Judgement Mortgage

Does anybody have experience of a Judgement Mortgage on their family home?
Thanks

In what context?

Have you checked ?

Hi Clubman,I share a house with my partner.I probably paid more of the deposit and bought most of the furniture but that's not really the issue.My partner pays the mortgage and has done for the last few years.We remortgaged the house a few years ago and put the money into my business.The business closed last year.There is a judgement mortgage on the house against my share.The creditor is now looking to sell the house to realise my share.Even if the house is sold at market value there would be no equity left for the creditor as there is a debt owed to the revenue plus there are bank borrowings secured on the house.Am I entitled to sell my share of the house even at market value to my partner or brother without selling the house and having to move out?

Sounds complicated and might need professional legal advice I suspect. Have you (or your solicitor) approached the creditor in relation to the possibility of selling your share at the pro-rata market value "privately" rather than putting the whole house on the market? Or is there any option to separately discharge the debt(s?) that gave rise to this situation and remove the claim on the property altogether?

Hi Clubman,a lot of this is down to a weak solicitor.Even if I sell my share privately,there will be nothing left for the creditor as the bank would have to be paid plus the revenue.

soapjoe said:

Hi Clubman,a lot of this is down to a weak solicitor.

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Get another solicitor on the case so.

Even if I sell my share privately,there will be nothing left for the creditor as the bank would have to be paid plus the revenue.

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So how are you planning on discharging the outstanding debts? I'm sure that the creditor just wants what's due to them and doesn't really care how you get this. In particular if they can get repaid without selling the house then presumably that suits them fine?

have you tried approaching the creditor with a view to sounding out his/her minimum terms and explaining your circumstances?

LOL Clubman - getting a good solicitor is not as easy as it seems.
In relation to the judgement, I dont owe the money - I handed the papers to my solicitor and he forgot to put in an appearance thus the creditor got a judgement without me knowing.It is fairly complicated.

soapjoe said:

LOL Clubman - getting a good solicitor is not as easy as it seems.

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Er, I meant that as a serious comment. If you're not happy with the service provided by your solicitor (or any service provider for that matter) you should switch.

In relation to the judgement, I dont owe the money - I handed the papers to my solicitor and he forgot to put in an appearance thus the creditor got a judgement without me knowing.It is fairly complicated.

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If you can do so without compromising your position perhaps you can explain in more detail in case people can provide some useful feedback? I don't understand how you don't owe money and yet have a judgement mortgage registered against your property.

Clubman,I was also serious about solicitors - I still haven't met one yet that will give a straight answer to a question.
I suppose really the question I am looking to ask is "The fact that my partner has been paying the mortgage for the last number of years and that when we remortgaged the house, I put the money into my business, would it be fair to say that my partner should be entitled to a greater share of the property than me or even still could I hand over my share due to the fact that I recieved money through the remortgage and also that I am unable to pay my share of the mortgage?
Thanks in advance

Ravima,It is my opinion that I dont owe the money plus the fact that I would be unable to pay it anyway.

soapjoe said:

Ravima,It is my opinion that I dont owe the money plus the fact that I would be unable to pay it anyway.

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Well the judge obviously disagrees with you or he/she wouldn't have registered a judgement against you..

soapjoe said:

Clubman,I was also serious about solicitors - I still haven't met one yet that will give a straight answer to a question.

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How many have you dealt with? I find it hard to believe that you cannot find a solicitor who can deal with this issue appropriately and professionally. Note that "appropriately" does not necessarily mean simply agreeing with your analysis which, as pointed out, is obviously flawed as far as the courts are concerned. As mentioned a couple of times already approaching the creditor with regard to what might be an acceptable settlement not requiring the sale of the property might be an option. Of course this should probably be done through a solicitor rather than directly.

Clubman, about 5 or 6 over approx 20 years in business.
In relation to getting a judgement, it is fairly easy got without the person knowing about it.One example would be if the creditor had moved address and didn't get notification.
In my case, my solicior didn't put in a motion to defend the case hence the judgement.

Hi Joesoap. Firstly i don't have an answer to your query and i think most people would be pushed to give you a straight answer because i don't think there is one. I seriously don't think you will be able to argue that you partner owns more than a 50% share of the property as i think the court and your creditors will propoably see it as a devise to avoid some of your liability. ithink they will be able to insist on the open market value being put on the property. I think you should follow Ravima's suggestion and get in contact with yuor creditors. Saying you don't feel you owe the debt is not going to solve the problem unless you take some action.

Your situation sounds very odd to me. Firstly afaik it would take more than one Court case to get to the stage of a judgement mortgage. The first court appearance is to establish whether the debt is owed. i presume this was the one where your solicitior failed to defend the case. Surely there is some legal action that could have been taken at this stage to have the matter brought back to court and reheard.

There is usually some time and corresponance requesting offers of payment before it gets to the stage of an instalment order or a judgement mortgage. I know you are saying that it is easy for a judgement to be got without a person knowing but is this the case in your situation? Surely it would be expected that legal action is going to be taken for debts and that correspondance is going to be sent to the business address.

What i am suprised at is why you didn't attend court yourself and why you weren't ringing your solicitor before the Court case saying whats happening etc etc...? I think i'd be doing that. I don't mean to sound judgemental but they are your debts. As you are struggling to pay them i'm wondering is the solicitor going to be a bad debt also. if they view it like that then they may feel why do any work on this file we're not going to get paid anyway. I suggest you need to take matters into your own hands, contact your creditors, visit MABS.

In my experience judgements are only applied for when all other avenues have been exhausted. With regard to judgements being easily obtained ie when creditor moves, I disagree, as usually such proceedings are dealt with via registered post, presumably if the creditor had moved all correspondance would be returned?
In my opmion any creditor in reputable business would inform any debtors of a change of address unless they were trying to avoid settling their accounts.

If a judgement was registered against the property then surely the other interested party (i.e. the mortgage lender) would be curious/nervous? Have they been kept in the loop on this?

BTW - good post Thrifty.

Thrifty,in relation to the house,my partner has been paying the mortgage and can prove it.As the debt was over €34,000,the relevant court is the High Court.My solicitor never served his intention to defend the case and therefore the creditor got the judgement by default.I dont think there is anything that I can do at this stage to change that.In relation to the address situation, correspondence can be sent to the business address or your private address.This is not an issue in my case - I was only giving an example.In relation to my solicitor,he is fully paid up to date.In relation to Mabbs,I dont think they deal with Business issues.

Gauloise,as I said this was only used as an example.When the letter is returned, it can be served ordinary post.As I also said my business is closed and has been for a few years.Just because you owe money doesn't mean you are not a reputable person.When I set up the business,I did it in good faith and certainly didn't plan to "do" anybody.I also have other creditors who aren't going down the legal route and they are being paid off one by one.

Clubman,The bank have nothing to worry about as they have priority on the house.
Thanks for all the replies.

In my opinion it is very likely that you do in fact owe a debt to this creditor and are hiding behind semantics and petty arguments to try to avoid facing up to it. I come across a fair bit of this type of hiding your head in the sand attitude with debtors. The fact of the matter is that if you genuinely had a case that you didnt owe the debt then there is a procedure to go back before court to have the judgement set aside. The fact that you are not doing so speaks for itself. Furthermore as others have previously said, to get to this stage, it is likely that court proceedings and affadavits have been served on you by registered post, you have had your chance to respond and have not done so. In order to get to the stage of realising a judgement mortgage, the judgement creditor will have to, or already has gone through the process of getting a well charging order, which means an application through the county registrar and yet another court application. Again all documents would have to be served on you by reg post, and if not accepted by you, they would have had to go to court to prove you did in fact live at that address and get the permission of the court to serve by other means. So realistically you are being disingenuous to say the least.

Thrifty said:

I suggest you need to take matters into your own hands, contact your creditors, visit MABS.

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If this all revolves around a business debt is it really an issue for MABS even if there are implications for somebody's PPR?