Hello UK Home Repossession Page Readers!(posted 8562 days ago)Thank you for taking the time to look at this message. I have basically taken the text from my web page to save me typing it out all over again! The original text appears on www.olias.co.uk/bbbs.shtml
Back in 1990, I was married to 'Mr B' and we bought a house together with a mortgage from the Bradford and Bingley Building Society. However, in October 1990, our marriage failed, and Mr B decided that he wanted to keep the house himself. At this time, I intended to remain in the house until Mr B had obtained a new mortgage in his own name.
During this time of separation, Mr B made my life so unbearable, that my doctor had to put me on anti-depressants and sleeping pills to help me cope with the situation. Due to the abuse from Mr B, I was forced to move out in December 1990. Mr B then changed the locks and refused to allow me access to the property, despite the fact that most of my belongings were still inside the house. At this point, I stopped making contributions to(i.e. paying half of) the mortgage.
Early in 1991, I approached the Bradford and Bingley Building Society to see if it would be possible to buy another house in my own name. I eventually found a place that just happened to be one of their repossessed properties and made an acceptable offer. Everything was in place, so the building society and I just had to wait for Mr B to finish getting the new mortgage in his own name.
We waited for several months. Mr B seemed to be making no progress with his new mortgage, so the branch manager dealing with my case made the decision to proceed with my purchase. However, at this time he did not tell me that, if Mr B did not proceed with his new mortgage, then I would still have a liability towards the old house. In June 1991, the purchase of my new house was complete and I assumed that I was now being seen as a totally separate entity from Mr B.
In September 1991, I received a notice(via Mr B) to attend the County Court, as Mr B had not been keeping his mortgage payments up to date. During the hearing, the judge only spoke to me once - to confirm that I now had a new mortgage with the Bradford and Bingley Building Society. He gave Mr B more time to get his remortgage finalised and a warning that his property would be repossessed if this was not sorted out.
In December 1991, Mr B sent me a key to his house so that I could retrieve the last of my property as the house was due to be repossessed. I found that a fair deal of rubbish had been left behind by Mr B and the house itself smelled fairly awful. I took my belongings and left - the key was posted back though the door as was advised by the building society.
I did not hear anything more about all this until 1996, when a letter arrived at my mother's house addressed to 'Mrs B'. By this time, I had moved away from the area to find work, but - due to negative equity - I still owned my own house. (Incidentally, this lead to other problems as I rented the house out to various tenants - one of whom completely trashed the property in 1996 - but that's another story.) The letter I received stated that, as Mr B's house had been repossessed and sold at a loss, an amount of some £32,000 was outstanding. However, I only needed to pay them £16,000! Believing that there had been some kind of mix-up, I wrote back to the Bradford and Bingley Building Society to remind them of my situation. You can only imagine my horror when they replied that, as Mr B had not completed his remortgage, I was still liable for the loss on his house.
Eventually, when I refused to pay for what I see as my ex-husband's debt, I was taken to court by the Bradford and Bingley Building Society. After 3 court appearances, the last one being early in 2000, the judge ruled that I was liable for the outstanding debt. However, he did state that he had a lot of sympathy for me, and that he thought the situation had become somewhat of a nightmare.
After interest and court charges, the outstanding total is now at around £50,000.
Not surprisingly, I have had several bouts of stress-induced illness over the past 4 years, which has occasionally affected my ability to work. I currently face a lifetime of paying a debt I steadfastly believe is not my responsibility, or of declaring myself bankrupt.
As yet, the Bradford and Bingley Building Society has still not given me a satisfactory answer as to why they allowed me to take out another mortgage, when I was still liable for an existing mortgage with my ex. They only state that they had no duty to tell me of the risk that I was taking. However, my income at the time was only barely enough to cover my new mortgage, and the level of income is what is used to calculate how much people can borrow. If I had been told of the risk instead of being allowed to believe that I was a separate entity from Mr B, I would never have taken out my new mortgage. Also, if I had not been constrained by owning my own house, I might have been able to take over Mr B's house after his departure.
So, what happened to Mr B, you might ask?
After receiving the court papers from the Bradford and Bingley Building Society, I noticed that Mr B had been paying them a certain amount every month after leaving his house. He then seems to have moved and stopped making payments, which may have triggered the Bradford and Bingley Building Society's pursuit of me. However, the Society states that he cannot be traced, despite me finding an address for Mr B a few streets away from his last known location using a product known as 'UK-Info'(see www.192.com). This information was passed to the Bradford and Bingley Building Society(along with the addresses of his parents and brother). No further efforts appear to have been made to contact Mr B.
On my web page, there is a submission form. Please visit www.olias.co.uk/bbbs.shtml if you would care to leave a comment for the Bradford and Bingley! Thank you very much. I don't think that there is much that can be done at this late stage, but I believe that the B&B need to learn that they cannot treat people so badly.
Best wishes to you all,
Catherine.