Having been made redundant 1 year ago, I have found it difficult to find work. I have managed to find a buyer for my property with signing of contracts imminent. I find (for the 1st time) that the Woolwich have started repossesion proceedings against me.I have nothing in verbal or in writing from the Woolwich to state their actions & only found out by chance after phoning my solicitor to check on the progress of the property sale!

The Woolwich are aware that I am selling my property & that it is going to make a profit to cover the arrears, I am due to see a surgeon at the end of this month (an additional reason for not being able to work brought on by the stresses of the last year), I have served a SARN on the Woolwich (08/11/01) & wondered if this was a scare tactic by them to delayproceedings or prevent them distributing information they hold on my mortgage?

The reason I suggest the latter is because when I was made redundant in October 2000, I requested many times to see my mortgage file, the Woolwich branch in Manchester that dealt with my property purchase claimed the files were at a Surrey branch, after many phone calls to this branch, it became apparent that they had never recieved my file & do not know where they are, I am aware of the change of law from October 31st this year where a SARN request means that companies involved (in some cases) have to provide original mortgage files etc.

I am now sick with worry & am very concerned that any delay will lose my buyer, after it seemed the sale would be completed before Xmas as the purchasers are 1st time buyers & most of the paper work has been done.

If anyone out there can give me some advice or strategies,I wou

-- L (LAWLOZ@aol.com), December 13, 2001

Answers

Please hand in there! This happened to me with Northern Rock last year. They use this to pressure you! Even if there is a court order against you the judge under the circumstances would grant a stay of execution. I fopund this out too late to help me under similar circumstances, but hope it helps you. The other thing to watvh is that they will atempt to get oput of disclosure by any means possible and this includes how the settlement figure is worked out. Don't accept their solicitor's affidavit as this will not tell you what you want to know. The other thing to remeber is that repossessors do not take illness into account as they are born with hearts of stone. If they are making you ill with worry you are more likely to give in to theirs demands. Remeber you are not alone!

-- Anne Veasey (anneveasey@surfanytime.co.uk), January 18, 2002.