I left my violent & adultorous husband in 1994 & moved into a bedsit. I notified the Alliance & Leic BS about the situation, but their response was understandably that we were both still jointly liable for the mortgage. Meanwhile my husband moved out of the house & got tenants into the house as sole landlord. I didn't mind as long as he used the £480 @ month rent to pay the mortgage. He didnt! He kept it all. This went on for several months. Meanwhile I found out that the tenants were on housing benefit & the DSS were actually sending the cheque to him. I contacted the DSS & managed eventually to stop the cheques going to him & had them going to the tenants directly. I them would meet up with the tenant & together we would go and pay the mortgage. I managed to keep this going for a while, but then my divorce came through and the threats started. I had to get away so I moved. Then the now EX husband moved his mistress into our house & didnt pay the mortgage for a year. What could I do? I had notified the mortgage company of all what was going on, but all they would say is that I was jointly liable.

So I tried to escape. I have moved away & got a new life. I have never defaulted on any payments since & have had no contact with the Building Society either. What surprises me is.....I still work for the same company now that I did when I had the mortgage. So I would have thought I would be easy to trace. But I have heard nothing. As far as I know the house was repossessed & sold in 1995.

I am now in a position to buy another house in my name only & have a mortgage arranged, and they have accepted my offer. But I am so scared that I will settle into my new home & then the Alliance & Leic will suddenly turn up and get me.

Please advise me someone

sandi

-- Sandy Lewis (sandilou69@hotmail.com), April 16, 2002

Answers

Yes, they can "take" your house in the sense that they could go through the process of suing you and - if they were successful - they could put a charge on the house.

That scenario relies on you not successfully resisting their attempts to sue you though.

But... there are two other issues to take into account when you think about buying a house:

1. Neither I nor anyone I know can think of a reason why anyone should be buying a house right now. The market is looking like it is going to burst.

2. Applying for a mortgage is the same as applying for any other form of credit in that it will scatter details of how much you earn and what you spend in MCL Software's databases, possibly Experian and Equifax's databases. Scattering that kind of income and expenditure information around is a bad thing for anyone who is facing a shortfall claim because it could make that information available to others in certain circumstances.

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@home-repo.org), April 16, 2002.

Well, by "not successfully resisting their attempts to sue" I meant that they may or may not take you to court for the alleged shortfall. Most people resist without being taken to court. Some do get taken to court. The rest of this site deals with how to use your rights to resist if you do not mind the risk of being taken to court.

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@home-repo.org), April 16, 2002.

Thanks for the response I don't understand the bit about "not sucessfully resisting their attempts to sue" tho. Could you explain further?

I also understand the concern about the housing market too, but the house I have put in an offer for is a bit of a "spec" house & the mortgage would be cheaper than the rent I pay now. I also feel that I need to get back on the housing ladder.

-- Sandy Lewis (sandilou69@hotmail.com), April 16, 2002.