It seems that mortgagees are increasingly reluctant to disclose the balance due to them when asked to do so by a judgment creditor who is seeking an order for sale following a final charging order. A note in the NLJ asks what is the most efficient means of procuring this information (which should be supplied in the supporting evidence)?

The answer is that the combined effect of CPR PD 73 Paras 4.3(4) and 4.4 is that the claimant must have taken all reasonable steps to find out the amount owing to each creditor. If the debtor declines to provide the claimant with an appropriate authority, and the creditor will not co-operate with the claimant, then the claimant will have discharged this responsibility. Having said that, the claimant may want to know the amount of indebtedness due to prior chargees before deciding whether it is worth his while obtaining an order for sale. In that event, the claimant could consider making a third-party disclosure application before, or in the course of, the order for sale proceedings. An alternative and more robust approach might be to ask the lender’s chairman to ask an underling to pass over the information under threat of service of a witness summons on the chairman. See [2010] NLJ 803.