Grandparents house repossessed - any legal minds around please?

[onemorecakeplease]

I'm not even sure that's the right title really

Mid 90s my aunt persuaded my gps to remortgage their house and used the money to pay off an outstanding business loan. Her business was struggling and before the first mortgage payment was due, the business was made bankrupt.

Gps bank knew what the funds were being used for and that neither of them had an income beyond pension.
They were lent £130k in 1993.

The bank allowed my gps to stay in the house until they died and froze the interest I believe.

No payments were ever made to the mortgage by my aunt or gps as nobody could afford to.

I've recently found out about this and am just so surprised the bank would lend money to pay the debts of a clearly failing business (was hundreds of thousands in debt)
And that they would lend the money to my gps who would have not been able to pay it back.

Have I cause to complain and ask the bank to explain where it's duty of care to its customers went that day? And if so, how do I go about it after all this time

I have statements and account numbers etc so that's a good start I suppose.

Thanks for reading - I'll try to answer any qs I can.

GPS were never involved in the business other than this loan.

That a bank lent money to pensioners for a failing business they were not involved with and had no means of repaying.

Banks are not charities. They don't hand out £130k without seeing evidence of repayment means.

Your info is incomplete

mychild has explained it perfectly . How has this arisen now anyway doesn't granny want to sell ?

In law there's no rescue from a bad bargain.

You'll lose a lot of money to be told that. But sure. Go ahead.

I really don't think the issue is the bank, it's the aunt. She took £130k from them and squandered it. That isn't the bank's fault.

What was the value of the property 24 years ago?

If it was similar to the loan then they could probably repossess the whole house

Highly unusual that a bank would lend money for that length of time and take no interest

I'd take that as the win to be honest.

There's been no interest and no demand for repayment in 25 years? They got the deal of the century!

Does the bank have a charge over the house? It's worth looking it up with the land registry to check if you're not sure.

What did the aunt do with the £130,000 if the business was made bankrupt before the first mortgage payment was even due?

What the aunt did with the money
is immaterial.

To answer your question in your op.
You have no cause to complain. And to answer the one implicit in your follow up point neither does your grandmother.

I think you're over egging the 'they were pensioners' angle. The vast majority of pensioners in their 60s are just as capable as making a bad decision as ourselves.

Banks don't just give money like this.

I think what's happened is the business was to pay it off and your grandparents provided the house as security if they did not, the fact the bank has allowed them to stay there and not repossessed supports that. They have a charge over the property,

I don't think uou have room for complaint, but I do think you need to understand interest, I suspect they own the whole house. I'd seek legal advice and I'd get all the paperwork and speak to them.

I'd also ask what was the value of the house 24 years ago? Was it 130? I would think the interest the bank gets is the escalation in the value of the property.

Effectively they sold the property to the bank 24 years ago when they didn't repay.

If a bank does come after you for money make sure they have all the original paperwork.

People saying banks don't act like this. I can honestly say they do.

I have known one bank who shredded and dumped all paperwork that was more than 2 years old. I also know one bank that failed to take the remortgage part of the mortgage when the house was sold and 10 years later set a solicitor on to the couple to repay but when they asked for the paperwork they heard nothing from them again

I would look on the land registry to see if there is a charge on the house.

By the way. What crumbs said is not relevant in this case.

I wouldn't be contacting anyone if there is no need and would not be presenting paperwork if a bank hasn't kept it's own copies. If your gran has lived in the house without any payments then I wouldn't rock the boat . No one is going to thank you for sorting this out if it leads to your gran having to pay a mortgage at her age.

If it is an equity release then your gran is no worse off, if it isn't and you start giving the bank heaps of paperwork she could end up having the house repossessed

Olivers, the bank has all the paperwork. They sent a statement last year, so she is getting an annual statement. The bank hasn't lost or forgotten about the paperwork. They clearly have it.

What's been said banks do is say, that's fine you can't afford the mortgage. We won't charge you interest on the mortgage and if you default, that's fine too. You can be lifetime tenants till you die then we will take back the original sum.

Doesn't happen. I think the op doesn't have the full facts.

And the boat is always going to be rocked, be it on the grandmothers death or if the op asks. The deal is clearly still live on the banks systems. all that can happen is she finds out the terms her grandparents agreed to.

Checking what the land registry says about the house may be enlightening.

They might be sending statements but do they have the original agreement signed by your gran and grandad.

As I said there was a particular credit card company who trashed all statements and original agreements from about 2 years before and I know a few people who had outstanding balances on their credit card written off because in order to take someone to court to sue them for the outstanding balance the bank has to produce the original signed agreement which lists exactly what is being leant at what interest rate etc otherwise , no original agreement, no court case.

I really can't see why you are blaming the bank for this. Your grandparents took independent advice and ignored it! Whose name was the loan in - were your grandparents guarantors?

Also agree that there is no way a bank would simply let a debt sit around not gathering interest. I think they own the house tbh. And if your grandmother is living there it has hardly been repossessed!

What has triggered your anger about this at the present time?

Credit card is different to land. All land deals must be written.

Olivers, I think you're giving the op false hope. 24 years is not a long time, its standard mortgage, and the odds of rhe bank having shredded the documents and rhe ops grandparents being let off with the debt is so low as to be non existent.

As they took legal advice and that advice was not to do it, I suspect that's because this was not a good deal for them. I strongly suspect the bank owns the house.

Owns th house on their death I mean, it will then pass to them.