A friend's relationship broke up and she left the home on which she had a joint mortgage with her partner. Five years later as she was trying through a solicitor to get her name off the mortgage, her ex partner stopped paying the mortgage without telling her and the lender UCB (part of Nationwide), went for repossession after just three missed payments.The lender claimed it could not find either partner, even though my friend had just moved back to her previous address and had been there for the whole five years. The lender continually sent letters to an address my friend had never lived at even after being contacted by her. In September '98 when the mortgage was only one month in arrears my friend contacted UCB and asked for a settlement breakdown and still she was not informed there was a problem. UCB applied to court in November '98 and the court papers say that only three payments were missed. Is this legal?

-- Keith Whyld (Keith@whyld.freeserve.co.uk), June 13, 1999

Answers

Its legal for them to claim anything they want. A civil dispute  which is what were talking about here  isnt about whats legal; its about what is fair. In your friends case, if she attempted to keep them informed of her address so that she could pay any missed payments and ensure things were in order, then any repossession that resulted from them not keeping their records up to date looks like the lenders fault (you dont say whether the property was repossessed or not).

If your friend can prove she made every effort to keep them informed and the payments all paid up, or is able to pay to prevent possession, it would be difficult for a judge to find against her or grant possession to UCB (though not impossible). Being able to prove what you have done is crucial, absolutely crucial, which is why I stress in the Dos and Donts section that you must file everything and keep it.

Incidentally, UCB is a specialist lender and they tend to have much tighter missed payment procedures than conventional lenders (as well as higher charges). UCB does usually try to repossess after three months of payments are missed and, of all the lenders Ive come across, is the only lender that has made a contributor to this page bankrupt.

This is all the more reason why your friend should go to court and speak for herself.

Hope this helps.

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@bigfoot.com), June 14, 1999.

Yes they can if you are two months in arrears or you have broken one of the terms of your mortgage. Most lenders wait until you are at least 6 months arrears.

-- Sue Edwards (sue.edwards@nacab.org.uk), June 21, 1999.