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

notfunnymoney

Hi Angie - bless you, think i'd have cried too!! It's weird how sometimes you don't realise just how bad it is until someone fresh points it out to you - like if someone I didn't know came up to me and said "we're at risk of losing our home with two young children and lots of money worries" - I'd probably think "oh my god!!" but when it's you I guess you just get on with it until you're reminded of it by a sympathetic person!! Btw - any news on setting up a new board for MRS?

Well there was a bit of delay with our app being passed to RSL - should've been Friday but as far as I know now, it went yest arvo and I'm now just awaiting confirmation/copies of all the paperwork as promised to me..... there is still a slight niggle about the fact that we may have too much equity to go for mortgage to rent (which is what we want so we can pay off debts too!) - at the moment we are SO borderline but we're talking fractions of a percent... so altho our caseworker at LA has said our place is worth an amount that would get us M2R, it all still depends on the valuation that the RSL do - if they make it higher then we may not be eligible for M2R - however caseworker has said that it would be such a marginal amount that she would refer our case to the HCA (housing and community's agency - the body that oversees all mrs) who may be able to sign it off as an exceptional circumstance.... of course this is nice to have as a back up but would cause longer delays so I'm keeping everything crossed that the RSL just agree the value the LA have suggested!!

Dryliner - thanks for your reply - we have agreed to pay our mortgage at a reduced rate - ie the amount that we can so call 'afford' accrording to our Financial Statement with the CAB.... must admit, we're still finding it a little hard some months but it's just about bearable but like you said, there's a part of me that would rather save that money just in case.... do you know what might be the repercussions if we were to tell our ML that we want to reduce it further? Can they refuse - and if so what could they do? Or, as we're doin our best by goin thru mrs would they just have to lump it?!

Oh so many questions, doubts, worries....keep wondering if this will be our last xmas in our family home.... BUT must try to stay positive tho!!!

H x

notfunnymoney

Just to add..... on only finding out the other day that the HCA are the gov. body overseeing the mrs, I thought I'd take a look at their website to see what info they had - struck gold!!! On this page http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/mortgage_rescue_guidance there is a "mrs toolkit" which seems to be the guidance notes that everyone involved in mrs (LA, RSL etc) use to process the scheme - I think it's really usefull and gives quite a lot of info about what to expect and all the rules and regs.... it's very wordy (126 pages!!!) but has some good info on it - esp take a look at page 21 where there's a process map that gives the order things are done and the supposed timescales they're supposed be done it etc...

Just thought it might be worth a look if you're goin thru mrs to answer some questions you may have instead of asking someone who doesn't know much more than you and has to go and read up their 'toolkit' before leaving it 5 days to get back to you anyway, ha ha!!

H x

Angiepange

notfunnymoney wrote: »

Btw - any news on setting up a new board for MRS?


Dryliner - thanks for your reply - we have agreed to pay our mortgage at a reduced rate - ie the amount that we can so call 'afford' accrording to our Financial Statement with the CAB.... must admit, we're still finding it a little hard some months but it's just about bearable but like you said, there's a part of me that would rather save that money just in case.... do you know what might be the repercussions if we were to tell our ML that we want to reduce it further? Can they refuse - and if so what could they do? Or, as we're doin our best by goin thru mrs would they just have to lump it?!

H x

Hi H

Thanks for the update and im keeping everything crossed for you on the value. Good to hear they may refer to the HCA, at least thats a potential solution if the house comes in slightly over the threshold.

As for setting up a seperate thread on MRS, its something I will try and do, just wanted to do a good job of it and a little nervous I might not! However there are plenty of links and info in this thread I could try and pull together and then we could bump it up for others searching for info on mrs.

As for your current agreement on what you pay to your mortgage, I will tell you what we did. Our mortgage was originally £1100 pm on repayment, this then came down to £739 on interest only when my husband got made redundant. After BR (but before I had discovered MRS) and realising we couldnt maintain the £739 we approached the lender to see what they could do for us. They agreed 3 monthly payments of £430, then they wanted full payments plus arrears over the next 6 months. This prompted me looking into mortgage rescue because I knew we didn't have the income to do this. Once the 3 months were up and our mrs application was in process, I stopped paying the £430 (our little reserve of money had run out) so each month I just paid what I could afford. The lender never queried it, or asked for more money. Most months we were managing about £300 to the mortgage, sometimes it dipped to £150 depending on what we could afford. Im my experience, if your lender is supporting your MRS application, then as long as you pay what you can afford I can't see what they can do about it.

I also completely understand Dryliners situation of not paying anything. They were on the verge of repo with bags packed, so I can understand they were saving their mortgage payment as they thought they would be evicted any day and would have needed rent/deposit fees to find a home. I also understand they had alot of problems dealing with their lender, whereas although our lender was not great either, they did say they 'fully supported our mrs application'

notfunnymoney wrote: »

Just to add..... on only finding out the other day that the HCA are the gov. body overseeing the mrs, I thought I'd take a look at their website to see what info they had - struck gold!!! On this page http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/mortgage_rescue_guidance there is a "mrs toolkit" which seems to be the guidance notes that everyone involved in mrs (LA, RSL etc) use to process the scheme - I think it's really usefull and gives quite a lot of info about what to expect and all the rules and regs.... it's very wordy (126 pages!!!) but has some good info on it - esp take a look at page 21 where there's a process map that gives the order things are done and the supposed timescales they're supposed be done it etc...

Just thought it might be worth a look if you're goin thru mrs to answer some questions you may have instead of asking someone who doesn't know much more than you and has to go and read up their 'toolkit' before leaving it 5 days to get back to you anyway, ha ha!!

H x

Thanks for the above link ! Wish it had been around when I was doing MRS. Loads of info in there, thanks H, that should really help others out there looking into the mortgage rescue scheme.

Good luck H and please keep us posted when you next hear anything xx

Angiepange

UPDATE

Coming up to 6 weeks now since completion and thought I would update.

The Housing Association have appointed contractors who have beeen in and out over the past 3 weeks doing work on the electrics and gas. Result, we now have a brand new boiler/water tank and all electrics have been upgraded where needed and thoroughly checked for safety Its nice to have peace of mind where thats concerned.

We are still waiting on contact for the structural building works to take place, that includes: removal of chimney breasts upstairs, new french doors, d/g window in kitchen, pointing on outside wall and work on the water tank in loft. This work will be the most disruptive so I am keen to know when it will take place (thinking possibly after xmas now?)

We are also supposed to have an appointment with a neighbourhood officer but not heard anything on that yet. Not sure what thats for, but am looking forward to speaking to someone face to face.

I have been pleasantly suprised when dealing with the finance dept at the HA re paying our rent. Despite an initial mix up over funds, each time I ring up to pay they are really friendly and helpful. I have been paying weekly but just paid a month in advance today and the woman I spoke to was brilliant dealing with queries I had.

Emotionally, knowing we are safe and secure here for at least the next 3 years has really sunk in now :j. I still have to pinch myself now and again, that its all real, but the worry and stress over eviction and repossession has finally gone.

I am still researching information about Mortgage Rescue, and when anyone posts here, or contacts me about the Mortgage Rescue Scheme, its a pleasure to try and help

Angie x

west0504

Hi again everyone great to see some positive news on here and as always brilliant advice! :A

I haven't popped in for a while as I had been so busy will all the MR stuff that had been going on, meetings and surveys etc. Had lots of people round the past few weeks looking at the house and it was great to finally get to talk to the peeps at the HA who were handling my case! I was starting to feel really positive and we even went a week without getting letters from Northern Rock!

Plans were being made with contractors estimating a quickish rescue and then works starting Feb maybe as they have 45+ houses being renovated at the minute and we're not needing anything urgently fixing.

Even made arrangments for the mortgage shortfall repayments with NR!!! :eek:

...untill shock horror, recieved a letter on Friday from my housing officer at local council. Saying that the HA had looked into the costings of building works and had now come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be financially viable to buy our house. The works would cost £20k +

Won't put on here the words that came out my mouth!
Absolutely dumbstruck. I always assumed it was going ahead and it would be the mortgage company who may put a spanner in the works but now we have till 11th Jan till our next Court Repo date and I just feel numb.

Lx

andreap1984

Is this applicable to people with charges on their property?

brrrr-its-cold

Right, I suppose I'd better start right at the beginning. I split from my partner 8 months ago, he left and refused to help with anything except half the mortgage until the house is sold and £80 a month child maintenence for our 6yr old daughter.
Stupidly during ur time together I took out loans for home improvements etc in my name only as my credit score was much healthier than his and meant we got a much better interest rate.He also spent nearly 2 years out of work and I tried to keep us a float by putting mortgage payments, essential day to day bills on my credit card. He left leaving me with over £25k of debt. I acted straight away and contacted my local CRB who have been fabulous. I had an IVA accepted and although money is extremely tight I know that I can now pay what I owe without the worry of my finances spinning out of control.
Complely out of the blue, my ex called last week and said, he wasn't going to pay his half of the mortgage anymore, If I'm living in the house I can pay for all the mortgage. I just dont know what to do. theres no where I can find this extra money. I dont smoke, drink, I cancelled sky, etc etc when he first left as there was no money for luxuries, so I just dont know where to find the money. I can pay half the mortgage - do i just call my mortgage and say I can only afford half? I called the CRB on Fri and they said my case was closed but could get someone to call me tommorow about a government mortgage help scheme.
Please if anyone is there with any advice, I could really do with some. Thanks

Angiepange

west0504 wrote: »

Hi again everyone great to see some positive news on here and as always brilliant advice! :A

I haven't popped in for a while as I had been so busy will all the MR stuff that had been going on, meetings and surveys etc. Had lots of people round the past few weeks looking at the house and it was great to finally get to talk to the peeps at the HA who were handling my case! I was starting to feel really positive and we even went a week without getting letters from Northern Rock!

Plans were being made with contractors estimating a quickish rescue and then works starting Feb maybe as they have 45+ houses being renovated at the minute and we're not needing anything urgently fixing.

Even made arrangments for the mortgage shortfall repayments with NR!!! :eek:

...untill shock horror, recieved a letter on Friday from my housing officer at local council. Saying that the HA had looked into the costings of building works and had now come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be financially viable to buy our house. The works would cost £20k +

Won't put on here the words that came out my mouth!
Absolutely dumbstruck. I always assumed it was going ahead and it would be the mortgage company who may put a spanner in the works but now we have till 11th Jan till our next Court Repo date and I just feel numb.

Lx

O god I am so gutted for you L, and so sorry to hear your news

To have your hopes raised and now this :mad:. I just don't know what to say except I am so sorry to hear the scheme hasn't worked out for you.

So what are your local council going to do now to help you? And have you had further advice from the CAB?

Please keep in touch and let us know whats happening if you can, and really thinking of you x

Angiepange

andreap1984 wrote: »

Is this applicable to people with charges on their property?

I am not sure of the answer to your question, but have found this information from the link below (Mortgage Rescue Toolkit)

http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/mortgage_rescue_guidance

3Negotiations with the lender(s)/other charge holders and the
LA Housing Options team can continue until the end of the rescue
process, depending on the complexity of an individual case. The case
cannot proceed until in principle agreement has been reached with
all lenders/charge holders, although the final redemption figures will
not be available until 48 hours prior to contract exchange.

Seems to suggest, that as long as whoever holds charges over your property are willing to come to an agreement to sell, then Mortgage Rescue can go ahead.

However if you are interested in the Government Mortgage Rescue Scheme, you need specialist advice and I would suggest speaking to CAB and/or Shelter. You can also ring the Housing Department of your local council and ask for their procedure on referral.

HTH Angie

Angiepange

brrrr-its-cold wrote: »

Right, I suppose I'd better start right at the beginning. I split from my partner 8 months ago, he left and refused to help with anything except half the mortgage until the house is sold and £80 a month child maintenence for our 6yr old daughter.
Stupidly during ur time together I took out loans for home improvements etc in my name only as my credit score was much healthier than his and meant we got a much better interest rate.He also spent nearly 2 years out of work and I tried to keep us a float by putting mortgage payments, essential day to day bills on my credit card. He left leaving me with over £25k of debt. I acted straight away and contacted my local CRB who have been fabulous. I had an IVA accepted and although money is extremely tight I know that I can now pay what I owe without the worry of my finances spinning out of control.
Complely out of the blue, my ex called last week and said, he wasn't going to pay his half of the mortgage anymore, If I'm living in the house I can pay for all the mortgage. I just dont know what to do. theres no where I can find this extra money. I dont smoke, drink, I cancelled sky, etc etc when he first left as there was no money for luxuries, so I just dont know where to find the money. I can pay half the mortgage - do i just call my mortgage and say I can only afford half? I called the CRB on Fri and they said my case was closed but could get someone to call me tommorow about a government mortgage help scheme.
Please if anyone is there with any advice, I could really do with some. Thanks

Hi there

Sorry to hear of the situation your ex has put you in, how awful

I didn't want to read your post and not reply, but Im not sure I can be of much help! Its great the CAB are ringing you tomorrow about the Mortgage Rescue Scheme. They are best placed to advise you if you meet the criteria and could possibly be put forward for MRS.

I have posted a couple of links here, which if you have a read through will give you some idea of what the scheme is about and how it works.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/BuyingAndSellingYourHome/Mortgagesandrepossessions/DG_174005


http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_family/home_and_neighbourhood_index_ew/mortgage_problems_index_ew/how_to_sort_out_your_mortgage_problems_index_ew/mortgage_rescue_schemes.htm

If you are eligible and your mortgage co supports the scheme, you will be able to come to an agreement on what you can pay whilst the rescue is in process. We paid less than half our monthly mortgage payment whilst going through MRS.

So try not to worry, the CAB will talk through your options with you. Good luck.

Angie x