thinking about leaving the country, looking for advice.

smulx

i don't have the £6000 for the fee, and like I said before, the house is worth less now than when the mortgage was taken out

CLAPTON

I thought you were 'planning' or thinking about going to Bulgaria

Now are you thinking of waiting until the house is sold in 2 years time
or
were you thinking of just walking out and leaving everything behind?

In the context of the latter, I was suggesting that bankruptcy was a better option than just disappearing.

smulx

i don't have the £6000 for the fee, and like I said before, the house is worth less now than when the mortgage was taken out

Merry_Gentry

There is no £6,000 fee for going bankrupt, it's £595. Yes, depending on your income and expenditure you might have to pay a bit towards your debts, but you would be free to start again - in the UK if you wanted to, or abroad as you say it's what you want.

mizelle

To be honest you seem like you are panicking and running. I'm not sure this is the best option for you. I know it's crap for you just now, but a lot of people have been in your situation and have figured it out.

Of course I don't know you personally, so I'm not trying to pass judgement, but I'd just be concerned that you'd end up with more problems.

Whatever you decide to do though.. I hope it works out for you mate.

PasturesNew

Do the SOA thing as suggested above, once the figures are known there might be a nicer/cleaner way out.

Maybe BR is the solution. If you went down that route you could still go abroad but with a clean ticket to come back if you didn't like it - and if you were BR here and liked it there, by the time you did think about coming back at least it'd all be behind you.

It's best to face the poo and let it do it's worst, but know it's resolved properly, than to run from the poo because if you run you never know how much poo there was, nor how much poo is still lurking to hit you in the future.

Put your poo behind you ... so to speak.

The poo you deal with is ALWAYS smaller in the end than the poo you try to run from, it escalates.

Then enjoy life.

Yargo1

Bulgaria is a lovely place.. my parents moved there nearly two years ago... But it is very remote in the villages and even in the main places not what you would expect after living in uk. People are lovely but wages are low. The living standards are lower but the summers hot and plenty of english people moving there instead of spain for example.

A friend of mine ran up debts and moved to spain... he worries now about coming back to uk incase someone is waiting for him! Is it worth that risk? if your parents or someone close was taken ill and you couldnt come back?

hmm. im not an expert .. just thought id say that bulgaria is a good place.... but consider ur options carefully.

Fire_Fox

If you are concerned about your ex reneging on a deal to pay half of the loans, get it in writing from a solicitor. It should be fairly straightforward and not cost the earth. Secondly you could let the house out and move elsewhere until the housing market improves. Thirdly if you get a CCJ against you in your absence you will never be free of the debt until you pay it. If you walk away now, you may well be happy for ever, you may be happy for a while or you may realise you have made a terrible mistake. You have no trade, you presumably don't speak the language - this is madness.

smulx

my main reason for considering it is because I want to leave the country eventually anyway. I'm still looking in to other solutions like bankruptcy, but I don't think my situation is bad enough for that. If it wasn't for the house, I could manage fine. I'll post more details later cos this takes ages on my phone.

dND

I would second the posts on moving abroad. I've done just that and while I love it here in France the culture change etc is far more than I thought even though I did a lot of research prior to moving. It is also very difficult to get jobs abroad without being fluent in the local language and having valid papers. This I feel will become more so in the current economic climate.

Even having a trade it can still be difficult to get a job. Here in France they insist on having the French qualification and things like plumbing and electrical standards are different.

So you do actually need some cash in the bank first to make a successful move IMHO and with the current exchange rate even the lower cost of living in some countries it will still be hard. Add to that the problem of not feeling able to return to the UK and I think you could find the shine of moving abroad tarnishing very quickly.

Thinking about the house, have you looked at renting out the house and downsizing yourself to a flat? The 'experts' are predicting a rise in properties required for rent as houses become too difficult to buy.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.