Old Mortgage

[Bucket01]

If a mortgage is 15 years old and no repayments have been made to the account in that time and the lender has only now noticed, can they chase us for it, it is only �20,000, but I assumed it would have been written off by now, if they hadn't chased us...

[debbie1601]

How can you possibly have a mortgage with no repayments? and especialy no repossesion!!! Please tell me your secret?

[themas]

Are you still living in the house with the mortgage on it? If so, I suspect they can still chase you, and go to Court for repossession - but you may be able to negotiate some sort of deal with them as the failure to demand payments is presumably due to some **** up on their part.

If you are not living in the mortgaged house and do not own it (I think this is very unlikely as the mortgage company would have been contacted when you sold) then I don't think they can chase you provided the debt has not been acknowledged in the last 12 years.

[Bucket01]

Thank you for the replies, it was a property we owned 20 years ago, we moved out 15 years ago, sold it, but still had �20,000 left to pay on interest only, and never did pay any of that off, as the months then years went by, we just wrote it off ourselves as we never heard from the bank... so just wondering, if we would still owe them, as they are chasing us now...but I am sure I did read somewhere, that if a loan is not chased within 12 years then they can't chase us, so just trying to find that out now.

[themas]

If you (and anyone else who was on the mortgage) have had no contact with the lender for 12 years from the date you defaulted on the mortgage, have not acknowledged that you owe the money and have not made any payments in that time then the debt is statute barred. That means the lender cannot enforce payment of the debt by taking you to Court. However, if the lender obtained a money judgement CCJ before the 12 years were up they can still take you to Court but the time lapse might mean they would have to get the Court's permission to do so.

You still owe the money and they can still possibly cause credit problems for you, as they may be able to put information about the debt on your CRA files - or on the record of mortgage defaults that could give you trouble getting another mortgage. However, all this is uncertain.

If you are worried about possible consequences you could - while making it clear the debt is statute barred - offer a full and final settlement of a very small % on condition that no adverse information appears on any records.