Need advice with Mortgage problem

[Exclus]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Re extending the term, the actual words were : 'We may be able to extend the term of your mortgage for up to a maximum of two years on a repayment basis. After two years if there remains a balance outstanding we will not agree to a further extension'
I then wrote and said that this may be an answer to the problem, and asked what was involved in extending the term and what would the costs/repayments be.

They replied that they were unable to agree to agree to my request at this time for the following reasons:
The mortgage account matured October 2012, and that they were unable to agree to any further holds as they had exhausted all possible options available.

We continue to pay an amount to cover the interest and reduce the reserve account, and will do until the house is sold - never missing a payment or being late.

Your thoughts are appreciated, and I'll keep you up to date as and when I receive a reply from my letter sent yesterday - hopefully with all the paperwork that I have requested.

[PlanB]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

I've got your email in which you say that the bank has recently offered to extend your mortgage term by two years. Have they given you any reason why they have changed their mind all of a sudden, and why did they offer two years and not four?

You also say your mortgage has a negative balance of only £1.23p. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not yet. In theory your mortgage term expired in 2012 but I presume they can't close the account while their is a balance outstanding. I wonder if this is working to your advantage As long as the mortgage account exists and is 'live' it has the potential to be extended. Once closed that potential disappears.

Repossessing you for a £1.23 debt will look prety silly. So a lot depends on whether they can repossess you for a secured overdraft and/or whether that OD should remain secured once the mortgage has been paid off (that'll be in the Reserve Account Ts & Cs I presume).

Wait till you get back the documents and then ask Andrew to take a look at them.

[PlanB]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

I am dealing with the collections department at present.

. . . I'll resend my email to you.

I've sent you a PM. Let me know if it arrives safely.

[Exclus]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Thanks for help and advice - I've sent a letter by recorded delivery asking for all that you need to see, and asking for everything to be put on hold until I receive it and able to get both financial and legal advice. Post Office said they would receive it tomorrow.
I didn't phone them, as I had previously sent a letter telling them that I was seeking advise and would get back to them within 21 days - and the fact that as we had changed our phone number some years ago, I didn't want them to have the new one.
I am dealing with the collections department at present - they always state 'action' not 'proceedings' which must be a good thing so far.
Lets see what they come up with.
I'll resend my email to you.

[PlanB]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

I had sent you an email with the more personal details of the case, needed to reply to the bank early this week, but would wait to see just what you thought on how I should reply to them.

I haven't received your email since we've had server problems the last couple of days.

The bank gave you a deadline of 14 days to respond to their letter which expires tomorrow. Pick up the phone and tell them that you have sent a letter in today's post. Don't get into a conversation with them, simply tell them you've written to them and are seeking legal advice.

Get a letter off today which asks for a copy of your original mortgage contract with the Ts & Cs for the reserve account included. It's hard to defend your position when you don't know what it is. Tell them you need the documents as a matter of urgency so will they put the account on hold until you receive the full paperwork and have had the opportunity to take legal advice based on it. (This is not a s.78 CCA situation.)

It's no use fighting them with logic (the fact that you have plenty of equity) you need to fight them with facts. They've not mentioned the *repossession* word because they know they can't unless they've exhausted all options under Pre-Action Protocol for possession proceedings. No 7.1 is what you're aiming for

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...tocol/prot_mha

Can you say what reason the bank gave for declining your request to extend the mortgage term? If you know why they won't then you'll know what to tackle next. If they didn't give you a reason then ask them for a reason in your letter.

Finally, which department of the bank is writing to you? Is it the collections or pre-litigation team etc?

[Exclus]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Can't remember word for word, but the gist was that I had sent you an email with the more personal details of the case, needed to reply to the bank early this week, but would wait to see just what you thought on how I should reply to them. I fully agreed with you that I didn't see what the banks problem was as they had security many times over, and that as the house was on the market at a realistic value (confirmed by a couple of agents) they really shouldn't start any proceedings - but who knows.
I'll hold on writing anything to the bank until I hear from you - Thanks.

[PlanB]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Exclus I saw a post of yours on here this morning but it seems to have got lost in the system somehow.

Sorry to be a pain but can you re-post so I can reply

[PlanB]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

The Cheltenham and Gloucester v Norgan case allows you to spread the arrears over the remaining term as long as your finances stack up for the repayments. I am pretty sure Plan B will guide you.

That's my favourite case law of all time because it rescues so many homeowners from homelessness (it should help to get you a suspended possession order). But alas in this case the OP's mortgage term has already expired so he's fighting to get the term extended.

Let's post it up anyway so anyone facing repossession who reads this will know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not an express train coming towards them:

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/1995/11.html

[Exclus]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Thanks PlanB for your thoughts etc, and I will try to sort out some relevant paperwork tomorrow and PM you with the more personal details. From memory the details of the reserve account are just in a letter - no real T & C's. I know that when we were arranging the mortgage at the local Barclays the advisor told us about the reserve account facility, and asked if we wanted it. We said we did not want it, but he said that it would be better to arrange at that time as it would be harder to do so at a later date - so we agreed, not really thinking that we would ever need to use it!

[PlanB]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

we received a letter this morning from the bank saying that they could not agree to a term extension . . . . and that all possible options were now exhausted. Our request for further hold pending a sale has also been declined.

You have 14 days to reply to that letter (note 23rd May deadline) which give us time to get to the bottom of this and take control of the situation.

Starting at the end, I expect this will go to the FOS if the Woolwich don't play ball. The lender knows you've reluctantly put your house on the market so they feel they're home and dry. So first question: do you want to sell your home and downsize or are you only selling it because of pressure from the Woolwich? I'm assuming you want to keep it for longer so that's what we'll aim for unless you say different. You need to tell them what you want to happen not ask them what they want to happen.

This Mortgage Reserve account is a complicated product which I'm not familiar with. But nevertheless it'll be a contract and I think it makes sense to see if Andrew can make sense of it. Is it one contract i.e. a mortgage account with Ts & Cs which allow for drawn down, or two separate contracts with separate Ts & Cs for each facility i.e. the mortgage and current account? I would like you to email it to me and I'll PM you about that in a minute. What I would really like to see is the KFI document given to you when you took out the mortgage because that's what you believed you were buying into.

Is it this product: http://ask.barclays.co.uk/help/mortg...s/reserve_work

You say that you cleared the mortgage element when the mortgage term expired in 2012. At that point they declined to extend the term of your mortgage. Did you ask them in writing and is there a paper trail to back this up? What was the reason for their decline (if they gave one)?

I've checked the Woolwich's current lending criteria on the intermediaries' (brokers and packagers) website and the maximum loan term is until the age of 70 years old. So in theory you could ask them to extend the mortgage term by another 4 years because lenders will use the current criteria when considering any changes to mortgage terms. It also says that they will consider longer. Read the full criteria here (click on "Age/Term if the link times out)

http://www.woolwichintermediaries.co...P1242620533007

If I'm right the outstanding balance which relates to your Reserve Account is £73k on an interest-only deal. If you could get that mortgage term/length extended by four years then you ought to be able to continue to pay only the interest and they can demand the £73k back in full in 2018. That's when you may have to sell your house or do an Equity Release scheme or whatever options are available to you at that time.

At the moment you are paying the interest and £100 a month on top which is a struggle. Your goal should be to get the term extended and continue to pay interest only as per the original Tc & Cs. That's not an unrealistic or unreasonable request since you have so much equity. The lender's money has security so what's their problem?

The only possible snag is that this is a joint mortgage and your wife is more 'mature' than you so they may want to consider her age as the cut-off point but unless they've noticed that yet it may not become an issue.

We need a few more facts before you write that letter. You've got plenty of time.

Don't be panicked into accepting a low offer on your home. You've already reduced the price by £25k. How long has it been on the market and have you had plenty of viewings but no offers? The property market is rising so quite frankly I'd be tempted to put it back to the original asking price and see what happens. Maybe switch agents as some can get stale and complacent. Let's hope you don't need to sell it at least not for a long while. We all know it takes up to a year to get a complaint through the FOS system.

[PlanB]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

PM sent explaining my absence

The plan of action is to get a letter prepared to send in Monday's post.

[Tuttsi]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

The Cheltenham and Gloucester v Norgan case allows you to spread the arrears over the remaining term as long as your finances stack up for the repayments. I am pretty sure Plan B will guide you.

Thanks for your kind thoughts. However, as predicted we received a letter this morning from the bank saying that they could not agree to a term extension - which they had semi suggested in the last letter - and that all possible options were now exhausted. Our request for further hold pending a sale has also been declined. They have asked to be updated in the next 14 days or action will continue. Not sure what they mean by action. Any suggestions how we should reply will be gratefully received.

[Exclus]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Thanks for the support, it is appreciated. I hope to hear from PlanB as soon as she has time to give my problem some thought.

[diddlydee]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Don't panic if you don't get an immediate reply here from PlanB. As Nids says she is a tad busy, but keeps her eye on this section of the forum, and is the sites housing expert.
She really is very good at all matters relating to housing, so if anyone can help you with your predicament, she can
If you have dropped her a pm, you will no doubt receive a reply from her as soon as she gets the time.

Best of luck

[Exclus]

Re: Need advice with Mortgage problem

Thanks for your kind thoughts. However, as predicted we received a letter this morning from the bank saying that they could not agree to a term extension - which they had semi suggested in the last letter - and that all possible options were now exhausted. Our request for further hold pending a sale has also been declined. They have asked to be updated in the next 14 days or action will continue. Not sure what they mean by action. Any suggestions how we should reply will be gratefully received.