Its so unfair why wont someone help?

tru

Heddwen, you haven't posted for a while so I assume you're busy. Hope everything is working out for you ;D

Heddwen_2

Hi

Sorry I haven't posted for a while but we've been through a good patch and a bad patch.

The good patch is that the business is bringing in enough money by its self to cover its overheads, although its certainly not as busy as this time last year and hasn't picked up yet so with any luck the good weather shall continue into October! Although we dont plan to rely on this of course!

The bad side of life is that as suspected will come the Bank Of Scotland have started reposession of our house. I have spoken to them and advised them that the house in on the market but they tell me the only way to stop proceedings now is to get a confirmed offer and get the buyers solicitor to send a confirmation of purchase letter to BOS solicitors.

I offered them £3,000 (goodness knows where I would find the money) to clear the arears to see if they would give us some time to sell but they wouldn't accept it.

We bought the house in January 2003 for £128,000 and had it on the market back in March this year at £145,000 and (not sure if I mentioned this) had an interest but we turned down the offer and took it off the market as my husband and I were both persuaded by certain family members to "sit tight and scrape through untill next year as they can help us out due to their pension savings being accessible. Alternatively on the sale of Grahams Nans house they could give us a few thousand to get us out of the hole." but "if we just sit tight and wait for about 6 months to 12 months they can help".

If only I had listened to my inner instincts and not them we almost certainly wouldn't have been at the reposession stage now, but sold our house and made a tidy profit.

As it is now our house was valued last week at £155,000 (thus £10,000 more than quoted in March this year). However the lady who was so keen to buy it back in March has placed an offer again at £135,000 - it is all she can afford now what with intrest rates rising etc. Which means as we owe £115,000 to BOS we will come away with a pityful £19,000 (given £1,000 for solicitor and estate agent fees) and not the neat profit of £40,000 we should have.

I am so anoyed I didnt listen to my own decision to sell back in march, when even then we would have made a nice sum.

But the only 2 things I can learn from this is it is better to come out with £19,000 than nothing if they reposess and to do what I think is right and not be influenced by others, of course I will listen and learn to the advice they have to give, digest and make up my own mind in future!

Anyhow where has this left us today? We are going to accept the offer of £135,000 as we have no other options, the £19,000 profit will buy us a 2 bedroom 'park home' (a posh way of saying a caravan on a 12 month residential allowed site) so we will at least be mortgage / rent free ' forever' and will just have to find £250 a month for the site fees etc. I have done my sums rigerously and had our accountant check them and he agrees we can afford to live there (if not its a cardboard box as we are too low on the council house register of priority).

This money is already guaranteed to come in via Working Tax Credits each month, which for us total £280 per month so will leave us £30 spare for fod etc, ok the budget is tighter than ever before but we intend to learn this time. Plus any additional income we make will be a potential profit for once!

Moving to the caravan we will be unable to have a landline, so there will be one bill saved for a start and there is no council tax and all bills except gas and electric (which are metered and payable every 6 months) are included in the site fees per year giving us a staggering saving. The gas and electric are budgeted for within the £250 so at least the big bulk of the bill will be put by, with any luck we will have over budgeted.

Does anyone know if the cost of Gas and electric metered on a caravan park is any more costly than from a 2 bedroom house? I have budgeted the same amount as what we are paying in our house now (£61 per month combined).

Which brings me onto my main question for today (also repeated on other topics in this site). We will be left with about £6,000 of debt and want to consolidate this and pay it off as soon as possible so (if they accept my application) would we be better off getting a loan or one of the 0% credit cards (and perhaps doing a shuffle later on)? We would prefer to 'consolidate' our debts as it will give 1 easier budgeted repayment to keep track of and we can feel we are starting afresh with a clean slate of learning.

Bearing in mind our credit history will be poor. It has been said that if we accept this offer on the house and act fast then there will be no record on the files (we are in a position to act fast luckily as the buyer is all set to go, has nothing to sell and we have no chain above us).


Our bank refuses to help us so were moving all our accounts as have been told HSBC are better and more helpful and aproachable should problems occur.

We will have to either car boot, sell or chuck away almost all our posessions but with any luck we will make some money from them as we need a small amount of money to help us move into the caravan as we shall need a shed and a laptop computer as I now do some online research work for people, its not massive pay but it all helps. Plus with no landline its the way we will be keeping in touch with friends and family via e-mail - If I discover a completely wire free way of using the internet! Anyone know how would be a great help!
Although I can travel to my inlaws or an internet cafe and use theirs but it would be cheaper and easier not to due to the location of the caravan site.
I wont waffle on anymore but if someone could answer the few questions the advice would be helpful.
So now youve had an update I can only hope for the positive comments to follow as we intend to look fowards and not back as we cant solve the past!

Thanks for everyones continuing intrest and support.

Keep in touch.

;D

alexei_2

Hi Heddwen,

I appreciate the urgency of the situation re the house sale, but as your house has been valued at £155k, surely you can negotiate a better price with this buyer - perhaps half the difference. In that way they are still getting a good deal and you will have paid off all of your debt. Worth a try!!!

Good luck whatever.

Heddwen_2

Hi Alexi

No unfortunately thats the limit maxed out they can now offer (thanks mainly to % rates increasing). The potential buyer has done all the figure work, spoken with her advisors etc and that is the flat sum they can aford. We can't even squeeze an extra £1,000 from them to cover the fees and be left with £20,000 to buy our caravan having £1,000 less to borow elsewhere!) So its certainly a case of something or nothing!

Thats life hey!

alexei_2

Sounds like you're too nice!!!!

It also sounds like they are aware of your predicament, which puts them in a strong position and you in a weak one.

It's a difficult situation I know.

How are they going to cope when interest rates rise further. In my experience people tend to manage.

House buying is a strange phenomenen. If it's the right house you would be surprised how far people are prepared to stretch their finances to buy it.

If it were me I would negotiate harder - but you are the one making the decisions - and whatever you do don't lose the sale unless you've got someone else lined up.

DiggingOut

I'm sorry about your house , but it will be great for you to be mortgage free.

Debt consolidation is rarely all that helpful. You can end up in a rule of 78 situation where you pay so much interest up front that it doesn't help at all. Maybe if you can get a cahoot flexible loan.

If you can get a 0% card, you could put some of it on that, but it may be difficult to get one.

What rate of interest are you paying on the debts right now?

DiggingOut

p.s. I would ask BOS how long you have before you have to give them evidence of a confirmed offer. In fact, I would tell them you have an offer already, but are hoping for slightly more, and ask them how quickly you have to act to hold off the repossession.

If you have a little time, I would hold off another week or two and try to get a better offer from someone else on your house. List it at £140K, reduced to rock bottom price. If you can get it, you have virtually cleared your debt as well.

Good luck!

Heddwen_2

The reposession has already started (only just) so we have no time or we would lose the sale and have no alternaive.

We have accepted the offer and writen to both BOS and their solicitors to inform them of what we are doing.

We have included a 'clause' within the acceptance of purchase that it exchange within 4 weeks and complete within 6 thus as you say if they are that ready to go ahead they will push harder.

We now have to raise £1,000 deposit (cash) within 7 days to firmly secure the caravan is ours we want as its 6 weeks away and they could sell it next week!

Theres always something in the way whatever life brings!

Cheers!

DiggingOut

Theres always something in the way whatever life brings!

True. But always a way forward for the person who is determined to find it! Change direction, maybe, but never give up.

Consider this a chapter of the book of your life that is now closed, don't waste time on regrets, look forward. You'll make it.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

£20,000 below asking price something smells fishy to me!! I would try it with another agent in the meantime I think you're having the wool pulled over your eyes because of your predicament. I could understand maybe £5/7,000 below but not that much in this market. Be careful your Estate Agents are not using a member of their family/friends to buy to sell on, it does happen. Get a second opinion - BOS have only just started the proceedings I think you still have time.