Thnaks so much kevin Nad Mark. I will def get my husband to write recorded delivery to both NR and the trustee stating all this once we secure a council house which we are hoping will happen in the next 6mths or so now (estimate from council offices). It's lifted a weight off my shoulders to know the trustee must deal with this one way or another as I had visions of us moving out and the trust deed ending and then being left with another 30k debt when NR sell the house. The last thing we want to do is go through all of this to end up with even more debt and then my husband having to be made bankrupt and having another 3yrs of payments to make, the point of all this was to give us a clean slate and to be able to start again and build a good life for our children. Thanks so much again.

Hi gillianr2

No problem. I hope it all works out ok.

The law is there for a reason and as we are always told, we act for the creditors, but have a residual obligation to act for the individual as well.

Mark

Thank you Mark, i'd honestly be lost without this forum and the great advice I get on here as I would just take the trust deed company at their word.

Thank goodness that looks a lot more straightforward and reasonable now.

Sorry me again!!

Right we may be closer to voluntary surrender as we have found a long term private let (we are on council list but goodness knows how long that will take). With our current circumstances it seems we will qualify for housing benefit and the rent itself will be around £200 for us to pay, which is a big difference form the £500 mortgage we are paying now!

I have heard that Northern Rock (now Virgin Money) will send us a voluntary surrender statement to sign which will basically state that we will be held for any shortfall once the house is sold. Should my husband sign this (mortgage all in his name)? I've heard that even if you do send back the keys they will not accept surrender until they receive this paperwork.

Hi gillianr2.

But that will leave you with a substantial new debt?

That's where im confude td assistant. I have been googling like mad and most people are saying do not sign these forms they send you as there is something in them to say that if you are bankrupt or similar then you will still owe them the shortfall when this finishes. Other people are syaing you have to sign the forms or they wont accept voluntary surrender. One guy said he just sent in the keys recorded delivery and sent his own letter stating he was voluntarily surrendering the house but then NR called him and said they wont accept it as voluntary until he signs the forms they sent him.

Oh and my husband did discuss surrendering the hosue with someone at NR and they said they would need to send him forms to sign, so I take it these are the forms everyone is saying dont sign. But if you dont sign them and you hand in the keys and move out but they dont accept voluntary surrender then what happens.

Hi gillianr2.

I'm not suggesting that you take this or any other particular course of action, but I think some people simply stop paying the mortgage in the expectation that the mortgage lender will (sooner or later) take possession of the property anyway.

Please be careful about finding out the precise ramifications of signing those forms before you actually consider doing so.

Thank you. I think the only option we may have if they wont accept the keys is to just move out anyway and wait until the proceed with repo but would rather do it voluntary and have it all be dealt with asap.

If you can see from the paperwork that you will be able to incorporate the shortfall to your TD then do it as the repo route is very slow. I tried to surrender but for a number of reasons couldn't and it took the Halifax 14 months in total to 'eject' me even though the house lay empty for that long.

The trustee has said that they will include it in the trust deed so long as NR sell the house within the time of the trsust deed. It's been pointed out to me that they are wrong in doing this so have contacted the trustee to state that if we give the hosue up within the trust deed then they have to incorporate the shortfall regardless of when NR sell it. Would make so much more sense if it were easier for us to voluntary surrender than waiting for them to repossess though 🙁

Why couldn't you surrender upstream?

I was looking to surrender the house and had discussed it with my trustee prior to signing. What my trustee didn't make clear during these discussions was that I would need their permission to make such a decision after I had signed the TD. I then signed the TD and tried to surrender the house a few days later. For whatever reason that I never did manage to establish was that KPMG's policy was that they would not sign off to agreeing to this so it had to go through a formal repossession. Didn't make any sense to me as the costs that will be included in the projected shortfall included in my TD would only get larger the longer it dragged on.

I tried to push things on as much as I could staying in touch with Halifax's solicitor to keep stating that I had no objections to all of this happening but it still took as long as it did. If only I had made an appointment with the bank to sign the house off before signing the TD it would have happened much quicker. However, I hadn't discovered this forum back then and may well have signed a form that stated I would still be liable for the shortfall no matter what my financial status was.

You are armed with much more knowledge than I was at this point so hopefully you can get a voluntary repossession secured with a guarantee that the shortfall will be included with your TD. In writing!!

Oh that's such a shame you had to jump through hoops like that! That really is my worst nightmare. Things are looking very hopefull for renting this private house, the owners have said tehy would def consider us even with the trust deed ect and the rental company said they would be happy as long as there was a guarentor and my husbands mother has said she would seriously consider being the guarentor for us. Now my husband needs to call Virgin Money and see what they are saying about voluntary surrender and see where it takes us form there. His trustee has said the shortfall would be included in the trust deed but only if the house was sold within the trust deed time. The trust deed is menat to be extended in Sept for approx 2yrs to collect extra payments for the car but if we move now then the payments could be doubled and the trust deed could end as early as 14/15mths from now so taht doesn't leave much time for teh hosue to be sold if they didn't accept voluntary surrender and do it the hard way.

Hi gillian2

Re the trustee's comments. He is stating that there could be a position where the property has been formally repossessed, it is on the market and represents a contingent debt in the Trust Deed. However your trustee is willing, in full knowledge of this, to close the trust deed to the detriment of this creditor and somehow, by some new law which only he knnows about, try to make your hubby responsible for the debt.

I would love to see the above taking place as it would absolutely fly in the face of everything.

Mark