British creditors seizing homes over $1,500 credit card debts

[Ah Xoc Kin]

LONDON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Banks and credit card companies in England are exploiting a legal loophole to seize homes of customers who cannot pay their credit card bills, experts say.

People owing as little as $1,500 on such things as credit cards, car payments and personal loans have been served with charging orders, which enable a creditor to order the sale of a property, The Sunday Times of London reported.

More than 97,000 changing orders were granted by courts in England and Wales last year. The newspaper said the figure marks a 10-fold increase since 2000.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2008/10/26/Banks_seize_homes_over_credit_card_debt/UPI-16901225053559/

[barbtries]

1. my jaw dropped when i saw this

how fucked up is that? well now if people have to choose between their cc bill and their mortgage...this does not make sense, it is so wrong.

[chill_wind]

2. !!! I'm at a loss for real words! n/t

[indepat]

3. Surely even our repugnant Repukey laws would not allow this travesty

:puke:

[Blue Meany]

4. I thought that one of the recent credit card "reforms" made it

easier to come afer your home for credit card debt. I remember thinking this was unfair, since credit card interest rates are supposedly high because they are unsecured line of credit.

[indepat]

5. A chilling thought, enough to make one think that when laws protect only large corporations, if it

walks like a corporatist society, and talks like a corporatist society, then it must be pure de fascism akin to what American went to war in the '40s to obliterate the stain of from the face of the earth forevermore. :grr:

[mwooldri]

6. UK Bankruptcy laws are more draconian than US ones.

If you go bankrupt in the UK, you lose pretty much everything... your house, your car (unless it's a low value)... you keep your "tools of your trade", low-value books, clothing, bedding, basic furniture, basic household items. Forget about being an accountant or a lawyer, a Justice of the Peace, sit on a local council or be a Member of Parliament. You're in this state for about a year, sometimes longer.

Also a charging order is usually obtained after a series of steps. Creditors can only apply for a charging order when they have got a county court judgement against the debtor. And then the charging order on its own means that if the house is sold then the creditor gets their slice of the pie. The third and final step would be to go to the court again and force the sale based on the court judgement and the charging order combined.

If someone is in monetary difficulties over small amounts of money they'd better off going the same route that they go through here: credit counselling, then individual voluntary arrangement, and as an absolute last resort bankruptcy.

[Heywood J]

7. I'm always amazed at the amount of shit people will take

when there's a boot approaching their neck. They'll just stand there for it and continue voting for this kind of shit.

[BootinUp]

9. But they still have healthcare, lol. nt

[K Gardner]

8. OMG. Dumbfounded.