Voluntary repossession - help

Merlot

Does your income on the SOA, include your second BTL rent?

If not, then I suggest you sell the two BTL, and with the equity of over a little over £30,000 you could repay most of the secured loan, then you have no need to go for repro. I see light at the end of the tunnel on this one.

eboy1975

No - doesn't include potential rent on BTL2, m-in-law about to start process of applying

CLAPTON

If you sell the BLT then you end up with 10-15k in cash and 450 per month less in mortgage saving?

if that's right then that will give you a reasonable breathing space....
your food/groceries at 400 are very high... think nearer 200 but I guess there is a lot missing from your budget too.

I'm doubtful whether your MIL can claim HB if a relative owns the property but best wait and see.

eboy1975

'If you sell the BLT then you end up with 10-15k in cash and 450 per month less in mortgage saving?' - Yes. We can repay large chunk of unsec debt with that but unknown timescale for sale.

Have spoken to local authority about m-in-law claiming HB, not sure if feasible yet but will apply and see what outcome is.

Thing that is screwing my head is £1370 p/m mtg payments on residential come Sept.

Food budget is probably about right by the time the weekly shop is done and bits and pieces through the week.

Me and OH constantly bickering now about previous spending (she say's 'you got us into this mess I should just leave you to it' although i'm not entirely to blame as she has been high maintenance over past 5yrs as everything bought has been a 'need', kids best trainers etc etc).

I did say a number of years ago we are going to be paying for this for a very long time - nothing short of a lottery win will solve it.

Clapton - thanks for your advice

CLAPTON

no your mortgage will be 950 in september ... and either you have to sell the second BTL or you receive BH which hopefully covers rhe mortgage payments.

and I'm very very sorry but 400 on groceries can be significantly reduced if you need to do it.

but speak to national debt line, CCCS or Payplan and get other views... in the end it may be better to consider defaulting on the unsecured debts or bankruptcy but I don't think you are really quite there yet.

Merlot

Take Claptons advice.

You need to think out of the box, you have tunnel vision just now, there is a way out of this and you have been advised on this board how to do it.

You can reduce your grocery bill by atleast £150 without to much effort, you need to want to find a solution and when you do we can help you further.

Merlot.x.

eboy1975

Ok point taken - have been trying to budget more efeectively since Jan. switching card debt to 0%'ers etc.

thanks for your advice, appreciated

delboypass

No way will you get HB for your mother in law to pay you rent on your BTL...

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/paying_for_a_home/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/housing_benefit_if_renting_from_a_family_member

Unless you commit housing benefit fraud...then you might even be in a worst state than this...

eboy1975

Thanks Delboy - accessed the site on your link;

It says;

'I live in a property owned by a family member - can I claim housing benefit?

If you live in a property owned by a family member and pay them rent, you may be entitled to housing benefit. However, this will not be the case if you (or your partner) are responsible for a child and are renting from the other parent of that child.
The council will also want to check:

• that you're paying rent on a commercial basis. In other words, that it's a proper tenancy, not just an informal arrangement between family.'

BTL2 (which m-in-law resides in) is a proper BTL mtg, need to sort tenancy agreement/gas cert etc.

However, this site is for england only - property is in scotland, will try to find scottish equilivent.

By the way, spoke to ND helpline today - very informative, thanks to all for advice given so far :-)

eboy1975

Found scottish site;

'I live in a property owned by a family member - can I claim housing benefit?
If you live in a property owned by a family member and pay them rent, you may be entitled to housing benefit. However, there are a couple of things the housing benefit department will want to check. Firstly, they'll want to be satisfied that you're paying rent on a commercial basis. In other words, they'll want to know that it's a proper tenancy, not just an informal arrangement between family.
Bear in mind that if you rent from your partner, you won't be able to claim housing benefit, even if your tenancy is set up on a commercial basis. This is a new rule introduced in October 2007.
Secondly they may want to check that the arrangement has not been set up in order to take advantage of the housing benefit system - this is called a 'contrived tenancy'. For example, if your landlord only asks you to pay rent when you are not working (and so eligible for housing benefit) but not when you are working (and earning too much to claim housing benefit), this would be a contrived tenancy.'

Appears that this may well be feasible - I am registered as a landlord with the local authority already (scottish rules), as said before just need to set up tenancy agreement and gas cert etc.