Our home was repossesed in 1995.Even though the Northern Rock sent out an assessor who questioned us in great detail (for which we were charged)and he recommended that because my huband lost his job due to ill health they suspend our mortgage for three months at least they continued action. We handed in our keys and were re-homed by the council. On the day we were being moved into a larger house, our neighbour came to say that she had received a telephone call for me to ring a number urgently. She said the person had a Scottish accent, and knowing my father is Scottish she was worried that something had happened to him. I rang the number,and was asked to leave my number (which has always been ex-dir)and because I was caught off guard and worried myself, I did. Of course it was a debt collection agency chasing the shortfall of the mortgage. Since then the debt and the phone number have been bought by Eversheds. I have filled in income forms and returned them and we have been paying £5.00 per month on d.d.

My husband is now studying art at degree level and hopes to work in this field and I too hope to return to work now that our 4 children are older. Have we made a mistake by being bullied into "token payment" and if so is there anything we can do? Also will it affect us if we try to find a mortgage and what exactly is the 6 and 12 year rule? The shortfakk on our m0ortgage is approx 17,000.

Thank-you.

-- anna falcon (djmr@falcon1966.fsnet.co.uk), September 10, 2002

Answers

I would stop paying it and then read this site and this Q&A page. You don't mention what you do for a living - ie whether you are worth chasing or not.

Basically, the poorer you are, the fewer assets you have, the safer it is to stand up for yourself.

-- Lee (repossession@home-repo.org), September 11, 2002.

You have every right to "take it further". However, this may be a hard long battle! If your token payment is not based on a legal contract then by all means it will not be enforceable. Also you will need to see if the terms are fair and consideration paid to you.

When you say "bullied" how do you mean. I have a number of people complaining about Eversheds and they are not the nicest of people to deal with. If you feel you were harrassed, then find more on the Protection from Harrassment Act 1997.

The six/12 year rule is funny, but if the debt is unsecurred then it is argued then the six year rule applies.

Make sure that you know that the £5 token payment is not allowing the initial debt to accrue into a larger one!

Any problems with your complaints/harrassment then post it on the site and others can help. Problem shared...

-- Geoff Winters (Geoff-winters@supadooper.com), September 11, 2002.