I read your site regularly to keep me updated & have used alot of your points in my letters etc. I have been waiting to see what has happened in the recent cases which were in the court of appeal. I'm afraid though that i don't really understand what has gone on & what the actual outcome was. Could someone please explain to me in simple terms what has happened as i need to understand it as i am being taken to court shortly. Sorry to sound really thick but i have enough problems trying to get to terms with my case. It doesn't take much to confuse me. Thankyou very much. Sally.........

-- sally jayne ralph (sallyjralph@aol.com), August 15, 2002

Answers

The full judgements have not yet been published Sally, but as far as I can tell from what has been posted here, the Court of Appeal has decided that a lender has 12 years to bring to court an action for recovery of debt arising out of a mortgage contract, and this time runs from the point at which they knew there was a problem which is to say after two or three failures by the borrower to pay their monthly mortgage payments ie. much earlier than the lenders have been willing to admit up to now. The Court of Appeal did not apparently decide on the issue of whether or not payouts from insurers on Mortgage Indemnity Policies are 12 year or 6 year limited debts. The time limit is also affected by acknowledgements of the debt and payments made to service the debt. You say that you are being taken to court. Have you been served with a summons or is this action threatened by solicitors acting for the lender?

-- Gordon Bennet (arsenewhinger@hotmail.com), August 15, 2002.