Govt Mortgage to Rent Scheme/Will it save my house?

IF

Angiepange wrote: »

Morning, just a flying visit update as its my birthday today and hoping for a nice day to relax and chill!!

We have received the OFFER for the house from the housing association :j woohoo! Its a rather long document to read through and we have to wait for the 8 day cooling off period before we send back the form to say we would like to proceed, but im over the moon to finally have it 'on the table' at long last.

I will go into more detail later when I have a chance, but just wanted to share the good news about my progress with the mortgage rescue, oh and if it all goes ahead we will be the first in my area to have got through it.

See you all later wonderful people and thanks again for supporting me

Angie x

Hello Angie, Happy birthday matey lol x

That brilliant news!!

Angiepange

Another update from me!

We received the offer from the HA and have signed and are sending it back today. Included with the offer is the option to take independent financial advice, paid for by the HA. Its a personal decision and you are not required to if you feel you don't need it. Personally having gone through BR, our finances have been scrutinised as it is and I feel confident that we can afford the new rent set at 80% market value, as I have also found out we would be entitled to housing benefit as well. The HA include a list of solicitors in the pack you can use. You are free to appoint your own solicitor if you want to. However the ones the HA recommend have had experience of dealing with mortgage rescue cases and have agreed a set fee with the HA which will be met by the HA. You don'y pay anything. If you appoint your own solicitor, there may be extra costs arise which you would pay for yourself. I contacted one of the recommenmded solicitors a couple days ago and they have sent out documents detailing the sale procedure for us to sign and send back with id documents.

The offer pack from the HA contains the tenancy agreement, a residents handbook and various documents of information.

As most will know my biggest concern for us at this stage is the shortfall liability agreement. I have informed the HA of our position on this and spoken to my CAB adviser. I have also updated the council person that we first had to apply to of where we stand. We are not willing to sign for shortfall (estimated £15-20k) and put ourselves into thousand of pounds of debt. We would like the bank to write off the shortfall as if we walk away from the house, once its repossessed, the shortfall will become a proveable debt in our bankruptcy. I know it has been done before but my mortgage company are notoriously difficult when it comes to shortfalls, so I am waiting to see what their response will be when this all kicks off.

Can I just say for people considering this scheme, which I have found out is set to become more popular as more people come into financial difficulty, that if you go through this scheme and are in negative equity and have to sign a shortfall liability agreement in order for your motrtgage co, to allow the rescue to go through, then if you were to go declare yourselves bankrupt after completion of the sale/rescue you can include the shortfall debt in the proceedings which will then be considered as any other unsecure non-priority debt.

Angie x

sillygirl73

Wow..............what a journey you have been through:mad:. Thank you for pointing me to your thread. It has made very interesting reading. I really hope you manage to get your shortfall written off. It seems ludicrous that the ML would make you take on further debt knowing that your are BR......keep fighting and it sounds you have been getting some very good advice.
We have our initial meeting with the MRS CAB advisor next week to discuss eligibility etc. Was planning on going BR next month, but think I may now wait as we would have a shortfall of between 10-15K on our mortgage.
I was very hopeful when I was told about scheme but now am not so sure. Maybe it would be better to hand keys back and then rent? Or sell house and include shortfall in BR........? Have now got lots of questions to ask CAB again...........
Will be following this thread hoping for your good news xx

Angiepange

Hi sillygirl

I just wanted to say to you, don't lose hope over this working out for you once you have seen the CAB and found out if you are eligible.

My experience has been long and difficult but when I first started my application, very little was known about the scheme and it was tough finding the right help. However more and more people are now going through this and I suspect we will start hearing of many more successful rescues.

I understand how you feel at the moment, you dont know if you should just give up the house and rent. Or sell. But I always felt that the best option for us would be to stay in our home if we could. I didnt want to go down the private renting route with the uncertainty that would bring, let alone needing big deposits and failing credit checks. And also on this scheme the rent is set at 80% market value, so that has to be a good thing financially. The tenancy you get is for a minimum of 3 years and provided you pay your rent on time there would be no problems continuing to live in the home. I also think you have more freedom renting from a housing assoc. We were told they wouldnt be worried what you did decor wise to the house and they of course would be responsible for all external and structural repairs, including your gas and electrics.

So if I was you once you have seen the CAB adviser you can weigh up the pros and cons of your options. If you decide to go ahead for mortgage rescue, I would be only too happy to email you information I have from various sources if that would help you. Keep in touch and good luck with whatever you decide.

Angie x

Angiepange

Angiepange wrote: »

Another update from me!

We received the offer from the HA and have signed and are sending it back today. Included with the offer is the option to take independent financial advice, paid for by the HA. Its a personal decision and you are not required to if you feel you don't need it. Personally having gone through BR, our finances have been scrutinised as it is and I feel confident that we can afford the new rent set at 80% market value, as I have also found out we would be entitled to housing benefit as well.Angie x

Well after some sleepless nights last week, worrying about the MR I have decided we will see the Independent Financial Adviser and have got the appointment booked for later today. The offer letter hasn't been sent back yet until after tonight. I have just had overwhelming feelings of panic about it all and to be honest feel completely down in myself.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe its the absolute right thing for our situation if it all works out, but I am just feeling so sad and low that our lives have come to this. I doubt very much we will ever get on the property ladder again, I have no experience of renting and I am scared about what the future will hold.

We are really struggling to get by on just my husbands wage at the moment. On the plus side I have just finished a year at college where I took a course to update and gain extra skills to help me with securing a new job, and I have passed all my exams. On the downside my area is an unemployment blackspot and I know I will have problems finding a new job.

Apart from that I feel like a failure, I know we had no choice other than to go BR but I miss the security of a credit card for emergencies, I worry how we will cope if something goes wrong. I have tried and tried to build up a surplus, but there is always something around the corner that wipes it out again!!

I know the rent set by the HA is reasonable and we would be hard pushed to rent privately for that money. However we have been paying what we can afford to the mortgage since Sept last year and it has usually been less than what we will pay on the new tenancy. So again I am worrying how we will cope. Perhaps talking it over with the IFA tonight will help.

Sorry for my ponderings on it all!!! Just worried, fed up, stressed and thought by posting here it might help to lift the mood

dancingfairy

Angie - sorry to hear things are not going so well for you at the moment. Hang on in there. It will get sorted. With regards to not having credit I can imagine it's pretty scary but there are always stories on here of how people have been helped out of difficult situations by the kindness of strangers and I believe that somehow with strength of character and possibly help from the kindness of strangers you would get through.
Is it worth posting an SOAa and getting some help with it? I don't know how long ago you last did one but it sounds like things have changed - are there any benefits you are entitled to but not claiming?
Anyway hoping things improve for you soon.
df

IF

Hi Angie, please don't feel like a failure your doing everything in your power to sort this! Just wanted to say keep coming on here to get it all out how your feeling.......we're all with you....so big big hugs and lots of love x:A

sillygirl73

Angie.....am so sorry you are feeling down, you have been such an inspiration and have come so far. I'm sure this final hurdle will be overcome and you will be able to finally breathe again xx
Have just been to our 1st MR meeting at CAB and are being referred as fairly hopeful we can be helped......we will see what that brings.

Angiepange

dancingfairy wrote: »

Angie - sorry to hear things are not going so well for you at the moment. Hang on in there. It will get sorted. With regards to not having credit I can imagine it's pretty scary but there are always stories on here of how people have been helped out of difficult situations by the kindness of strangers and I believe that somehow with strength of character and possibly help from the kindness of strangers you would get through.
Is it worth posting an SOAa and getting some help with it? I don't know how long ago you last did one but it sounds like things have changed - are there any benefits you are entitled to but not claiming?
Anyway hoping things improve for you soon.
df

Thank you df, such kind words. We went to a meeting with an independent financial adviser tonight and went through our budget with him re the mortgage rescue. I feel a little more confident that we will be ok financially but I think its down to me to get a new job and increase our income. My hubby will probably be taking on agency work at weekends too to try and build up a safety net. As for benfits, we get CTC and CB but may be entitled to some housing benfit when/if we begin renting and apparently the housing assoc will be able to carry out a pre-assessment for us, so thats good.

ifwisheswerehorses... wrote: »

Hi Angie, please don't feel like a failure your doing everything in your power to sort this! Just wanted to say keep coming on here to get it all out how your feeling.......we're all with you....so big big hugs and lots of love x:A

Hi If, can't express what the support you have shown means to me, here and on facebook but a big thank you :A xxxx

sillygirl73 wrote: »

Angie.....am so sorry you are feeling down, you have been such an inspiration and have come so far. I'm sure this final hurdle will be overcome and you will be able to finally breathe again xx
Have just been to our 1st MR meeting at CAB and are being referred as fairly hopeful we can be helped......we will see what that brings.

Hi sillygirl, so pleased to hear you have got the ball rolling, I will be following your experience with great interest and if you need help or advice, I will be here, good luck xxxx

IF

Angiepange wrote: »

Hi If, can't express what the support you have shown means to me, here and on facebook but a big thank you :A xxxx

Your welcome Angie, hang on in there and you look after yourself too. x:A