Response to Anyone had success with 12 year rule?

It depends what you mean by "used" successfully. When we were playing out our endgame with Citibank last year I made it very clear that I had discovered the 12 years were up according to the terms and conditions of the mortgage which they finally sent me after my third request. I am confident this was one of the deciding factors in their deciding to accept a ?2k ex gratia payment from us in full and final. However I am not aware of any case where it has been used successfully in the courts. As I am sure you are aware, it pays to go through the T&C of your mortgage contract with a fine toothcomb so you can be absolutely sure of the date the lender would consider the mortgage in default. I was surprised that my contract, while it left default in the case of missed/under- payments largely to the discretion of the lender (after 3 months the lender "may" choose to recall the debt in its entirety, or words to that effect), was absolutely precise regarding defaults arising through failure to pay the life insurance premiums associated with the endowment policy - in that case after 3 months the lender "will" recall the entire debt; there was no discretion. Because of this wording we were able to be 100% sure of the date on which our default began. If your contract only has definitions of default conditions that have a discretionary element, it may be very hard to identify the exact date the debt accrued (unless you are good enough to have kept all the letters from that period). Sorry if this is too wordy, but I hope it is helpful.

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