23Actions to recover money secured by a mortgage or charge or to recover proceeds of the sale of land

23 Actions to recover money secured by a mortgage or charge or to recover proceeds of the sale of land

(1)  No action shall be brought to recover any principal sum of money secured by a mortgage or other charge on property, whether real or personal, or to recover proceeds of the sale of land, after the expiration of 12 years from the date when the right to receive the money accrued, notwithstanding that the money is by any Act or instrument expressed to be a charge until paid.

(2)  Subject to subsection (3) , no foreclosure action in respect of mortgaged personal property shall be brought after the expiration of 12 years from the date on which the right to foreclosure accrued.

(3)  Notwithstanding anything in subsection (2) , if, after the expiration of 12 years from the date on which the right to foreclosure accrued, the mortgagee was in possession of the mortgaged property, the right to foreclose on the property which was in his possession shall not, for the purposes of that subsection, be deemed to have accrued until the date on which his possession discontinued.

(4)  The right to receive any principal sum of money secured by a mortgage or other charge and the right to foreclose on the property subject to the mortgage or charge shall not be deemed to accrue so long as that property comprises any future interest or any life insurance policy which has not matured or been determined.

(5)  Nothing in this section applies to a foreclosure action in respect of mortgaged land, but the provisions of this Act relating to actions to recover land shall apply to such an action.

(6)  This section does not apply to the recovery by any statutory authority of any rates or other moneys which by any Act are and until paid remain a charge on land.

(7)  Notwithstanding anything in section 4 (5) –

(a) where a prior mortgagee or other encumbrancer has been in possession of the property charged and an action is brought within one year of the discontinuance of such possession by the subsequent encumbrancer, the subsequent encumbrancer may recover by that action all the arrears of interest which fell due during the period of possession by the prior encumbrancer or damages in respect thereof notwithstanding that the period exceeded 6 years; and