Its so unfair why wont someone help?

Edinburghlass_2

I was in a similar position with a business that wasn't making any money. I started with a £2,000 overdraft and by the time I took the decision to close it was £8,000. Over the years my bank manager had suggested that I think seriously about closing but I put my head in the sand and tried various ways to get out of the hole I was digging. I was lucky in that I had some money behind me and a business property to sell but it took the approaching Millennium to make me think I don't want to go into 2000 with this millstone round my neck.

As you are both just in your 30s I have to agree that if you aren't making money you seriously have to think about closing your business. You say your husband has a part time job, can you not consider turning the part-time into full time and the car valeting into a weeked job and keeping your customers that way.

Will you actually make any money renting out your house or is it just a way to pay the mortgage? Perhaps you might well be better off renting the spare room as you can do this tax free whereas if you make any money in renting the whole house you will have to pay tax on it. Plus if you have months where there are no tenants the mortgage still has to be paid. Will you be living close to your house as you could then collect the rent yourself and keep an eye on the tenants as going through an agency can cost a fair amount of money. I have a friend who has a couple of flats in multiple occupancy and she personally collects the rent on the 1st of each month that way seeing to any problems and checking on the property herself. Also tenants expect a repair to say washing machine to be done immediately whereas if it was your own washing machine at home you would make do until you had the money to renew or repair. Just a few observations for you to take onboard.

trafalgar_2

Hi Heddwen
What it means if you sell your house is that you will have a larger amount to pay back to building society before any profit from sale

It may make a differance in obtaining a motrtgage from someone else after that , credit/debt history issues but as nh has suggested it is best to post those questions on the mortgage bored, where hopefully they will have the answers to your questions

good luck ;D

Heddwen_2

edinburghlass


Hi

Thanks for the input

We would like to rent out our spare room, but I have concerns about it due to troubles we have had doing similar in the past.

Up until the beginning of this year we rented out our spare room through a local foreign student school. The students were ok but the schools representative wasn't very apreciative. The students were here to learn English and also had part time jobs allowed on their student visas.

They were supposed to stay with us for 12 months at a time, but within 8 months we had 4 students. We started off with 2 Russian girls who were nice but never had any money so the school relied on 'charity donations' from the associated Church. They ran away, leaving us stranded.

Then a month later we had 20 year old lad who only came over here to become a drug dealer in the guise he wanted to work and learn. The school sent him packing back to Brazil.

Finally we had another late teenage lad from Brazil who stayed for 2 months and disapeared into the local town to share a house with his school mates.

The school didnt help and took no responsibility so we have burnt our bridges with them, infact it may possibly be a pinch their fault we are in this difficulty as their students rent was keeping us afloat.

Our other bad encounter was when we rented out our old house 'privately' with an off the shelf contract from W H Smiths but it turned sour.

I have contemplated advertising it on the internet but am unsure if we have the ability not to be walked all over, taken for a ride or the wool pulled over our eyes.

Is there an agency that does tennant fuind (with references) and rent collection without us having to pay for the extra services?

It would be interesting to learn how your collegue manages to do it as we would like to stay put and rent out our spare room.

Thanks

Heddwen

jg

Don't know if this helps, but see:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Others;action=display;num=1082157337

Edinburghlass_2

Heddwen I have gone back and read the first page of this thread and I see from that and your recent post that you already have tried renting out your spare room which obviously didn't bring in the money to pay your mortgage and so the £2,000 arrears. I think first of all you have to ask yourself what would be different this time. The hard facts are you have more money going out of the house than coming in and that seems to be the case even if the spare room is rented. The only difference you can make is by interviewing tenants yourself, obtaining their references and checking them out, then collecting the rent monthly. I wouldn't imagine you would find any rental company prepared to do this for nothing after all that is how they make their money. I would suggest you have to do the same if you are renting the whole house. Also if you have made the arrangement with the bank on the strength of renting the house and not a room they would need to be told of your change of plan and they may well not accept it particularly if they know you have already gone down this route. Not only do the bank want their arrears but they do want some assurance that future mortgage payments will be paid.

I also read Martin's post regarding not spending on anything and I would suggest on this site you only read the Freebies board as I know to my cost a lot of the offers posted elsewhere can be very tempting

There is no magic wand, the only "fix" would be more money coming into the house by whatever means you can and if this means closing the business this is what you and hubby have to do. You say it should bring in more money over the summer but what if it doesn't and you get into an arrears situation with the bank again plus the credit card by then will be asking for interest as well as minimum payment.

Incidentally I have also rented out a house and been done for rent, left with horrendous bills and could have done with Kim and Aggie to clean up after the tenants left! That is why I recommend that you do this yourself and keep an eye on what is going on monthly.

This may all sound harsh but I have been there and got the t-shirt. Getting the bank to defer your arrears is a temporary "fix" when what you need is to increase your income and decrease your outgoings and I think you know the answer to that one. Getting hubby to agree to close the business will obviously be a problem, my only suggestion would be get him to read all of these replies

vanoonoo

I also read Martin's post regarding not spending on anything and I would suggest on this site you only read the Freebies board as I know to my cost a lot of the offers posted elsewhere can be very tempting  

I think this is the most important bit of advice you can take between you. the two of you really need to re evaluate your spending. I notice in recent posts you have talked about sky plus upgrades and icecream makers, are these really essential items when compared with losing your house?

Andrea

Sorry Heddwen but I have to agree.

I think your priorities should be focused on sorting out the house problems. I wouldn't be paying for Sky TV if I knew that money could help get me out of a financial hole.

I really hope you take this as some well-meaning friends trying to help.

Take care,

Andrea

jg

None of us are in your home and know what things are really like for you, but my sense, having read the whole thread, is that the last three posts are probably correct.

You titled this thread, "Its so unfair why wont someone help". It seems to me a lot of people are trying to help, aren't they?

Really, there are four options:

1. Get more income somehow. Several suggestions have been made, only you know how practical they are. Rent is one possibility, work changes, odd jobs -- have you actually pursued any of the suggestions?

2. Reduce spending somehow. You may not be able to reduce it enough to solve the problem, but every little helps. Only you know where you can cut, but if you are totally ruthless with yourself, you can cut a lot. Been there, done that. Not easy, but oh so worth it when you are out of the hole.

Check every expenditure, and say, "Can I eliminate this entirely?" If you just can't bring yourself to do that, ask yourself, "Can I eliminate it for six months?" If not possible, how about one month?

Maybe you can't live without sky plus upgrades (you can, of course, billions do). But you can live without it for a few months. Is that by chance one of the direct debits that is causing the overdrafts on your account?

What else could you do without for a few months? You have to make these decisions yourself, it isn't our place to tell you where to cut spending. But you have the consequences as well, and the benefits if you succeed.

3. Get help restructuring your debt. Have you been to CAB yet? This won't solve anything, but it will help.

4. Whinge, and wait for someone to bail you out. But you know that won't happen, which is why you posted for help.

You may not need to change your work situation. You may not need to eliminate lots of spending. But you either have to increase ingoings or decrease outgoings, that's simple maths. Their are different ways to change the equation, and changing work or slashing spending are the two most obvious options, but not necessarily the only ones.

You've taken the first step by asking for suggestions. Now, you need to take the second, start implementing some of those suggestions. Do like Rochdale Guy did on his credit card and report your progress.

So: Decide one thing each day that you will do to help the situation -- an expense to cancel, an attempt to get extra work, whatever. Report back on what you've accomplished. You will feel great about the things you've done, even if you only have something small to report. Success breeds success, one step at a time.

Go water down your shampoo a little bit like Linda did, and let us know. It's a small start, but it is something. Choose something else tomorrow -- and let us know.

Everybody is on your side here, even if we say things you don't want to hear. None of us are experts on your situation, but a lot of people are trying to help. But help only goes so far, you are the only one who can make this happen.

nh

I have to agree as well. It has been a month since your first post, Heddwen. What have you actually done? You can't continue to put your head in the sand about all this as at the moment your debts are not that bad. But they will get bad if nothing is done soon. Sorry to have to say that. You both need full-time jobs!!!

Heddwen_2

::) Well excuse me for living!

Ok what have I actually done this past month?

1 I have increased our client base through leafleting targeted comunity areas.

2 I have also expanded the jobs we do and therefore brought in additional income through grass cuttting, dog walking, house cleaning, rubbish removal.

3 We have done several car boot sales and got rid of our 'junk' to pay off a few bills.

4 I have applied to ALL the local supermarkets and job vacancies going, whether I have the relevant skills or not. I have also sent out speculative job applications to companies who arnt even advertising vacancies.

5 I have taken on weekly paper round and enquired into a 'betterware' round.

6 I have battled with bill companies AND the BOS AND DMS debt management to get to where we are today which is making / convincing them allow us to help ourselves by renting out the house that is causing us trouble as we cannot afford to live here.

7 I have had to put driving lessons on hold as the money is better spent on a bill, therefore I am having to do local errands as I cannot afford the bus fare.

8 I have registered with some of the local agencies for temporary work at local events throught the summer weekends.

9 I have put an ad in a few places such as the hospital staff notice board reguarding a room to rent.

10 I have been to see the letting agents about renting out our home

11 I have liased with my in-laws about moving in with them, and tried to find a home for our cat.

12 I have cut down our food shopping to the essential items and we come close to living off the basics like beans on toast, or egg sarnies or a bowl of cereal each day. We drink tap water. Wash up by hand instead of using the dishwasher.

13 We wash our clothes in the bath we share with us to save on hot water.

14 We use 1 customers monthly income to pay for our sky TV (we do not have Sky +, it was merely an enquirey for future reference), and internet. We would like to have an icecream maker as I cannot afford a tiny tub of icecream holding a few scoops of soya free icecream and costing £2.50 a tub from the local health food store. I didnt say I wanted to buy a new one just enquired if making icecream with soya milk worked. I would buy one at a car boot sale if found one decent enough, or do a swap.


Many of these suggestions came from your suggestive postings so thank you for keeping me motivated!
I could go on but I am sure some will only nit pick for the sake of not thinking I have a life. Just because I dont keep a daily diary on here about the things I have done doesnt mean I am sitting about moping all day.

The CAB didnt help much
I realise you are a caring friendly lot only trying to help but sometimes comments can hurt as well so I appologise for sounding tetchy and for spouting off. Perhaps I needed to get it out of my system??


I have, do not nor ever will be an osterich and hide away from problems. Why do you think I asked for help in the first place?

Please if I have offended anyone or spoken out a little too much I am dreadfully sorry, but the last 2 posts irritated me a little but I have now realised you cannot see what I have done except for this window into my life crisis.

Please forgive me but I am entitled to vent as well am I not??

THANKS AGAIN EVERYBODY FOR YOUR KINDNESS AND HELP AND ACCEPTING MY CHALLENGE MAY YOUR LIVES BE ENLIGHTENED WITH THE SENSE OF DO GOODING.

Keep you posted (if you dont want to know dont be curious and come back).

Hope you keep in touch still.

Oh and for those of you wondering no my husband hasnt read this post yet and no I havent convinced him to change his lifestyle, but I have got him additional clients and am working towards finding employment for the winter!

:-[