My husbands home was reposssessed about 8 years ago. Today we have just received a letter from Addleshaw Booth & Co. representing Halifax plc for the shortfall after the resale of the house. They scrupulously traced him after calling the house claiming to be a mail redirection comapny. We now have this letter demanding an offer of payment on a sum of money greater than his original mortgage. How do I know they are genuine and how do they come to this figure? Where do we go from here? I read the list of Do's and Dont's but to be honest, I dont want this situation dragged out and wouls like the matter to be resolved asap. Also from anyones experience, what amount of lump sum would the Halifax accept? We can hardly even manage to offer 10% of the price they are asking for.

Thanks

-- lisa jh (lisajh29@hotmail.com), February 02, 2002

Answers

Taken together, the various pages in the Repossession section of this site answer your question about how to establish if their claim is genuine and how they arrive at the amount claimed.

If you don't want to drag it out then offer Halifax the highest amount you can. Of course, you cannot control how much Halifax will want to drag it out. That will depend on how close your offer comes to how much Halifax thinks you can really scratch together.

The exact amount *they* think you can scratch together depends on a number of things, the primary ones of which are how visible your husband's current earnings, his assets and his joint assets are.

In other words, if the paper trail (National Insurance PAYE records, DHSS records, Land Registry records, credit applications of one sort or another) show that he has access to earnings and/or assets, Halifax will likely see all of it (minus the cost of getting it) as worth going for.

If your husband has less visible earnings/assets then ten percent is a reasonably likely settlement figure.

There is evidence - but no proof - that the amount lenders settle for is the highest amount the repossessee could borrow given their credit record.

There is evidence - and some proof - that lenders/lender agents credit check people just before they issue a shortfall claim letter.

This would suggest that they are checking how much that person could borrow to arrange a quick settlement.

However, it may be that lenders/lender agents are making a false credit application on behalf of the repossessee in order to trigger MCL Software's credit application checking system, which I think *could* reveal details of income/assets revealed on previous credit/phone/catalogue/store card applications.

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@home-repo.org), February 02, 2002.

Thanks Lee, My husband has virtually no assets - no credit cards, average earnings etc.. as we put everyhtin in my name before we married (the house credit cards etc..) I actually bank with the Halifax and have credit cards with them but I have also just taken out a very large loan with them and that is eating up all our spare cash now. Will my assets come into it? Also, we really dont want to be dealing with this solicitor - can we cut them out and go straight to the Halifax (I presume the solicitor may be on a commission only basis and will not accept our first offer) Thanks

-- lisajh (lisajh29@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

If the repo was 8 years ago they they are out of time. The Council of Mortgage Lenders agreement states that if 'contact' was not made prior to 11/2/2000 then they only have 6 years.

I would think that as this date is almost 2 years ago then they can hardly have been in contact with you and therefore the 6 year limit applies and they are owed nothing.

-- matt (mattyc@ntlworld.com), February 03, 2002.

Does this still count if they had tried to contact him before? His friend was getting odd phone calls a few years back - he later found out it was some other agency trying to trace him on behalf of the Halifax - but nothing came of it.

Can I go to them and say this?

-- lisa jh (lisajh29@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

Million Doller question.........

IMHO if no 'contact' was made prior to this then the limit is 6 years. They, however seem to think that if they have written a letter to any address or tried to make contact then that is fine. If you look at the agreement on the CML web site you can form your own views. There is no case history to support either train of thought as yet and I don't think there will be as it is too risky for the lenders to try.

There is no harm in using this arguement with them and if they then say that they had written request coipies of all letters etc and when these have been sent to an address where you did not live ask for proof of delivery - as they will tell you proof of sending is not proof of receipt.

Dfrat a lette and send me a copy if you want a second opinion.

-- matt (mattyc@ntlworld.com), February 04, 2002.