Ref our difference of opinion: s20 LA (actions to recover money secured by a mortgage etc). "no action shall be brought after the expiration of 12 yrs from the date on which the RIGHT TO RECEIVE THE MONEY accrued".(posted 7974 days ago)The right to receive money is the date of contractual default - a mortgage is a contact under seal (in most cases) but the primary law on contract applies in concert with the Limitation Act and specialty debt status as defined.
The point being that with the six year voluntary code, sec 20 is easily invoked and it sits with the staying of all "new" actions not brought before the Courts before the 2000 deadline. i.e. if they have no MJO before then,on new cases where there has been no contact, they are screwed. A barrister friend of mine (who checks my research as a favour, this is not done officially, I can't afford him) told me that this deadline was put in place because of the amount of "frivolous" claims by Lenders....the situation in his opinion was also exacerbated by the CAB and solicitors putting up little or no defence in repo cases and the judges unwillingness to question the big boys. He admits that the assumption is that the Lenders are right in most cases and that since there are now serious doubts, highlighted by bad publicity, the EDM and this great site, to avoid lengthy and costly cases (which the taxpayer will end up funding) they tried to "plug the hole" with the 2000 limit and the 6 year voluntary code. Knowing the Building Societies did not want to risk an unfavourable ruling on the 6/12 year issue, (ref Holmans case) it was a half way house before cases came to Cof A. A damage limitation exercise if you like. Doesn't help people like me of course, who were badly advised by the local CAB and a dodgy solicitor they told me to see after repossession, when I got hit with a shortfall letter they promised me I would never get. Mine was a voluntary repo, advised by the Lender.The CAB agreed it was the best course of action and told me do what they said. This poor advice has messed my life up totally for over a decade. I had to leave my job because they were hassling me there and eventually I just took my kids and left the country. There are plenty of previous threads (about this time last year I think) where we went through the specialty limitation thing from top to bottom - I can find them for you when I have time so that you can see where and how we got to where we did. Granted other people who read this thread may also have not bothered to go back and check or read other parts of the site. For that I regret not being as specific as I should have been. If you can suggest the wording to define exactly under what circumstances an extension can be granted (i.e after a judgement has been made, because "action" to recover is not simply the first shortfall letter is it?)I will happily post up a clarification. You have to concede that extending the limitation indefinitely would make the legal system dealing with debt actions grind to a halt. There would be no need for any Limitation Act at all then would there? Everything has a statute of limitations in the end, specialty debts are no different. I cannot give you what you want in terms of a written decision/authority because my case is probably going to go through the Courts if they find me again. If they do push it that far at this stage in the game, still with no MJO in place, I will go public and let it be used as a test case by anyone who wants it. I have nothing more to lose. No doubt you will get the written judgement on this when they finally bankrupt me. The irony is that I am sure the MIG portion is now statute barred and it represents over half of the alleged shortfall. The balance is interest on interest which would not be there had they not vastly undersold my place. The arrears were less than 700 quid by the time I handed the keys back, but they wanted it all in one go or nothing. So yes, it's a big point of principle to me and I will fight it to the end. Giving people misleading advice would never be my intention; it's simply easy to forget that not everyone has been following this site and the shortfall issue for as long as I have when I reply to worrying posts.