I've been battling with a reposession and outstanding debt for 5 years. The Halifax(and their agents) have been constantly trying to intimidate me into paying up the £17k that 'they' state I owe.

I've been arguing that they undersold the property, especially as similar houses in the location were on the market for at least £10k more(some up to £16k). I have forwarded copies of these to them and questioned why the repossessed property was sold for so much less. They state that basically this was all they could get for it!

They state that if I am not happy with this them i am to forward them with copy valuations for properties in this location and at the same time and 'actual' sale prices as the leaflets I have sent do not constitute 'real' market values!!!!!. I ask if this is reasonable??? They have sent me the valuations from the house in question, however I am also not happy with the results of this and state this in my letters to them. I am again fobbed off.

I am at the stage now where I would just like to sort this out once and for all and did offer an ex-gratia payment (all i can afford). Obviously they have declined and ask again (for about the tenth time) for income and expenditure details - which I have never supplied.

I am and have been totally unhappy (even before reposession) with the service I have been given.Could anyone give me any advice on what my options are?

Thanks in anticipation

-- Theresa (dollie_dimple81@hotmail.com), April 29, 2004

Answers

These are basically your choices:-

1. Do nothing - what will eventutally happen is that they will take you to court where you can obviously bring up any complaints you have about the amount they are claiming.

2. Offer them an increasing amount until they accept it - they are unlikely to accept this until after you have completed an income and expenditure form and they have checked that this is really all you can offer (after all, you could be a multi-millionaire for all they know).

3. Put yourself in bankruptcy - their claim will form part of the proceedings and subject to you having no assets or substantial income, after 1 year you will be discharged - you will then not owe them anything at all.

Your problem basically lies in the fact that the Halifax do not have to prove to you or anybody anything other than they obtained the best price as quickly as possible for the property. An offer to pay £30,000 in cash purchase is more likely to be accepted than £40,000 which needs to be raised by mortgage and the Halifax will no doubt be able to justify selling the property in such a manner and indeed, they would argue that such selling tactics were in your best interest as well to reduce the mortgage debt which even though you were repossessed, still carries on attracting interest and charges!

-- David J. Button (davidjohnbutton@supanet.com), April 29, 2004.

So basically I will have to pay up, go to court or declare myself backrupt? Not much of an option. Surely they should have to prove why they sold the house so cheap - selling it quickly and for so much less than other properties in the area and 12k less than we even purchased for it 2 years prior does not assist me at all. There may have been interest to add to the property before it was sold, but surely this would not come to £17k!

After reading information on this site it appears that some people have dug their heals in and stuck to thier guns, constantly asked for justification of their alleged debt and didn't send Income and Exp details and still been able to settle for far less than was initially asked. Any advice from these people would be gladly appreciated.

-- Theresa (dollie_dimple81@hotmail.com), April 30, 2004.

Theresa - you asked for advice and you got it - just because you don't happen to like it ................!

By all means, dig your heels in if you want - but this can have an adverse effect. If the Halifax and their solicitors feel they have a sound case and can justify all of the £17k, they will pursue you if, having investigated your assets/income by whatever means they can, they think you can pay. The ones you see settling for lesser sums are either shaky cases, unemployed, terminally ill, people who do not now own their own home etc.

Halifax can easily find out if the house you now live in is yours or not as they can do an online search of the land registry for £2 (as can anybody - all you need is a credit card and the address and a computer connected to the internet)

You have wisely asked for people who have settled up on smaller sums to post comments - I hope they do and I hope some of them identify themselves as former Halifax mortgagors so you can get a feel of how tough or easy they are on shortfalls.

Best of luck anyway.

-- David J. Button (davidjohnbutton@supanet.com), April 30, 2004.

thanks for you advice again.

I dont own my own house and unfortunately will probably have to rent for a long time and probably forever now as I will never be able to afford to buy my own home especially as they have risen considerably over the last few years. If the Halifax would have given me more choices at the time of reposession, I may not now be in this unfortunate position now.

Once again thanks for your assistance.

-- Theresa (dollie_dimple81@hotmail.com), May 03, 2004.

Theresa

If you want to prove that other houses of the same specifications etc sold for much more than yours did, at the same period of time...simply contact the Land Registry in your area. Give them the post code for your area and for a small fee they will give you a print out of all properties sold within a set 6 month period. The information they give will tell you exactly how much each property sold for. This MIGHT help you to demonstrate to the Lender and their Agents that your assertions are correct re underselling.

I hope this helps you!

Moira

-- Moira (Anderston828@aol.com), May 04, 2004.

Hi Theresa,

You can also check Nationwide's website, they do a historical property sale report, you put in the area, what you paid for the property, when it was sold and they give you a price, i.e. A property bought in the Outer Metropolitan Area in 1985 for £52,000 and sold in 1991 would be worth xxxxx Hope this helps.

-- Chris (chris@anon.co.uk), May 05, 2004.