MORTGAGE ADJUSTMENT COMMISSIONS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22504, 12 September 1938, Page 4

MORTGAGE ADJUSTMENT COMMISSIONS

TO THE EDITOR Or THE PRESS. Sir, —Your correspondent, “Disappointed,” has put a few facts mildly. Personally I do not know of any case where an adjustment has given the so-called owner an equity. In fact, he is left with a definite liability. Thousands of pounds in . interest have been paid on principal representing fictitious values laid on by those who bought land at approximately basic value. Nevertheless great consideration seems to be -attached to such written-up mortgages. Mortgagees who lent on fictitious, inflated values, allowing the vendor to gel off with the spoil, should be the fir*t to lose, as without this deceptive help the vendor must have sold at a reasonable price or farmed the place himself. Then the working purchaser’s savings would still hold good. The wide disparity in adjustments in cases of adjoining properties shows the need for all such dealings being Justly published in full necessary detail—a protection for the farmer which Labour has not seen fit to recognise. I know several who owed great sums, waited (on sustenance), and have had liberal adjustments. Others who worked their properties, providing the depression-ridden people with produce at less than half the production cost, have been stripped.—Yours, etc AGRICOLA. September 10, 1938.