Voluntary Repossession Advice

Silvercharm

Thanks for all that advice, I'm really confused at the moment. On the one hand I don't want to be repossessed and think it will only be a couple of years until we can sell it...on the other hand because of all the abuse I get living in the area, I don't know how much longer I can cope with that, I just want to go back home to where I used to live and this just seems my only option. Mortgage is with Leeds. Thanks for advice anyway.

fatbelly

If ypu're entitled to Support for Mortgage Interest, you should claim it.

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/WorkingAgeBenefits/Dev_016128.xml.html

It is (I think) still paying at 6.08% which exceeds the rate a lot of people are actually paying at the moment.

SingleSue

Just a little warning...repo is never easy and it has an impact on your life for years and years to come and just when you think you are getting sorted, it comes back to haunt you again.

I speak from experience, we were repossessed back in 1994, the building society had been very nice to us at the court hearings and said the same things being said to you....it didn't quite work out like that.

For a start, the arrears may be relatively small but once you add on fees plus the shortfall between what the mortgage is for and how much they managed to sell it for (generally repo's go for lesser amounts than normal market price, we were one of the lucky ones where ours got market price) plus interest...and more interest, it adds up to a very large number.

Your credit is completely shot to pieces for years, sometimes the amount you are comfortable paying back is not the amount they want and it is incredibly stressful.

It bit us on the bum and I would advise anyone to think twice about just handing the keys in where there is another way out.

I know you say you hate the place but there have been times where I have hated this place...you just carry on.

silvercar

If you want out, sell the place yourself.

Repossession, whether voluntary or not, will be a big black mark on your credit record for at least the next 6 years. Some lenders ask on their application form if you have ever been repossessed!

If you have £3k arrears now, add that to the legal costs of repossession, the costs of any sale plus the interest on the mortgage from repossession time until a sale is completed. Your total bill could add up considerably. Much better to price reasonably and sell yourself now.

Mrs_Bumble

You have received good advice above and I hope that you take heed.

Incidently every lender that I have ever submitted an application with asks on the form if you HAVE EVER HAD A PROPERTY REPOSSESSED lying and saying no constitutes fraud and the lender is then within their right to place a warning for other credit providers on CIFAS of the fraudulent event.

If you don't like where you live sell up and take the hit, please don't think that repossession in any form is the easy route because it most definitely isn't, I can say that hand on heart as an ex collections officer for a large building society who chased mortgage arrears both current and shortfall.

bootman

I was in this position myself back in the 90's. 18 and very silly.

I however kept up the payments till the end and only stopped once the keys were back with the building society. But the fact the debt never goes away is true.

7 years later just when life was getting back on track a letter drops through the door saying I owe thousands and your world ends all over again.

Just for the record I was not ever blacklisted and was totally honest with the next mortgage lender, even just a year after the keys handed back. A new mortgage was never a problem. The original lender was even happy to offer a mortgage again!

I did negotiate the amount to be paid back to a fraction of what was owed, but I must say it was the worst time and most stressful time of my life and I would really not recommend going down voluntary repossession unless you really have to. There was very little information about then, Internet only just invented I think.

I think £3K could easily cost you £30k by the time they have sold it for a silly low price, agents fees, their fees.

Mrs_Bumble

Just for the record I was not ever blacklisted and was totally honest with the next mortgage lender, even just a year after the keys handed back. A new mortgage was never a problem. The original lender was even happy to offer a mortgage again!

The mortgage market place is a very different world now than it was then, banks and building societies are not hungry to lend at all and so I think it will be a long, long time, if ever before lenders are in a hurry to lend to anyone that has had a property repossessed in the past again.

OP really, really take on board the incites and advice you are being given here

Good luck.

Silvercharm

Thanks again, I think I was just letting my emotions rule my logic and thinking it would be easy...we have decided we will try to stick it out for another 2 years & see what the property prices are like then...I do love my flat, just homesick as moved from north to south and it was a big mistake but guess I'll just have to ride it out. Will just have to go into hibernation for a couple of years