Legal musings

I was wondering, that as I signed a promise/Agreement with a bank to pay my mortgage with my house secured on it. If I then default directly because of the Credit crunch, I could sue if they tried to repocess the house. I would sight the grounds that as the banks are the direct cause of the credit crunch, they themselves are responsible for my not being able to forfill my promise to them and as partner to the promise/Agreement they have acted unreasonably.

Long shot I know, but I think I would seriously consider this action if we end up there.

Any legal bods have a view? Non legal comments welcome as well.

[yorkie_chris]

How would you say it's directly because of the credit crunch?

And you run into same thing as got pregnant/got clap arguements... takes 2 to tango

Yeah I get the feeling you would run into problems linking your default directly/solely to the credit crunch...

It would have to be indirect, because a court would never accept an argument that you had to have a loan/other form of credit to pay your mortgage, and the bank didn't provide it therefore are liable - they will just say your financial mismanagement meant you needed a loan & therefore that was the reason behind it.

If you then went on to argue something such as losing your job due to your company being unable to get credit and therefore having to make you redundant...it's getting more and more indirect and I don't think could be linked. Even then, the same argument as above might apply - OK, the world needs credit to go round, but banks aren't under an obligation to provide loans just because of that, and that's I think the key point.

You signed a contract with your bank. They upheld their end of the bargain and lent you the money: you now have to keep yours.

Additionally, any judge that ruled in your favour would be single handedly responsible for collapsing the economy of the country. If you think it's bad now, wait until your ruling gives everybody a free house!

It would also mean I wouldn't have to pay off my car loan, bike loan, student loan, credit card bill etc. The downside is my customers would no longer have to pay me.......

Good luck!

I do quite a bit of county court litigation, including a few mortgage repo defences. I have yet to hear that argued before the District Judge - I don't think you have a hope of succeeding on that. Fact is you have promised to pay and the reasons for a breach of promise are irrelevant. You can always argue it but I don't think it would work, I think you'd have a repo order made But it might get further when you try to delay an eviction - showing you have reasonable grounds to believe that you can pay - judges are always sympathetic. The Court of Appeal is not though and there are a few unhelpful decisions which in my experience tend to be er glossed over, unless of course the lender is hell bent on getting you out and whoever is doing the advcacy reminds the judge that s/he is bound by them. I think I might try it next one I do

Edit - Something like 'Sir, Mr and Mrs X are adamant that they can afford to repay. They have produced a repayment schedule which I sent to the Court last week. If banks (including the Claimant in the present action) can be refinanced at huge expense because of the problems that they themselves created, and they can get time at taxpayer expense, then surely it's not asking too much for Mr and Mrs X to have the same indulgence. They just need a bit more time and a bit more understanding too.' I'm going to try it Thanks Rog!!

[Paul the 6th]

i dont know alot about law and legalities, but the big institutions have much more money than all of us put together, and therefore a wicked legal team who probably go on work days out to las vegas or dubai, while we all go paintballing or gokarting.

Originally Posted by Paul the 6th

i dont know alot about law and legalities, but the big institutions have much more money than all of us put together, and therefore a wicked legal team who probably go on work days out to las vegas or dubai, while we all go paintballing or gokarting.

Never got to Vegas or Dubai but I did go to Jersey on a freebie once

[Paul the 6th]

see, we're talking about the top brass like ed here. I mean, jersey, I've never even been there

Originally Posted by Ed

I do quite a bit of county court litigation, including a few mortgage repo defences. I have yet to hear that argued before the District Judge - I don't think you have a hope of succeeding on that. Fact is you have promised to pay and the reasons for a breach of promise are irrelevant. You can always argue it but I don't think it would work, I think you'd have a repo order made But it might get further when you try to delay an eviction - showing you have reasonable grounds to believe that you can pay - judges are always sympathetic. The Court of Appeal is not though and there are a few unhelpful decisions which in my experience tend to be er glossed over, unless of course the lender is hell bent on getting you out and whoever is doing the advcacy reminds the judge that s/he is bound by them. I think I might try it next one I do

Edit - Something like 'Sir, Mr and Mrs X are adamant that they can afford to repay. They have produced a repayment schedule which I sent to the Court last week. If banks (including the Claimant in the present action) can be refinanced at huge expense because of the problems that they themselves created, and they can get time at taxpayer expense, then surely it's not asking too much for Mr and Mrs X to have the same indulgence. They just need a bit more time and a bit more understanding too.' I'm going to try it Thanks Rog!!

No problems Mr Ed and at £100/hr and that post took me 8hrs (honest) thats £800 please (I have a loan system you could sign up for etc.....)

Anyway, some interesting answers. I always thought it would be an unbeleivable longshot but may be worth a try if it was only to get leaniancy as Ed states.

As I work in a bank I have been keeping an eye on the financial news and have just found this on the Reuters news site in connection with the government bailing out the banks:

It also promised to provide "a sum to be agreed for the next twelve months" to help people struggling with mortgage payments to stay in their homes.