Tanager bought the loan but the property was already sold!

TheLoanArranger

Registered User
Messages
4
Negative equity residential investment property in arrears had receiver appointed by BOS in 2012. Apparently sold at Allsops December 2012 auction but that sale may have fallen through. Property Price Register records sale closed in September 2013.
BOS stated they had agreed terms of the mortgage loan transfer to Tanager on 5th December 2013 and that all relevant details relating to the mortgage were being transferred to Tanager.

In late 2014 Tanager phoned suggesting they would take possession of the property if I didn't pay up/start paying. The caller was surprised when I told her the property had been sold before Tanager bought the loan. I was told in that case I didn't owe anything! However after a few minutes speaking with her supervisor the lady told me that I owed €134k, being the residual debt.

Q: BOS stated that the transfer of "the mortgage loan agreement" was permitted under the terms of my mortgage, but does this permission extend to selling the unsecured residual debt to Tanager? It seems Tanager thought they had the property included.

We had 5 such BOSI properties at the Allsop auction, but only one loan was sold to Tanager. BOS recently wrote to say they have written off the other 4 residual debts and that we owe nothing. If there was an angle to challenge the transfer, apart from the usual BOSI and BOS issue, we would likely have the current debt written off too! Any ideas would be most welcome.
 
You made a risky property investment.

You lost money on that investment.

You still owe them the money you have borrowed but not repaid.

There really is no issue here unless you have reached some agreement with BoS or Tanager.

If you have no other assets, go bankrupt and make a fresh start.

Brendan
 
Brendan, thank you for your quick response. I fully accept your first 2 points, although with a portfolio at 70% LTV before the Crash it didn't seem so risky back then. My main question is the legality of selling a mortgage (re terms & conditions) that wasn't really a mortgage, since there was no property secured on it at the time of the sale and the seller knew this (or should have known). The buyer did not know this.

As for your suggestion of bankruptcy, or even an insolvency solution, neither is an option as I could not then continue to operate in my industry. If I was a few decades younger...
 
No, in fairness to Tanager I don't see they did anything wrong, but I would have expected them to throw the loan back to BOS and get their purchase price back, when they realised there was no security. Instead they probably negotiated an even bigger discount on the price for this unsecured loan. The next property owner's solicitor successfully applied for the registration of a discharge/release of the mortgage/charge.
 
BOS stated that the transfer of "the mortgage loan agreement" was permitted under the terms of my mortgage, but does this permission extend to selling the unsecured residual debt to Tanager?

This will obviously depend on the terms of your mortgage agreement which you should check or have someone review for you.
 
Don't confuse "mortgage" with what you're calling "mortgage loan agreement".

Nearly every loan agreement permits assignment/sale to another party. The €134k remains outstanding under the loan agreement (not the mortgage which would've been discharged when the property was sold).
 
There might be a statute of limitations angle here. Normally a 12 year statute of limitations applies to property related debt. However, the property was sold in September 2013, and the loan agreement was transferred to Tanager in December 2013. The transferred loan agreement was, in effect, unsecured debt, to which a 6 year statute of limitations normally applies. So there is a possibility that this debt becomes statute barred in September 2019, ten months away. Unless, of course, it has been acknowledged in writing or a payment against it, in which case the clock would have been reset. Suggest keeping the head down for the next ten months..
 
Thanks TLO. The unsecured debt was sold on again recently and the new loan owner called me today. Caller insisted there is a 12 year statute of limitations, but it seems likely now we won't make it to September 2019 re 6 year possible limit. We have been careful not to acknowledge the loan.
 
Back
Top