Hi(posted 7846 days ago)I wonder if anybody can help with what appears to be a desperate situation, “I know this is going to quiet a long winded affair but I’d like to explain the situation from the start”. I’m writing on behalf of my partner and the current situation she is going through. Some four years ago her previous partner walked out of there home which they jointly owned. She intern went to stay at her parent’s house until he moved out about a month later. He cancelled his direct debit mandate paying the mortgage and removed all of the belongings from the house whilst she was at her parents, totally stripping it in the process.” He actually removed a downstairs wall leaving a huge hole in the ceiling and the entrance hall floor, was now three levels” She then returned with there young son after he had left. The first my partner new of the direct debit being cancelled was when the bank got in touch with her about payments. He also placed the property on the market without saying a thing to her, suddenly one day unannounced the estate agent opened the front door with a couple who were interested in the property. The estate agent was asked kindly to leave and to hand the keys back at which point he refused saying he had been instructed by her ex to sell the property. She reminded him of the fact that she was also the owner and would be taking the property of the market, which the estate agent reluctantly agreed to.
In the meantime my partner started the legal process of having his name removed from the mortgage, she consulted with a solicitor and they intern pursued this action as well trying to claim back the proceeds of half the property he took from the house, Unfortunately her ex, by now had left the country and moved to Germany. Nobody knew about this and they tried all avenues to locate and serve the papers on him. From what I understand they have to pursue all avenues of trying to locate him before taking the case to court and with this failing they were ready to commence the court process. Then suddenly out of the blue some two years later she received a letter from a trustee in bankruptcy M H Abdulali working for PKF informing her that he had been declared bankrupt in Stoke on Trent county court and that trustee now held half of the equity in the property. She intern took this letter to her solicitors and they started to deal with it, the trustee requested she have a valuation done on the property to determine what equity was held within the property, which was done, she had three valuations done and they came back at between £24,000 and £26,000. With the outstanding mortgage of £20,000 this left a maximum of £6,000 equity. She then consulted with her solicitor and agreed that they make an offer of £2,000 to purchase his half of the property. The trustee turned this down in the first instance and said he wasn’t happy with the valuations carried out. “He wanted another valuation” doing by the people who originally had the house on the market. My partner reluctantly agreed to this, the valuer then came out to value the property; it was the same guy who tried to sell the property for her ex at the beginning of this saga. Terry Oxley from Whitegates placed a value of £36,950 on the property way above the current market value at the time. “Maybe revenge as he knew what the valuation was for and it would be his chance to get back at her for pulling the property sale from under his nose”
The Trustee then wrote back and said he wouldn’t accept anything less than £6,500 which my partner and her solicitor agreed was way to much. The ball went back and forwards for some time and eventually it was agreed with the trustee’s colleague that they would meet more or less in the middle. My partner consulted with her solicitor and made an offer of around about the £4’000 mark. Which Paul Booth the trustee’s colleague was happy with. All of a sudden everything went quiet and she didn’t here a thing for some time. “Two years to be precise”
She then made an offer of £4,000 to the trustee a couple of months ago after being in the position to arrange a remortgage on the house so she could raise the funds; he or his colleague then subsequently turned this down and requested another valuation. She said she had already agreed with a colleague of the trustee about the £4000,00 offer and had arranged a remortgage on this proviso. She was then told the colleague no longer worked for the company and the deal no longer stood. She sent her valuation in which was done by a chartered surveyor for the mortgage company, he valued it at £36,000 by which time the mortgage had gone down to £19,000 leaving equity of £17,000. We once again offered £4,000 for the purchase of the equity. We came to this figure by splitting the equity in half which left £8,500 minus what my partner has been paying on the mortgage for the last 55 months at £134,00, this works out to £7370,00 divided by 2 which is £3685,00. We then took the figure off the equity and deducted the £3685,00 from the £8,500 leaving £4815,00. Not including any maintenance or repairs to the property which was left in a horrendous condition when her ex partner left. I personally had a new bathroom suit fitted which involved major internal work, a new double glazed front door fitted, refitted the kitchen and had a new floor put down in the entrance lobby.
She was then told by a colleague of the trustee Howard Jones dealing with our case that they had two weeks previously been given a valuation for £55,000, from the same guy who yes, tried to sell the house and who had valued it previously. She pushed the fact that nobody had been in the house to value it other than the valuer she had in previously on her behalf, where at which point the colleague of the trustee said “quote” he did a drive by valuation “unquote” She lives in a corner terrace and the only thing viewable from the road is the front door. She was not happy about this to say the least as now they demanded £18,000. She complained to her solicitor who intern complained to the trustee or rather his colleague arguing the fact that how could someone value a property when he hadn’t been inside it. The trustee’s colleague then said “quote” he was in it a few years ago, so the valuer should know what it’s like” “unquote” in the meantime the house had major work done on it at my expense and had completely changed within those two years.
The colleague of the trustee then said his valuation stood, She asked for a copy of his valuation through her solicitor and he asked for a copy of here valuation which was sent off as soon as it was requested. She also argued the fact that the guy who gave them the valuation was not a chartered surveyor but a sale’s man from the estate agents and was not qualified to value the property. She then contacted the valuer and he confirmed he was not a chartered surveyor. To date she is still waiting for his copy of the valuation.
She was then asked all of a sudden by the trustee to have a joint valuation done by a chartered surveyor for some reason, which she has had done. This came back at £44,000. Minus the £19,000 owing on the mortgage, leaving equity of £25,000. At which point she has now offered £7500,00 in full and final settlement. The trustee has declined this offer and is now demanding payment of £12,504,00 exactly half the equity within 28 days or he will commence possession proceedings, he has also stated that they will market the property with the guy who has been giving them all these high valuations.
He hasn’t taken into account the fact that she has been paying the mortgage for the last 55 months and should be due half of her payments back for this, nor has he taken into account the work done to the property in the meantime. The new front door, bathroom suit, kitchen and lobby floor.
She is now at the end of her tether and is contemplating stopping payments and foreclosing on the mortgage. I have spoken to the trustee’s colleague about what she should be due back, apparently they use some sort of scale to work out what is due back for the mortgage payments she has made. Does anybody know what this scale is..????
Do I have any claim to the money I have invested in the house, and if so can I remove my property….?????
Can we claim back from the trustee the £1000,00 we are going to loose by cancelling the new remortgage, which was set up on the proviso that an agreement had already been reached previously…???
Can the trustee be prosecuted for making a fraudulent claim that, he had a valuation for £55,000 on the property when in fact he didn’t. This would have driven the price up and would have directly benefited his company if it wasn’t questioned by her and the sale proceeded. She is still waiting for this valuation to be sent back although we know it doesn’t exist….??????
I know this is a long posting and if anybody is still awake after reading this any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Jonathan Vincent on behalf of Trudi Wildish.