Mortgages & debt

We have a mortgage with Abbey. At the moment I would guess that we have negative equity but I don't want to pay to have my house valued in a falling market so it is just a guess. I read last weekend that Abbey have a clause in the mortgage contract which says that they can ask borrowers to repay on demand any amount greater than the value of the house. I would assume that this is in the the very small small print. They assured the interviewer that they would not consider using this clause at the moment however they reserve the right to invoke its use in future.

Normally I wouldn't be worried about my house value as its not relevant to my everyday life (although my husband considers it important for some vague reason)but if I am asked to cough up huge sums of cash at short notice because of it then my opinions might well change.

2009 is looking very much like the year of debt clearing. I have some outstanding loan balance for work on the Crete house, plus the balance of the mortgage. I ran various scenarios through the mortgage calculator.. I also mentioned it to my husband. We haven't discussed this in a any real detail yet but it would be a foolish person to say that its not a good idea to pay down debt, especially the secured debt of a mortgage,in the current economic climate.

Its possible that my plans for 2009 might have to be a bit more detailed that normal. Perhaps I should take a leaf out of Daizy's book and have it the end of debt planned to the last month. It is something to think about. I guess I don't think about it at the moment because it is such a high amount and if I did think in detail then it would frighten me. However I don't scare easy (as long as we don't talk about confined spaces or snakes) So I am making a plan!