Mortgage Arrears - to litigation if not paid by morning.

mandkb

We have an interest-only mortgage with GE Money, started in 02/2007. In Aug 07 we both gave up our jobs to open our own business.

01/2009 started to feel the effects of the recession in the shop & got into arrears with mortgage.
We agreed to see one of their 'debt counsellors' who agreed with us to pay the amount due plus an additional £100 off the arrears each month. This was done by DD until this month. In that time, we were being charged £40 admin fees plus additional interest so not much left from £100 to come off the arrears

This months payment was due last week but we don't have it so, having read all about the pre-action protocol, my OH rang them today with the idea that we could ask for either capitalisation of arrears or extending life of mortgage.

GE were not interested - at all.

They did ask what had changed in our circumstances so OH said that, owing to my disability, I am no longer working plus quiet spell in shop with it being school hols as well as recession (we never do as much business in schools hols compared with term time)

OH says it was as if he hadn't spoken!

GE ended saying that he had to ring them tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest because if it's not paid by then, it's going to the litigation dept.

We cannot claim on the MPPI because it won't cover existing conditions, as confirmed when I rang Paymentshield last week.

Please, please help us. We don't know what to do.

Thank you

Mrs_Bumble

Capitlising of arrears will only normally happen if the arrears have been nearly cleared etc. Extending the term is unlikely to help much either .

I would contact the agencies in this leaflet for assistance

http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pdfs/mortgage_cantpay.pdf

If you are no longer working are you entitled to claim disability living allowance etc?

Have you checked to make sure that you are claiming all benefits that you are entitled to?

Are you in a position to sell up and cut your losses?

Speak to the organisations in the leaflet.

Litigation doesn't necessarily mean repossession, it could mean that a payment arrangement is agreed by the court and at that point it would be worth mentioning in court that you have previously agreed an arrangement with GE but as they are persisting in charging the monthly arrears admin fee very little is actually coming off the arrears because of it. Makes me very annoyed how these non mainstream lenders continue to charge the arrears fee when an arrangement has been agreed!

Speak to the agencies in the leaflet Shelter etc as they will be able to advise you specifically.

mandkb

Hi
Sorry I've not got back to you sooner but didn't get email notification of your reply

Since posting, I have done an I/E with GE by phone & basically the only suggestion they have is to speak to Paypal to sort out our unsecured debts!

No amount of explaining that we're sorting out priority debts first seems to be sinking in with GE so we're just as frustrated & scared as we were a month ago.

We are able to borrow some money this week from a family member so Septs payment plus approx £400 off the arrears will be made. This then brings our arrears down to less than 2 months but we still need them to agree to something - either capitalising the remaining £1200 arrears or a payment schedule but how do we then get out of the spiral of monthly admin charges for being in arrears? If we can pay say, £30 extra & their monthly admin fees are £40, we will never ever clear them!

chipbeck

mandkb wrote: »

Hi
Sorry I've not got back to you sooner but didn't get email notification of your reply

Since posting, I have done an I/E with GE by phone & basically the only suggestion they have is to speak to Paypal to sort out our unsecured debts!

No amount of explaining that we're sorting out priority debts first seems to be sinking in with GE so we're just as frustrated & scared as we were a month ago.

We are able to borrow some money this week from a family member so Septs payment plus approx £400 off the arrears will be made. This then brings our arrears down to less than 2 months but we still need them to agree to something - either capitalising the remaining £1200 arrears or a payment schedule but how do we then get out of the spiral of monthly admin charges for being in arrears? If we can pay say, £30 extra & their monthly admin fees are £40, we will never ever clear them!

But GE will be happy.

Mrs_Bumble

Have you spoken to Shelter?

mandkb

Just got off phone to Shelter & they said we appear to have done as much as we can with negotiating & that, in his opinion, a judge would probably tell GE that they cannot have possession 'cos they haven't worked with us at all to address our proposals

He also thinks we might be eligible for the mortgage rescue scheme if it comes to that.