Help - is there a mortgage like this available?

vet8

I have a problem that I hope someone can help me with.
My husband and I (sounds pretty royal doesn’t it!!) live in a bungalow with a few acres of land. We love the place and do not want to move. The trouble is that due to a change of circumstances we are struggling like hell to pay the mortgage and other bills, we have taken on extra work so that we both do several jobs and work very long hours, but we can only just survive each month, if we are lucky.

In 12 years time we will own the house. But what good will that do us? It makes no difference to us if we own the house or the bank does as long as we can live in it. By then we shall be close to retirement, but have no pension as we cannot afford to put any money aside at all at the moment.

What I wondered is – is there some sort of “mortgage” or other product which will release the value of the house to us now so that we can stop paying the mortgage. We have absolutely no dependants and no one at all who we want to leave the house to and I certainly do not intend to leave it to the bl**dy tax man!!.

It seems silly to work ourselves into the ground to pay off the mortgage then own the house when we retire although we shall have no real use for the £500,000 or so it is worth. We shall not want to sell it to realise the money.

Is there a scheme whereby a bank, for example, will buy it and let us stay there rent free until we die or is that just wishful thinking? We are both far too young for equity release schemes.

Thanks
:beer:

MortgageMamma

have you approached your mortgage lender and discussed the difficulties you are facing? this seems like the best step to take initially, they may be able to offer you an arrangement to take the pressure off...

hethmar

Im not an expert but I have been reading about something called a lifetime mortgage where you basically stop paying now but the interest rolls up over the rest of your life. I dont know if you have to be over 60 for this though.

You can get a mortgage over a longer period - have you thought of doing that? I think the best thing would be for you to go to a good broker and ask for their advice.

Is there anyway you could sell off some of the land?

GSD4ME

Thanks for these comments.

I am not keen to go to the mortgage company and say we are in financial trouble as I feel that may brand us as "people in difficulty" and affect our credit rating. I may well be wrong here though, but it has always seemed to be a bad idea to advertise to your creditors that you are hard up.

We could sell off some of the land, but as plain agricultural land it would not be worth a great deal and the chance of planning consent on the land is virtually nil at the moment. Although I did wonder if a building company might take an option on it on the chance of getting consent to build loads of houses in the future. The neighbours would not like that though!

If we extended the mortgage term that would take us both past retirement age, would a mortgage lender contemplate that?

grade15

I think talking in general about what other options you have with your mortgage company is best..than have a detailed report with them..or you can say..I have a friend in this situation..what options does my friend have!!!!!!:dance:
maybe they can ease the pressure.. or go to other mortgage companies / brokers...I'm sure with this adjustment..someone wants to make some money out there!

MortgageMamma

GSD4ME wrote:

Thanks for these comments.

I am not keen to go to the mortgage company and say we are in financial trouble as I feel that may brand us as "people in difficulty" and affect our credit rating. I may well be wrong here though, but it has always seemed to be a bad idea to advertise to your creditors that you are hard up.

We could sell off some of the land, but as plain agricultural land it would not be worth a great deal and the chance of planning consent on the land is virtually nil at the moment. Although I did wonder if a building company might take an option on it on the chance of getting consent to build loads of houses in the future. The neighbours would not like that though!

If we extended the mortgage term that would take us both past retirement age, would a mortgage lender contemplate that?

Hi There

Your mortgage company will not "brand" you for saying you are struggling to meet the mortgage payments. They have a duty to assist you and to try and help prevent you going into arrears. If you actually do fail to make payments on your mortgage this is a different matter, it will be noted on your credit record.

Some companies will lend past retirement age so long as it can be foreseen there will be sufficient income to keep paying it. If you have savings plans or endowments they could well help too.

As for selling a bit of land, that is a very good idea IMO. I'd at least have it valued. As for your neighbours, unless they are going to pay the mortgage for you, forget about them, you have to do what is right for YOU. In the same situation I doubt any of them would be so conscientious of your wishes.

The best thing you could do at this stage is open up the dialogue with your mortgage lender.

Good luck

MM

hethmar

You wouldnt need to speak to YOUR mortgage company - find a broker and let him tell you the options you may have - you could be pleasantly surprised that there are more than you think.

I also believe you should think about yourself, not the neighbours - Ive been in many a situation where I thought of the neighbours first but when the option came up for them, we featured nowhere.

Neighbours change and although you may like your present ones, what if they decide to sell up.

This is definitely a time to put yourself first.