With respect, Lee, I put up as much of a fight as I could. Unfortunately, I had none of the excellent info on this site to help me.(posted 8498 days ago)Here's a timeline of events:
March 1990: bought house(17FBC) with husband.
October 1990: marriage disintegrates. Husband decides that he wants 17FBC and will remortgage in his own name. I decide to stay in the house until it is all finalised.
December 1990: husband makes life unbearable. I move out.
January 1991: I start looking for a house of my own. Approach B&B, who make agreeable noises. Find a house(14MPR) that I like and make an offer. It is one of the B&B's repossessed properties and they accept my offer. Wait for husband to get his own mortgage on 17FBC.
April 1991: Divorce finalised.
June 1991 : Still waiting for ex to remortgage. The branch manager of the B&B in Dover decides to go ahead with the mortgage on 14MPR. Does not tell me that I am still liable for the mortgage on 17FBC, so I assume that I am now seen as a separate entity by the B&B.
September 1991: Ex drops off court papers round my house as he hasn't been keeping his mortgage up to date. I attend the repossession hearing where the judge gives my ex more time to remortgage as his letters to his new mortgage company keep getting 'lost in the post'. The judge only asks me if the B&B have given me a new mortgage. That's it!
December 1991: Ex drops off key to 17FBC to my mum so that I can pick up the last of my gear. House stinks and is in a right state. I ask the B&B what to do about the key and they tell me to post it back through the letterbox of 17FBC. I assume my part in this is at an end.
Early 1992: 17FBC is repossessed. Not sure when it is sold on as all the papers are in storage at the mo.
September 1996: I get a letter from the B&B(addressed to me in my old married name and at my mum's house) inviting me to repay a shortfall of £32,000, although I only needed to pay them £16,000.
From that point up until March 2000(the final court case) I attempted to defend myself on the grounds that I was not told I was still liable for 17FBC after the purchase of 14MPR. Basically, the B&B tied my hands because I could not bail-out 17FBC due to my new commitment to them! Also, the manager dealing with the new mortgage on 14MPR knew everything about my situation: however, my income multiples barely covered 14MPR and certainly couldn't stretch to cover the payments on 17FBC!!
The B&B has stated that it 'couldn't find' my ex-husband. I found him within 2 hours on a CD-ROM called 'UK Info' and gave them the info - along with the addresses of his brothers and parents! I also discovered from the court papers that they had found him some years ago and he had actually been making monthly payments towards the 'shortfall' on 17FBC. These payments ceased when he 'disappeared'.
Believe me, I would have done things a lot differently had I had all this info on this site!