Thinking or selling and renting due to health issues need advice please

melie3

hi im new to this board...

Ok, here it goes.... i lost my job last sunday, i only worked sundays, i was dismissed for having unacceptable level of absence after 16 yrs with company. Its not the end of my life really, i started up a business last yr, and although ive put a lot of money in, ive made a small profit so not a high earner, but has potential to be, as i had a business proposition on thursday last week, so will see how it pans out.

Ok enough about me.... my husband has had crohns disease for 16 yrs, and last monday (i know a day after i was sacked)... we found out his crohns is active again, he has a narrowing in the bowel and ulcered, so at best, it doesnt look good, waiting to see consultant on that one.....
Hubby is not a high earner, ive told tax credits and ive had my money upped etc...
We have about £400 arrears on mortgage, which we are paying, but now ive lost the job, we will struggle a little, we have other debts which are being paid token payments, or with DCA's etc, so our financial position is less than pretty.
We have 3 children (all girls) and live in a tiny 2 bedroom house which we bought 15 yrs ago.
My main concern is my hubby, im worried if he has to have an operation, or is sick etc, he doesnt get paid sick leave, just SSP, so we are under more pressure worrying about him being ill. He thinks he will HAVE to go to work even if he is ill, which i wouldnt want him doing that if he really is poorly, and making him worse and stressed out...
Ive had some estate agents round, and after fees etc, we would come out with approx £38k out of the house sale, if it was to sell. I want to get out of mortgages and stress and worry etc, and would settle my mortgage and other debts (well try to negotiate a settlement figure, they are credit card/ loan debts) nothing is secured to property etc....we have approx £15-20k other debt....
So my idea (yes, my hubby isnt sure what to do, im also under insured if anything happened to him... another worry) is to sell this house and rent a bigger house, my eldest is almost 12, and ive a 5 and 3 yr old all in one bedroom, so Really we do need a bigger house, just couldnt afford to remortgage.....
Ok this is where i lose hubby.... our mortgage is £400 p/m.... renting a 3 bed house seems to be around £800-900 around our local and outside areas.....i have an idea to pay a yrs rent, and see how things go.... obviously we are concerned we wont be able to afford rent after that time.... and also worried if hubby fell ill enough that he cant work we cant meet firstly our mortgage so would be repossessed, or rent we would be evicted......im not sure if there is any help, i know when hubby was ill last time and was sick for 8 weeks, i was entitled to £19 off our council tax bill each month.....wasnt worth the 23 page application form to be honest!...
ive tried ringing CAB, but theyre not answering phone, so looking to you guys for your take on my situation......
Id hate to lose my house because we cant afford it, we have lived here a long time, and done everything to it, id hate someone to walk right in here and have to do nothing all for our demise...:(

LisaLou1982

Sorry to hear of your situation. I dont think i can help too much, but i do work with people in your situation (and worse sometimes unfortunately ) so i have some idea.

Worse case scenario - your hubby cant work and you arent working. If you still own your own house, the best you can hope for is for the interest to be paid on your mortgage but that may or may not help you depending on how much the repayments are.

If you sell, and neither you nor your hubby are working then you will be able to claim LHA and CTB so depending on where abouts you are in the country, then that should cover either all or most of your rent and would enable you to get a 3 bed house.

Does your hubby receive DLA for his chrones? if not, then get an application in as that will be extra income for you. Likewise, either carers allowance for yourself or JSA/IS to help boost the income.

If it were me, i would sell up whilst i have some money in the property as it will reduce the stress in the long run for you if you dont see your situation changing any time soon. It would put you in a better position with a bigger house too and you know that you would be entitled to receive LHA to pay the rent whilst youre not working.

Hope that helps a little

Jowo_2

Post a brief summary of your potential plans on the benefit forum to understand how the equity you get would impact the receipt of means tested benefits, whether your husband should apply for DLA, for example.

I'm not sure whether or not a debtor is allowed to use equity from the sale of a property to pay off debts and then claim means tested benefits - there are complex deprivation of capital/notional capital rules. Make sure you understand whether you can in fact satisfy your debts and then claim benefits or whether the dwp will expect you to continue with modest debt repayments and use your capital to live on.

Read the Shelter website for their advice on how to deal with mortgage arrears and the various government schemes that are in place to prevent repossession for homeowners.

You can model some scenarios using the Entitled to website.

None of your plans involve your taking up full time employment - is child care an issue?

melie3

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

Sorry to hear of your situation. I dont think i can help too much, but i do work with people in your situation (and worse sometimes unfortunately ) so i have some idea.

Worse case scenario - your hubby cant work and you arent working. If you still own your own house, the best you can hope for is for the interest to be paid on your mortgage but that may or may not help you depending on how much the repayments are.

If you sell, and neither you nor your hubby are working then you will be able to claim LHA and CTB so depending on where abouts you are in the country, then that should cover either all or most of your rent and would enable you to get a 3 bed house.

Does your hubby receive DLA for his chrones? if not, then get an application in as that will be extra income for you. Likewise, either carers allowance for yourself or JSA/IS to help boost the income.

If it were me, i would sell up whilst i have some money in the property as it will reduce the stress in the long run for you if you dont see your situation changing any time soon. It would put you in a better position with a bigger house too and you know that you would be entitled to receive LHA to pay the rent whilst youre not working.

Hope that helps a little

hi thanks for that.
no he doesnt get any DLA, he also has diabetes, we get out child tax credit, and child benefit and nothing more....
i dont know what to do for the best...i want to sell, and pay maybe a yrs rent out in one go, so we know we are ok for then and see how the yr goes....
childcare is an issue at the moment, have one still at home, and i dont think id work in the day when they are at school 1, because of my business commitments (im a cake maker, and bake about 3 a week), and 2, when the childs ill have to take time off, which the 2 employers ive had have always dim viewed it.
Hubby is still working full time for now, dont know what the future holds, if only we had a crystal ball eh!....
i think we would just sell, but hubby is worried that once we have run out of our equity and have no money for the rent (we struggled sometimes now with a £400 p/m mortgage, and my salary ive just lost earned me £400 p/m, so basically in theory im struggling even more now to pay mortgage).....what would happen if we had sold house, a yr down the line weve no money left etc, and god forbid we are evicted would we get housed, or would the council help etc..... hubby earns 20k a yr....

Fire_Fox

Of course it is worth filling in the council tax benefit application, £19 a month is £228 a year or £1140 over five years even if council tax does not increase! Also you now have Sundays free so have the time to complete the form, you will not have to reapply from scratch if your circumstances worsen. This will save you stressing about the firm if DH gets too sick to work.

As far as mortgage goes you may be eligible for Support for Mortgage Interest
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_180321
Bear in mind too that one benefit often opens the door to other help - if you have pets and claim council tax benefit you would be eligible for PDSA treatment, also you may be able to access social tariffs for your energy bills etc.

melie3

bumping......

dawyldthing

If it was me i wouldn't sell the house as paying 400 pounds morgage will be better than paying 800 pounds in rent. I'm pretty certain that as long as you are paying money towards the rent they can't boot you out. Could you develop the loft so it could be the 3rd bedroom you need? The debts can stay on hold - the main thing you need to do is to sort health problems out as if not then it could escalte further. I don't think the council will help with that sort of money in the bank - this should give you more info http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/BeginnersGuideToBenefits/DG_4016805


For part time work - could you work as a dinner lady/ lollypop lady/ exam invigilator to help make up the money lost from not working Sundays as in many areas they are crying out for people doing these jobs.

All the best for the future tho hun, fingers crossed it will get better

melie3

dawyldthing wrote: »

If it was me i wouldn't sell the house as paying 400 pounds morgage will be better than paying 800 pounds in rent. I'm pretty certain that as long as you are paying money towards the rent they can't boot you out. Could you develop the loft so it could be the 3rd bedroom you need? The debts can stay on hold - the main thing you need to do is to sort health problems out as if not then it could escalte further. I don't think the council will help with that sort of money in the bank - this should give you more info http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/BeginnersGuideToBenefits/DG_4016805


For part time work - could you work as a dinner lady/ lollypop lady/ exam invigilator to help make up the money lost from not working Sundays as in many areas they are crying out for people doing these jobs.

All the best for the future tho hun, fingers crossed it will get better

thats for that...
the house is soo small we are a mid terrace so cant build out, the loft is tiny cant stand up even in the centre, its just a 2 up 2 down house.
the health prblems hubby has (diabetes, crohns and osteo arthritis) wont get better he will probably get worse i expect he is 38 now....
i dont intend to have any money much left over from house sale if i sold up (we would profit roughly £35k....) then with my debts its about a further 15k off that, my 8 yr old car needs a clutch at £800, id pay a yrs rent if they would let us up front, and weve never had a family holiday so after what weve been thru id like to do that... so not leaving much left i guess...
im trying to make my business more profitable, so looking at other ways to do that etc....

Hmm_2

Hi,

I'm a fellow Crohn's sufferer and my husband and I have been in your position. My advice would be to get in touch with CCCS regarding the debts and to contact CAB to check your eligibility for the mortgage assistance schemes that are available for people who have a temporary change in circumstances. These are:
1. The homeowner mortgage support scheme
2. Mortgage rescue assistance
3. support for mortgage assistance.

Some further info on these schemes can be found on the direct gov website and enter the names into the search bar. These could be useful if you husband is going to be off work for a few months, maybe even a year recovering from surgery and adapting to life with an ileostomy.

I think you should try to hold on to the security of having your own home.

All the best to you both whatever you decide, I know it's not easy......

millym

Hi, I really feel for you all, you must be very stressed out by all this, but please don't rush into selling your home until you' ve considered all the options.

If I were you I would not give up the security of owning your own home and moving into a private let. I have rented privately for many years and know all the pitfalls. I've had landlords who have left us for several months with broken central heating over the winter, who told the council the property was rented by students then 2 years later I get a massive council tax bill (I thought I was getting full CTB!), who told me they will never sell then go bankrupt and give me a notice to quit. These are only a few examples and I have a great landlord at the mo, but he is thinking of selling some of his properties...

All this to me equals more stress than having to find what seems to me like a pretty small mortgage. I have been too ill to work for over 10 years now, and the one thing I would really like is the security of my own home!

What if you rent a place and at the end of the year they want you out? You will then have all the stress of finding a new place, agency fees, removal expenses etc etc.

I know your house is very small, but I know a couple who brought up 2 kids in a 1 bed flat, by sleeping on a sofa bed in the living room. Maybe you could do this and let your older daughter have the other bedroom, especially if you have 2 rooms downstairs?

Another option to up your income is working evenings or weekends. I worked in catering in the evenings for many years which worked out well as we never needed a babysitter and my DD was in bed for most of my working hours.

HTH x

Fire_Fox

melie3 wrote: »

thats for that...
the house is soo small we are a mid terrace so cant build out, the loft is tiny cant stand up even in the centre, its just a 2 up 2 down house.
the health prblems hubby has (diabetes, crohns and osteo arthritis) wont get better he will probably get worse i expect he is 38 now....
i dont intend to have any money much left over from house sale if i sold up (we would profit roughly £35k....) then with my debts its about a further 15k off that, my 8 yr old car needs a clutch at £800, id pay a yrs rent if they would let us up front, and weve never had a family holiday so after what weve been thru id like to do that... so not leaving much left i guess...
im trying to make my business more profitable, so looking at other ways to do that etc....

And are you then thinking of claiming means-tested benefits in order to live? :huh: If so you really need to thoroughly research 'deprivation of capital' - unfortunately the state does not see paying off your debts in full as essential and they will probably treat you as if you still have that money.

If you have debts and a very limited income then you might consider going onto a free Debt Management Plan with one of the debt charities CCCS or Payplan. Initially you can offer token payments of £1 a month, template letters for this are on the Debt-free Wannabe board.