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.(posted 8116 days ago)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