1st letter from Halifax demanding shortfall, need help!!!!!

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We were repossessed 3 yrs ago and heard nothing from The Halifax until 2 days ago when we got a letter requesting an outstanding amount of £33,448.00. My partner was angry and phoned the woman, who's name was on the letter and told her that they had put us through hell and almost broke up our family, he also told her that he wasn't going to pay a penny. We recieved another letter this morning saying that they will not pursue us at this time, but that they will be keeping us on record and will pursue in the future and maybe without the terms of this request, i.e reasonable amount. They also say that they may request the FULL AMOUNT ( IN BOLD BLOCK CAPITALS!) and that it would be in our best interest to settle as soon as possible. I realise that they are trying scare tactics but I would appreciate it if you could tell me what the 1st step is for me?

From what I have read am I right to think that I have to write to them asking for all documentation to prove their claim and do I word it like that or ask for specific documents, if so which ones?

Thank you Juliette Turner

-- Juliette Turner (Juliette.Turner@btinternet.com), May 04, 2001

Answers

Juliette: could you give a little more info? By email if you would prefer, but there are some great people on this site who have had dealings with the Halifax and can best advise you. The shortfall is quite high - was it a negative equity situation or arrears, or both? Did you have a MIG policy? If so, how old was it? The Halifax appear to be treading carefully but they won't go away. If you have already been through hell to end up in this situation (as most of us here have) then if you *can* settle I would, just to be able to get on with your lives. If there is another party involved (i.e. an ex) then obviously it's more complicated. The Lenders have a very long time to make your lives a misery otherwise, and a lot of them do. Your first step *is* to get them to evidence the claim; follow the directions on this site and I wish you the best of luck.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), May 04, 2001.

We had arrears and also negative equity although I can't say how much exactly. Our original mortgage loan was for £78,000 and we were told that they sold the house for £72,000,(we only found out about the sale of the house 2 days ago when my partner phoned up) I reckon that we must have paid about £60,000 over the 10 yrs that we had the house,I know they don't take this into consideration as it is just interest, but they should. We always kept the Halifax up to date with our financial situation and asked them for help on many occasions, for example "did they have a special scheme to help out people like us who's mortgage was getting out of hand" we were told that we weren't in a bad enough situation, then a couple of years later they repossessed us! Before they repossessed us we were submitted to 3 monthly ritual humiliation sessions, where we would have to tell them all of our incomings and outgoings and they would tell us things like, we could only spend £5 a month on treats for the kids. After we were repossessed we had to live in a homeless hostel whilst we waited for a council place, although this was a terrifying prospect at the time we were so relieved to be rid of the house. It wasn't so bad in the hostel, I don't want to scare anyone who is going through repo at the moment.

One more thing, at the beginning we had an endowment policy, after a couple of years we were asked if we wanted an endowment holiday? we asked what that meant and they said that we didn't have to pay our endowment for a year and then when the year was up we would resume paying it monthly, our endowment was £100 a month, well after the year was up they asked us for a lump sum of - yes you guessed it £1200 so where was the holiday? We couldn't afford to pay this as we hadn't just been storing the money under the matress! We were forced into surrendering our endowment policy to pay for this debt and we had to then change to a repayment mortgage! How many others fell for this scam? We had no paper work to show for this agreement, it was all verbal!

-- Juliette Turner (Juliette.Turner@btinternet.com), May 04, 2001.


Yes we had a MIG, we bought the house in April 1989 and were repossessed in June 1998.

-- Juliette Turner (Juliette.Turner@btinternet.com), May 04, 2001.

Given that there appears to be only a £6,000 shortfall on the actual sale of the property (£78,000 owing - £72,000 achieved = £6k o/st), I would be fascinated to see the Halifax arithmetic as to how this grew to £33,448 in three years ? Appears worthy of a further nomination for the Nobel Prize for Fiction ?

-- Vic Harper (victorcharper@aol.com), May 04, 2001.

I will be writing to them to ask for documentation to substantiate their claim against me.

Is this the best 1st step in the process or do I issue a SARN straight away, I am confused because I have read advice which says that I shouldn't let them know that I know too much, but to act a bit innocent?

-- Juliette Turner (Juliette.Turner@btinternet.com), May 04, 2001.



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