----< Shortfall claim lenders back off over money orders? >-------
National Association of Mortgage Victims head Carol Riley reports that lawyers are backing off when she asks them to prove that their lender obtained a money order judgement against repossessed customers.

A money judgement is a court judgement that a borrower owes the shortfall amount remaining after lenders sold their repossessed property. Lenders are supposed to seek such a judgement from the courts shortly after they repossess.

Although - in our opinion - the law relating to money order judgements is unclear, Riley claims that lenders are making a "commercial decision" not to sue borrowers who insist on seeing a money order judgement.

"In the majority of cases the judges in late 80's early 90's refused money judgments on the basis that the lender had the bricks and mortar," says Riley. "Such refusal means that they have to return to court within one year of selling the property in order to issue a summons for the shortfall."

And, of course, few did. So the threatening letters your receive are quite possibly groundless. And, if Riley is right, it goes further than that.

"We say they are therefore in contempt by purporting to have a court order when they don't," Riley says. "I ask for copies of various orders etc. They continue to threaten, pretending that they have not heard from us and so the haunting continues. I now intend to report all these lawyer debt collectors to the OSS."

The Home Repossession Page suggests that anyone who is receiving shortfall claim "attention" from a lender or its lawyer should contact the National Association of Mortgage Victims and see if they can help. Their number is in the Who Helps? section of the Home Repossession Page.

We would add two points:

Does this mean that those customers who have agreed to make shortfall payments can now challenge them?

Secondly, lenders often seem not to receive letters that put them on the spot. We have documented an example of it in the Repossession section of the site in the series of shortfall claim letters from the Bradford & Bingley's Gary Flynn.

So often does this happen when customers send letters that force the lender to reply with a non-standard letter, that we think it is reasonable to assume that lenders are resorting to pretending they have lost them.

This is, of course, good news for the customer. If your lender claims it has not received your letter, you should feel reassured. And you should resend it recorded delivery. In fact, all your correspondence over lender problems should be sent recorded delivery.

----< Servicemen beware lenders/lenders' lawyers >----
Riley also warns that lenders' lawyers are trying to intimidate service personnel that they are chasing for debts.

Lenders/lenders' lawyers are writing to the service personnel's commanding officer and telling them that the person concerned has been ignoring the lenders' letters and/or ignoring the debt.

According to Riley, they've been doing this when the National Association of Mortgage Victims has taken on negotiations over the shortfall or debt.

"This causes 'trouble' for the borrower," she says. "I have had to write for several people to assure the commanding officer that correspondence has not been ignored and that we have been instructed to deal with the claim which we consider to be legally dubious."

Riley thinks such lenders or their lawyers are breaking data protection laws by releasing this information. We think they are probably setting themselves up for libel if the information they are giving these people's commanding officers is untrue.

Another reason you should always send responses to these people by recorded delivery.

If this has happened to you, we want to know.

----< MPs call for six-year rule to be made law >----
And that's just one of the changes they want. A band of MPs have signed an Early Day Motion to improve the rights of repossesses. Details of the motion - and the names of the MPs calling for it are available at:
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=844

The only paper we know of that reported this was the Express.

Early Day Motions don't usually become law, unfortunately, but at least you know there are some people on your side (and who to vote for if you were wavering).

----< MPs censure Simplicity Mortgages >-------------
Ten MPs have also called for Simplicity Mortgages to compensate Joan Ibbitson. Simplicity Mortgages Ltd (formerly Springdale Mortgage Corporation Ltd) refused to stick to its agreement with her, claim the MPs in and Early Day Motion. Now it should apologise for the trauma it caused her and pay her compensation, say the MPs.
Simplicity Mortgages are based in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Details of what the MPs think Simplicity has done wrong are at:
http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=815

----< Couple fight Lloyds TSB >------------------------
A couple claimed a Lloyds TSB bank manager misled them. They sued Lloyds. The hearing began early this month and the outcome is expected this week. Homeowner Eddy Weatherill is fighting Lloyds TSB's 12-man legal team on his own. He can't even afford to buy the £750/day transcripts of what was said in court.

The Telegraph briefly reported the case at:
http://www.lineone.net/telegraph/2000/07/05/news/m_37.html and
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003206907809489&rtmo=gwlgr7Zu&atmo=FFFFFFFX&pg=/et/00/7/5/nbank05.html

The Express is fast proving to have some of the better financial coverage. We recommend its coverage of the story at:
http://www.lineone.net/express/00/07/04/features/fcolcomment2-d.html

The case is thought to be the first of its kind to go to court. The customer - Eddy Weatherill - set up the Independent Banking Advisory Service (IBAS) as a result of his experience with Lloyds TSB.

His site contains a wealth of information about Lloyds customer issues and is well worth reading. It is at:
http://www.ibas.co.uk/

----< Problem with Nationwide? >-----------------------
Kieron Maughan has. And he's publicised it on his own web-site. This one is worth a visit if you have been left with a bill - or indeed, an unsaleable property - when you thought the lender's mortgage survey was supposed to find major defects.

It's also worth visiting if you planned to do business with Nationwide. It'll give you an unpleasant taste of one customer's experience with Nationwide's handling of customer disputes. His site is at:
http://www.nationwidecomplaints.co.uk/

----< Endowment mortgage customers to take legal action >-
Mrscohen is reporting that a thousand mortgage customers are planning to sue Abbey Life, Eagle Star, Legal & General and Norwich Union. Why? Because they've begun to realise just how much they may have been, er... misled. That story is at:
http://www.mrscohen.com/campaigns/default.asp?section=0&vid=14084&fst=&page=1

Mrscohen is also carrying an earlier story on the changing prospects for unhappy homeowners at:
http://www.mrscohen.com/campaignsendowment/default.asp?section=5&vid=12760&fst=&page=1

----< New mortgage news service >-----------------------
If you want to know what is happening to mortgage customers, to lenders, to property prices or to interest rates, visit the most comprehensive links to just-published mortgage stories on the web. It's available at:
http://www.home-repo.org/news/

It scans news web-sites for mortgage, debt, repossession and property price news and creates links that take you directly to the latest news.

----< Useful links >-------------------------------------
A reader pointed out these useful links for information. Thanks!

County Court Rules
http://www.number7.demon.co.uk/YAWS/ccr/ccr.htm

Swarbrick's Law Links
http://www.swarb.co.uk/lawb/genLawLinks.html

----< Changes to the site >------------------------------
Links through to relevant case law have been re-established in the Legal Rights section.

The newsletter archive has been updated. If you are facing a shortfall claim you should check out the two newsletters prior to this one. They contain information on the Court of Appeal recent ruling on underselling of repossessed properties and some useful barrister's advice. Go to the library by clicking on the "Stay Updated" link in the top left of the Home Repossession Page.

We've also add links to critical sites set up by customers of banks and building societies. They are in the Free Help page, which you can get to by clicking on the Who Helps? Link on the left of the site. We'll add more such sites as we learn about them.

Many pages have been tided up to cope with link changes, etc.

[ends]

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