Nationwide BS & MIGs (urgent)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Repossession : One Thread

Hello all, I've just found this site today and there's so much valuable information ....

I have a friend ( she has no internet access) who bought a flat witha boyfriend around 1990 . I have to simplify the story but the relationship foundered, ex disappeared , She warned Nationwide that she was in trouble but was passed from pillar to post for ages. Flat went in to -ve equity . She tried to sell but the flat above her was 'maintained' by an estate agent. Their water pipe burstand the ceiling of her flat collapsed . All this made her ill so she left the flat ( is this voluntary repossession ?) in 1996. Before she left (after accident) she had the place valued (£44K). Nationwide ultimately sold it for £18k.

Since then she has rented but recently managed to get a loan on a flat in the name of family members ( she pays them) . However one of them has died ( loan not covered by life insurance) and she wanted to take over their share in her name.

She was told by Chelteham & Gloucester that she was blacklisted by the Mortgage indemnity people for the rest of her life and that C&G would not give her a mortgage for the rest of her life.

Now she will need to get this sorted urgently. These are my questions:

1) Is it true thatthe 6year rule only refers to the lender beginning recovery action, irrespective of the resale of the property .

Therefore if the NBS wrote to my friend at her old address for instance and she never acknowledged it , the 6year ruling goes out of the window?

2) One idea we had was to get the name of the Mortgage Indemnity people and sort it out with them. So I asked Nationwide BS who they were (I have a mortgage with them since early 90s) and was told that they have stopped MIGs - including on my mortgage. I asked about what they did about people in repossessed in the past and they said that they will chase them thro' other means ( but vague & I did not want to give anything away).

3)Does this mean that there is no MIG on my friend ? I am certain that the BS will have recovered the money from the MIG at that time -but how can we prove it? Ideally we want to havethe MI people to clear her record. How can we find out who they are without admitting liability?

4) isthere a law about the the BS selling the flat at such a low price?

5)I haven't read much on this site yet but I can see we're about to start a long bloody battle . Where , in your wisdom do we start?

Sorry for long mail - thanks in anticipation

Elvie ( thks D for letting me use your email addr)

-- Elvira (denise.oswald@philips.com), February 15, 2002

Answers

Hello,

Regarding your query re. the sale price of re-po'd properties - there is a requirement in the Bldg. Society Act of 1986 which is that the B.Soc must 'obtain the best price reasonably available'. That price will be governed by the state of the market - either bouyant or depressed - as the case may be.

I.M.H.O......... If the market is bouyant it would be reasonable to expect the lender to market the property in a fair and effective manner, resulting in more than one offer in order for the 'best price' to be achieved. The best of only one offer is not possible. If they have not marketed the property efficiently and fairly,if at all, it would be reasonable to assume that 'best price' has not been obtained and that they have therefore not complied with the requirements of the Act.

In a depressed market the 'best price' may only be the best of a bad job, so to speak.

I would suggest that you go to REPOSSESSION on this site and read all the contents - there's a lot of valuable info. there.

With regard to obtaining a mortgage I will e-mail you privately with details of a contact point for those who have 'adverse credit' problems. I don't want to put this up on the site simply because I don't want it to be construed as advertising.

Good luck.

-- Joy Harker (fightingback@harker.go-plus.net), February 15, 2002.


Tracing the MIG won't instantly "clear" your friend's name, as lenders claim to have a right of subrogation - they can chase the borrower for the amount paid out by the insurers under the MIG, in order to reimburse the insurer. However, it has been suggested that MIGs dated prior to 1993 are in fact worded so ambiguously that this supposed right of subrogation may not be defensible. If this is the case, then the lender cannot chase your friend for money paid out under a MIG policy. So it's definitely worth trying to get a copy of the policy documents. Unfortunately, lenders know they are on dodgy legal ground, so will fight tooth and nail to avoid letting you see it. Good luck

-- Melody (mbc109@york.ac.uk), February 19, 2002.

What does the term 'right of subrogation' mean? I have had this stated on a couple of my letters and didn't understand it.

Thanks

-- Jessie (jessie01@talk21.com), February 19, 2002.


As far as I understand it, subrogation is from the Latin sub- meaning under, and rogare meaning ask for/request. So the lender is claiming that they have a right to ask for money under the authority of somebody else (the insurer).

-- Melody (mbc109@york.ac.uk), February 20, 2002.

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