What is the practical point in the applicant to a charging order application having to serve the mortgagee with notice of the final charging order application hearing? It seems to me that applicants are needlessly being required to take this step as well as having to serve other judgment creditors who have already obtained charging orders against the judgment debtor and secured an appropriate entry on the land register. Whether centralisation of charging order applications will see an end to this practice remains to be seen.
Centralisation will not make any difference: any creditor who is identified in the application notice or the court directs is to be served must be served and the mortgagee is such a creditor will be identified. Service makes sense. It warns the mortgagee that the judgment debtor is possibly in financial trouble and thereby gives them an opportunity to take steps to protect their security. It also enables them to consider buying out a subsequent mortgagee where the property is in negative equity and the housing market is depressed so as to prevent them obtaining and implementing
