's workplace and are trying to force you into replying to their letters by embarrassing your wife at work. I do know of others who have received letters to their workplace, but I don't know if any lenders agents have actually turned up personally at someone's work.

If someone should turn up, then your wife should not answer any questions, but ask them politely to leave and to refrain from contacting her at work again.

If someone should turn up at your home, again you can ask them politely and calmly to leave and to refrain from visiting your home again. If they don't, then you'll have to be firm, but try to remain calm but firm, you don't want to lose your temper and run the risk of getting yourself into bother.

As the lender has already located you at your home address, there seems little point in avoiding their letters any longer, if you do, as you've seen already, you run the risk of your wife being embarrassed at work. As I've said, there is no need to complete any income and expense forms, just look at the sample letters on this site for an idea of what to reply. The lender must substantiate their claim and prove that you owe them - those are the rules.

Good luck.

-- pendle (pendle_666@yahoo.co.uk), June 25, 2002.

If you have had no contact for 8 years then I think you should ask them (C&G) why they are pursuing this claim in the light of the Council of Mortgage Lenders voluntary code to limit pursuit to 6 years after the sale of the repossessed property.

There is plenty of sound advice on this site concerning how to fight shortfall claims which is worth following. Similarly you can argue that the MIG portion of their claim is now statute barred. Remember though that knowledge is strength. I think that you will have to reply to their attempts to trace you, but in doing so you must avoid any acknowledgement of debt.

-- Gordon Bennet (arsenewhinger@hotmail.com), June 26, 2002.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Guess what i too have received a letter in todays post, same as my wifes.As an after thought the original Mortgage was with the Portsmouth Building Society, who later where taken over by C&G (whilst our mortgage was with them), who in turn became part of Lloyds, doers this make a difference. Also how can i discover the means by which they discovered our work places, is there a data protection issue.

Anyone know a good barrister because i intend to fight this all the way.

Graham

-- (gdgibbs@msn.com), June 26, 2002.

You can issue a Subject Access Rights Notice (SARN) under the Data Protection Act, the information you get back should hopefully give you an idea of where they got their information from.

More details about SARNS in the website.

-- pendle (pendle_666@yahoo.co.uk), June 26, 2002.

your going to fight it all the way, hope you have deep pockets. as some of the people who contrbute to this site allready know i have stated i will "take it all the way" as my case i feel is a simple contract now and is statute barred, the problem is unless you are a solicitor giong to court yourself may cost more than settling in the first place weather you think you are wright or wrong. sorry if i sound a bit negative about all this but im sure some of you out there know how i feel. -- ive just cleared of a hole passage telling all of you out there how im feeling at this moment, its good to get it of your chest. my kids are in bed and my wifes down stairs, it can get hard holding it all together at times, thanks for the site, it would be great if we could have a page set up so we can just support each other without any talk of solicitors, debt etc.....

-- g.cross (gary.cross@wynnster.co.uk), June 30, 2002.

A chat room? Might be possible?

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), July 01, 2002.