Implications of voluntary reposession

panickymum

Hi everyone

After months of soul searching my OH and I have decided BR is our best option. We have had lots of help from CAB who agree. Due to OH losing his job due to ill health we have no was of paying our 70k unsecured debts. Now we have made the decision I suddenly feel a lot better and hope it will lead to a brighter future for our son who is obviously being affected by the stress our current situation is causing us all.

I have read the posts on here for a while with great interest, particularly Scarlett's diary which has been great, thanks Scarlett!

My main concern is our house. We have no equity in it and can rent somewhere approx £300 per month cheaper so have decided this is what we want to do. We have found somewhere to go to (happy to take us despite imminent BR as we have a guarantor). We haven't paid the mortgage for three months to save the deposit, BR fees etc. Now we are almost ready to go I am suddenly scared. Although CAB have told me there is nothing to stop us moving out then contacting the mortgage lender to say we have left, please could someone advise me of what the mortgage lender will then do? We have no secured loans on the property but I am expecting that Natwest will land us with a charging order in the not too distant future. I could struggle through and try and pay the mortgage, going BR while we still live here. But as I am on a step-rate paying only the interest, my payments will go up to £950 next year anyway which we cannot afford at all, which is why we thought it best to cut our losses and go now.

I just want to be 100% sure we are doing the right thing before I pack our belongings and go. Once we are in the rented house I intend to ring the court to book our BR date.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks to everyone who contributes to this board.

GettingHopeful

Unfortunately I am in a somewhat similar position, and though I haven't a categorical answer, though I would describe what has happened. I moved out of my flat in February and defaulted on the mortgage payments as of 1st May. There was still some equity in the property in my opinion although property valuations are vastly ranging, estate agents really don't know what value to put on it.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I thought, following my CAB meeting, that the OR would take the property over immediately, but they are apparently concerned that with accumulating interest and dropping values it may not be worth their while and though I have had no categorical answer, they seem to think the Building Society should repossess.

In the meantime, I am checking the property weekly, and am pursued by the managing agents for ground rent and maintenance. I have spoken to the OR about this who said they can claim for this on the sale of the property, and in the meantime he would clear his desk and refresh himself as to what the position with regard to the flat is.

I became BR on 11th june.

So, feel free to move out and leave the BS and OR to sort it out between them. There is no easy answer to keep everyone happy, so just do what you need to do, and let things take their course.

All the very best.

Scarlett.1974

Hi there panickymum and welcome to the board

As you know from reading my diary that is exactly what we did - moved into rented, booked and went BR the following month and let the mortgage company take posession.

I can't say that that is what you should do though, only you can decide that

We tried to do 'voluntary reposession' (give the house back) but because we refused to sign their forms they would not accept this and went down the route of formal reposession. This has dragged on for months and months - we last paid the mortgage in October 2007 and a date has now been set where they will 'take back' posession (granted through the courts) for the 9th September - almost a year from start to finish. On the other hand, another member on here (Mamma Cas, I'm sure she won't mind me mentioning her name ) who went through pretty much the same as us - her mortgage company handled things a LOT differently. She wrote to them, telling them she wanted to give the house back (same as we did) and without any court dates or chances to change her mind her mortgage co. just "took quiet reposession" (as it's called)....... the first she knew of this was passing her old house one day and seeing the 'for-sale' sign outside :eek:

So, really, be prepared for "anything" really....... it's hard to say how your particular mortgage company will handle things. Ours have been very slow :rolleyes: whereas Mamma Cas's moved at the speed of sound!

If you have any other questions please do ask, we will all help you as much as possible.

Best of luck,
Scarlett xx

Jaelor

Hi there Panickymum!! I was you exactly 2 years ago!! We had secured debts and tried to sell the house but the second charge holders wouldn't let us sell, so we had no option. We rented privately, moved in in July 2006, sent the keys back to our mortgage provider and declared ourselves bankrupt in August 2006. Our lender also wasn't happy that we wouldn't sign the voluntary repossession forms, so we were sent papers about a court date the following January, which we ignored and I know the house has now been sold.

Honestly, it is the best thing we ever did. 2 years on, we're still in the same rented house and I've been able to give up work now my second little one is here. Its a new stab at life - I say go for it. The next couple of months may be messy for you, but it will so be worth it in the long run.

Hugs x

panickymum

Hi guys

Thanks for your posts (I love this board!) It's good to know that others have been though this and survived. Scarlett I had no idea that it could take that long...hope all goes okay with the court hearing. I have had a second opinion from CCS today who agreed with CAB that there is nothing wrong with us leaving our house so we are definitely going to do it :eek:

So my plan is to move out, write to the lender and go BR (if I can ever get a court date booked that is. Every time I ring the clerk is busy!!) Could anyone advise what I should put in the letter to Northern Rock and what I should do with the keys?

Also if it takes a while to get a date and if Natwest slap me with a charging order (I have just returned the county court paperwork saying I can only make token payments as I am doing for everyone else) then will the charging order be included in the BR? I am not sure how long these things usually take to be decided... (NW were very quick of the mark in this respect - they moved at the speed of light to take us to court!!)

Thanks for your help everyone and good luck to anyone else going through this.

Merry_Gentry

We moved out of our house in June, 2 days after going BR. We are with NR and haven't actually paid the mortgage since May, but as yet all they keep doing is sending us 'you are in arrears' letters. We have told them that we have gone BR, and that we want to give the keys back but they've done nothing since We know not to sign anything so imagine it will be a court repossession but as of August, nothing happened yet!!

Scarlett.1974

Ah, you're with Northern Rock too then? Don't hold your breath now will you? :rolleyes:

I have posted on here somewhere the letter I sent to NR.... I'll see if I can find it for you in a minute.

Do prepare yourself for:
- at least twice weekly letters telling you they "are concerned at your arrears" and pleading with you to get in touch. This should last for approx. 6 months :rolleyes:
- then they will start to 'threaten' court action
- they will instruct their solicitors to get in touch...... they will also threaten court action
- finally, once they realise you're not going to pay they will take it to court. We had the first lot of court papers in April, for the 1st hearing in June. I rang the court and told them the situation (that we wouldn't be appealing etc..) and asked if we needed to attend? They told me 'no' and advised me to put it in writing, which I did. I was also told this letter would be read out in court.
- at the end of June we had a letter from the court saying that posession would be granted back to NR unless we got in touch ASAP (or words to that effect!)
- at the end of July we received another letter from NR to say they were waiting on a date for the baliff to be free to arrange reposession of the house
- finally, last week we received a letter saying posession HAD been granted back to NR and was set for 9th Sept. at 10.30am (very precise!) and that the baliffs and locksmith would be arriving on that day at that time and we needed to be gone and our belongings with us.

To be fair to NR they've actually been pretty decent. The letters have been mainly computer generated. I offered to post back the keys and they told me there was no need - the locksmith would (discreetly) change the locks on reposession day anyway, whether they had the keys or not.

Good luck and like I said, be prepared to be in for a loooooooong wait

Scarlett.1974

The letter we sent to NR to try and do voluntary surrender (note the dates :rolleyes: )

31st January 2008

Names
Address

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Account No. xxxxxxxxx. Address as above.

With reference to the above and your letter dated 14th January 2008 within which you enclosed a Voluntary Surrender statement for us to complete and return. We will not be signing the aforementioned statement and would request that you take this letter as our formal request for the voluntary surrender of the property.

We voluntarily surrender possession of the above mentioned property to Northern Rock and agree to the sale of the property.

We understand that the proceeds of the sale will be applied to the account to pay off in whole or in part the balance outstanding.

We note that Northern Rock are at liberty to remove and/or sell any items of a personal or household nature remaining in the property after the date of our giving possession.

We confirm that the property will be vacant from today's date, Thursday 31st January 2008.

For your information, we can now be contacted at the following address and would request that all correspondence be in writing only to this address:

New address.

Yours faithfully,



Names.

panickymum

wow! thanks Scarlett! Looks like Merry and I might be in for a long wait lol!!
Gives me an idea of what to expect so thanks again for taking the time to reply to me and for posting the letter as well.

Do you know what happens if they come to sell the house and get less that what we owe on it at all? I think I read somewhere about shortfalls being a problem and was just a little concerned, given the current housing market, that this is quite a likely scenario.

Thanks again

tigerfeet2006

If you are BR then any shortfall will go into your BR

rollercoaster_2

Hi All,
I am in the same position as a few here - with the exception of me not going BR. My house is on the long road to repossession, with Northern Rock. I sent Scarlett's letter (thanks Scarlett) in June, and I haven't heard anything since. Apart from the 'you are in arrears letters'. I called Northern Rock to see if they had received the letter - which was yes, and they do not accept it. Why they want to drag it out in court and add more costs when the house is vacant etc, is beyond me. But as I can see from the threads, I am not alone!

I read in the newspaper this weekend repossessions are up 43% this year alone! Scary thought!

We are living at my Mum's at the moment and planning to rent, once I get back to work from maternity leave (due in Oct). Not ideal, but at least I can sleep at night now without the worry of making the mortgage payments that had shot up to nearly 1k!

Good luck everyone - this site has been so helpful and reassuring to me