Would you sell your house to pay off your debt

Scarlett1212

Hi Devongirl, you sound like a great friend and I hope it works out for her. 3puppies has given some great advice there, if she's not on Payplan or similiar it might be a good idea for her to get the ball rolling with that now so she can make the best of that 13k when the time comes. Good Luck!!

Pee

I wouldn't sell my house to clear debts, I have struggled through and paid the debts, but then I did that because I love the house.. and because renting anything let alone something similar would have been more expensive.

If you don't like your flat, then I agree, you should get out and repay the debts.

Scarlett1212

Hi Pee, I totally agree with you, when i finally get my "forever" house I will walk over hot coals before I let it go. If I enjoyed living here I wouldn't have considered selling but I have 2 problems at the moment - I don't like living here and I have a huge debt, selling solves both of these problems. Anyway back to the work, I am steam cleaning the rugs and sofa today. Whoopee!

Pee

If you are enjoying cleaning, you know you made the right choice!!!!

Scarlett1212

Hi Tiger, you are right about the credit cards, maybe keep one and set it up so the full balance gets paid off each month? I actually have the same problem as your OH, technically none of the debt is in my name, all of it is OHs, I don't have a loan/cc/overdraft - nothing. I should probably get a cc in my name as well (although my name has been on two mortgages already - but by the time we buy again this might not count. I should look into this, I've been so worried about OHs credit report I haven't even considered mine.

Scarlett1212

Hi Pee, I do love cleaning the kitchen, it's just lovely to see it all shiny and nice, the rest of the house - not so much unfortunately! anyway I really am going to move now. Honestly I am.

Tiger_greeneyes

Scarlett1212 wrote: »

Hi Tiger, you are right about the credit cards, maybe keep one and set it up so the full balance gets paid off each month? I actually have the same problem as your OH, technically none of the debt is in my name, all of it is OHs, I don't have a loan/cc/overdraft - nothing. I should probably get a cc in my name as well (although my name has been on two mortgages already - but by the time we buy again this might not count. I should look into this, I've been so worried about OHs credit report I haven't even considered mine.

It's well worth paying to get a credit report from Experian or similar. It will tell you if there's anything outstanding that you didn't think about. I did that and found that one of my CC addresses hadn't been updated when I last moved (even though I write to them to notify them :rolleyes:) so that could have been difficult. I rely on statements to prompt me to make a payment as I rarely use the cards. I have a selection of cc accounts from different institutions - generally there's a promotion on on one of them for 0% or similar. I'm still a tart at heart :rotfl:

Anyway - use the time available to work on your credit rating - which is just as important as paying off your debts. It's highly likely that you'll have to have a credit search done when you move into a rented property anyway.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I personally wouldn't sell even though it would pay off all our debts because we had some very bad experiences in our years of renting :sad:.

Our landlords often wouldn't give back our deposit when we moved, even though we had damaged nothing. Also we were not allowed pets, not allowed to decorate, some landlords wouldn't let us bang in a nail or use bluetack to hang up a pictue or poster.

Also one landlord used to let workmen into our flat without telling us; we'd get home from work and see some work had been done and find dirty finger prints on our biscuit tin! We felt like we had no freedom, no rights and no privacy.

Also we were forced to move once when the landlord decided to sell, even though we were happy in the flat/neighbourhood. We were good tenants, always paid our rent on time and kept the flat clean and tidy. But we had some very bad landlords. :mad:

Since owning our own house I have felt secure and happy and like I have the freedom to have pets, hang up a picture, and most importantly to be private !

I know that this is just my personal experience, but I would do anything to keep my own home, absolutely anything.

Also with lenders demanding up to 30% deposit now, I doubt if we would ever save up enough to buy another property.

But you must do what is best for you and your situation. I just wanted to throw that into the pot so you are aware of all the possibe ramifications of every situation !

Tiger_greeneyes

You sound like you've had some nightmare landlords, HairyHand I lucked out on the first property I ever rented - the landlord was a peeping tom and would think nothing of letting himself in whenever he wanted and standing for 20 minutes at a time with his finger on my door buzzer. At 2am. When I moved out, I didn't pay the last month's rent because I had a nasty feeling he'd have not given me back my deposit. I was a good tentant btw, the flat was in a much better condition when I left than when I took it on and I paid my rent cash and six months in advance.

There's a deposit protection scheme these days to make sure you get your deposit back. I wouldn't rent a property without the guarantee of this scheme.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Good grief Tiger, that's all you need, a peeping tom landlord :eek: I don't think the guarantee scheme you mention was in existence when OH and I were renting. We've owned our house for about 16 years now, but the memory never fades of how insecure we felt in rented accommodation, like we had no control over our own lives.

One particularly bad memory is when we got home from visiting family. We got off a late coach, tired and hungry, let ourselves in to our flat and the light wouldn't switch on. We groped our way into the living room and stumbled over a big pile of rubble. The living room ceiling had fallen down and all the utilities had been switched off:eek:. As it was late at night, we could do nothing except nip up the all night shop, buy a mars bar and a drink and go to bed. No hot drink, no tea. We were pretty depressed.

:sad:The day before we moved out the toilet fell off the wall and there was a mushroom as big as my hand growing by it :eek:.

Sorry to hijack your thread scarlett, but renting has such bad memories for me!