My house in Edinburgh was repossesed in 1993, i received letters from eversheds about the shortfall in 1997, i spoke to them on the `phone but never aknowledged the debt. i`ve since moved house and haven`t heard from them since, apart from a letter sent to my work warning me that the courts wouldn`t look kindly on me for ignoring their letters. that was in 1998 and i`ve heard nothing since even though i now have a mortgage and credit cards. anyway does anybody know if the law regarding mortgage shortfall debt is the same in Scotland as it is in England regarding the lenght of time they can chase you to repay it. cheers.

-- rachel ward (veemw@aol.com), November 10, 2002

Answers

Rachel,

The law is different in Scotland, in England it is covered by the 'Limitation Act 1980' and in Scotland by 'The Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1984'. I did try to get more info on this at one time by contacting Scottish CAB centres/Scottish solicitors & the Scottish Law Commission but just ended up running round in circles getting nowhere. You might like to look at http://www.boltoncab.co.uk/factfiles/limitation.htm which gives some info on Scottish time limits. You could also try 'Scottish Law Online'. I think the best thing for you though would be to contact a Scottish solicitor. I hope you have better luck than I did, please let us know what you find out so that others can benefit.

-- M Amos (idgroms@hotmail.com), November 10, 2002.

Rachel,

Take a look too at this article on amendments to Scottish Law by a firm of Scottish debt recovery lawyers: http://www.legal500.com/devs/scotland/dt/scdt_035.htm

-- M Amos (idgroms@hotmail.com), November 10, 2002.