house valued at £125,000 in 1992, tried to sell for £110,000, reposessed by nhl on sept 1992. sold by nhl in november 1992 for £73950.i was made bankrupt in 1995 and discharged in 1998. the first debt collection company (robinson way & company)wrote to my wife in october 1997 asking for the shortfall of £42296 to be repaid. contacted cab who,after the usual,various correspondence, asked for the debt to be written off.nothing heard from them again until june this year from another debt collection company (direct legal and collections)anyone heard of these? we went back to cab, she advised my wife to go bankrupt as the first option, but she can't as there is now equity in the property we now live in. second option to offer a lump sum payment as full and final settlement, and to pay this through a third party via a solicitor. cab thinks that it is unlikely they will accept, but if they did it would be as low as £2-2,500 (but we think 10%) would this be a fair assumption? and are the debt collectors working for nhl or have they bought the debt from robinson way & co.? help and answers please as we are at our wits end. we are not sure if a mop was in place as the judge said hand the keys back and that will be the end of it. It has helped a great deal too know that there are others out there, going through the same thing.

-- david carpenter (jasper208@hotmail.com), July 22, 2001

Answers

Hi, This is just a quicky as i am a bit busy at the moment,but will get back to you if i think of anything else.firstly have you served a sarn on the nhl? also all the info relating to the sale, e.g valuations of the property(2 at least)it seems to me that they sold your house far to cheaply,ask them for the original mortgage deeds did they sign them,have you signed( some mortgage deeds around 1991- 1993 were not signed by the lender saying they could chase you for shortfall) them' check the conditions.did they get an MJO they have a year to do it i think. 10% is about right.Check the 6/12 year rule it might not apply but check.there is so much stuff on this site just follow the threads and you be amazed what stuff you'll get.The main thing is not to panic, stay calm and check everything on this site and find out what other people have done. Best wishes and good luck. Stephen. P.S if you can' buy the litigation handbook from Amazon.com it's a good little book dealing with civil procedures.

-- sm (mamba@moss82.fsnet.co.uk), July 23, 2001.