Claims Chronicles- Forgery
January 2010
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Expenses £20,687.39
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Settlement £21,177.13
For more information contact our Julian Sinclair on 0845 371 1781 or email jsinclair@firsttitle.eu.
The insured lender advanced a loan to the borrowers, Mr & Mrs Y, on the security of a first legal mortgage over their property.
The borrowers subsequently went into arrears on their repayments and the insured lender commenced possession proceedings. One of the borrowers, Mrs Y, raised a defence on the basis that her husband had forged her signature on the mortgage deed. We accepted the matter as a claim and sent the file to our panel solicitor.
A jointly instructed handwriting expert produced a report confirming that Mrs Y had not signed the deed, and Mrs Y produced further documentary evidence to support her defence. It appears that Mr Y systematically stole his wife's assets and forged her signature on several occasions to obtain mortgages and loans in their joint names.
First Title applied for an order for sale in the lender's name, based on their equitable mortgage over Mr. Y's interest in the property and eventually agreed terms with Mrs Y for a voluntary sale of the property. The property was marketed at a jointly agreed price, which when sold left a shortfall on the insured mortgage. First Title paid the shortfall to the lender as part of the claim, fully redeeming the insured mortgage. Additionally First Title met all the costs associated with the litigation.
All of our policies include cover for legal expenses on top of the policy amount. In the event of a claim, a major expense is quite often the legal costs, which will all be paid by First Title.