I have just received a letter from Solicitors (Eversheds in Cardiff) saying that I owe their client over #40K. I had a Mortgage with Nationwide and in 1990 I returned the keys to them following financial dificulties. I was informed the house was sold several years later (1995 I think). I know for a fact that they did nothing about the house for two years, because in 1992 they tried to repossess my wifes house thinking it was mine. Subsequent contact with them resulted in them discovering they had lost all the paperwork in a transfer of documents. This meant the house was never put on the market until at least 1992. We have never received any demands for money from the Nationwide until this week. Even when they told us the house had been sold it was not suggested we were responsible for the shortfall. The recent letter does not say who is chasing the debt. What should we do?

-- Tony Bishop (tony.bishop@lineone.net), June 06, 1999

Answers

Hi there Tony,

You say: "The recent letter does not say who is chasing the debt." Write back and ask them who is. Say nothing else at this stage. In the meantime, read the Do's and Don'ts section of the Home Repossession Page carefully and serve a Data Protection Act subject Access Rights notice on the Nationwide.

Contact me (rather than publicly) at the above email address when you have responses to these two actions.

We can look at what to do next when we have those results. Lee

-- Lee (repossession@bigfoot.com), June 06, 1999.