Hi, I help to co-ordinate the Mortgage Shortfall Support Group (which incorporates the Abbey National Action Group). I started a thread a couple of months back, called 'Who wants to help publicise the mortgage shortafll nightmare?'. Well, plenty of you did, and to date we have (since only late July) formed a support&campaign group and we have had articles in: The Guardian; Private Eye; mrscohen.com [respected financial web site]; and we have helped to start the 'Call Off The Mortgage Hounds' campaign in the Mail on Sunday. Future articles in these and other publications are anticipated. (The Mail on Sunday have had sack-loads of letters from victims, and will be following up for as long as it takes.) Group members have been interviewed by local, regional and national newspapers, and by BBC TV. This is a campaign that is gathering momentum by the day, and if any of you out there would like to join our support group, and/or talk to a journalist, then please contact me. We can and must fight these avaricious, intrusive and unscrupulous lenders. My partner and I both work for low wages in the public sector (education and NHS) so I feel that we've already paid our dues and that we and our small children don't deserve to be destroyed by some spurious, massive debt claim from a negligent lender. I have been surprised by just how shocked and sympathetic even hardened journalists have been when it comes to tales of mortgage shortfall 'debt' and lenders' tactics (not least the threatening-letter-conveyor-belt antics of their various solicitors); basically, there is a great deal more to be gained by telling our stories and highlighting all the common abuses. Good luck, and let's all stick together. Eleanor Scott.

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), October 03, 2000

Answers

Can I just say first the information I have recieved from this web site has been amazing, I have found out things even the solicitor did not tell us, anyway at the moment my husband is being chased for a shortfall payment of #8000 for a property he owned with his first wife who has had the property repossed. We were totally unaware of the situation and this had been going on for two years, the building society (Halifax) had an address for my husband and never let him know the situation until we had a phone call from my husbands ex-wife asking us to store the childrens things ( and we ended up having the childrens who are still with us 13 months on and are staying with us). The Halifax have been able to find my husband now they are looking for the money, we have had letters from solicitors even asking for my husbands bank details and also the registration number of his car. We have just served a Data Sujbect Access Notice on the Halifax (paid by postal order and not a cheque) and are awaiting a reply. A rep. of the Halifax told us when we went to try and sort this out that the mortgage had been extended to 31 years, but when we queried this with the head office they denied it as well as other things, they have also been reluctant to show us total breakdowns of any invoices for the sale of the property which was sold for 26000 and has just gone back on the market and resold for 46000. We want answers to our questions and one way or another we will get them.

Fight on

-- christine singleton (singletons@fsmail.net), October 03, 2000.

If you object as strongly as I do to Abbey Nationals advertising slogans on TV, The Worry Free Bank, The Stress Free Bank, and, Because Life is Complicated Enough, then please send a complaint to the ITC objecting to the offensive nature of these advertising slogans.

I will be providing suitable ITC complaint forms at the Abbey National Pressure Group meeting in November. Or, you can contact me by email and I will send you an ITC complaint form by return. Or, you can log onto the ITC web site and make a complaint yourself.

When complaining to the ITC make sure that you get each member of your household, and anybody else, who also shares your disgust of Abbey National to make a completely separate complaint, do not all sign the one complaint form as this will be considered as a single complaint by the ITC.

Make a new complaint every month specifying the date, time and channel that Abbey National advertising has offended you.

If you suffer stress and distress because of the Abbey National advertising then state this on the complaint form.

The complaint form I provide states that Abbey National are top of the Home-Repo Web page straw poll as the lender that is most likely to cause distress. It is offensive and distressing that this lender therefore uses, Worry Free & Stress Free, slogans in its TV advertising.

-- Michael (michael_zena@hotmail.com), October 08, 2000.

And, if you find the newspaper adverts for Abbey which claim that they practice 'fair banking' offensive and cause you stress, you might like to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. (Ads of this nature were carried, eg, by The Guardian 14.10.00 p 2, Mail on Sunday 15.10.00 p 6, and The Observer 15.10.00 p 16; all in the main sections.) You can contact them at: www.asa.org.uk/ Eleanor Scott.

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), October 15, 2000.

please advise me how i help i have a story re : abbey nat/hmc/davis&co

-- danny hague (dannyhague@aol.com), February 02, 2002.