Need help and advice for parents please!

Sunny_Bear

Hi all, Not been on here for ages but you were all so helpful Ive come back for a bit more advice, hope you dont mind!!

Its a bit of a long story but basically my parents are in financial trouble and were unsure of what to do.

My dad was made redundant about 18 months ago and ended up not being able to find work for about a year. He decided last Sept to go self employed (hes an electrician) and has been working for himself ever since.

He works very closely with one man, and the work is running very slow at the moments so they dont have work everyday, this means when hes not working hes not earning at all.

When he was off work, the mortgae was covered by insurance and I think he was up to date with the council tax ect, but he is now at the limit of his overdraft and all cards, and to be honest things arent getting paid.

My mum si disabled so cant work at all, she has a full time carer which is paid fro by the council, and she claims incapacity benefit.

They own there own home and I think they have about £50-90 equity in it, the trouble is the coucil have just paid over £20,000 to have a lift fitted, made two bedrooms into one, had the bathroom made into a wet room ect. They really need that house and there is no way they could manage in rented accommodation, my mum cant walk or barely move so they have hoists fitted ott he ceiling ect.

They have been told they cant remotgage as my dad hasnt been self employed for long enough, and to be honest his income is so variable hes got not set income.

What do we do? My dad is totally stressed out with this and with having to care form my mum in the evenings and weekends, a few weekends ago thye had a particulaly bad time and he was very close to breaking point, to the point where I had to give him some cash as he had about £2 to his name.

Hes been to the bank but she said there is nothing they can do.

I'm going to try and get him an appointment at the CAB but no idea how long this will take.

Does BR sound lie and option? Ive no idea how much debt they have, to be honest its my parents and I dont want to know, its there business, but I'd like to help them where I can. He obviouslt has the house, but would they be made to sell it, where would they go then? Also he has his work van that he took a loan out for, would he loose that?

Would a DMP be better? or an IVA?

My dads a bit old fashioned and likes to do things face to face, hense going to see the bank manager, so Im not sure if he would call CCCS.

Thanks, sorry its so rambly!!

bat-out-of-hell

With that sort of equity, BR is not a good idea at all.

Unless there are secured loans that offset it that you have not mentioned

An IVA may buy him breathing space, but again with that amount of equity, i doubt most creditors will agree without an equity release in the later years, so will be a gamble, if he can re mortgage in a few years it may work, and if not they may agree to extend the IVA, so in this case it is worth at least looking into.

A DMP is always a gamble if your sitting on a lot of equity, even if you can not realise it, as in this case, as a creditor may try there luck in court, for a CCJ, then a CO, followed by an application for forced sale.

A DMP offers no legal protection against any of that.

But if if the new legislation stopping forced sales for debts under 25K comes into force, that may change that

Best i can do on what you have posted

Annisele

Your parents really need advice from a debt counselling charity (not from one of the places that charges fees, and not from their bank - the bank, quite understandably, will be more interested in getting its money back than in helping your parents). There's a sticky with details of the right people to go to.

Without knowing a whole bundle of details that you're not going to want to ask your parents (how much is the debt, exactly what is their income, is the debt in both names or just your dad's, whose name is the house in etc) it's very difficult to say much.

bat-out-of-hell

Annisele wrote: »

Your parents really need advice from a debt counselling charity (not from one of the places that charges fees, and not from their bank - the bank, quite understandably, will be more interested in getting its money back than in helping your parents). There's a sticky with details of the right people to go to.

Without knowing a whole bundle of details that you're not going to want to ask your parents (how much is the debt, exactly what is their income, is the debt in both names or just your dad's, whose name is the house in etc) it's very difficult to say much.

Not in this case there is not, as CCCS has a vested intrest in getting an IVA, not sure about NDL, so i would go with CAB, BUT make sure you get an appointmant with a fully quallified money advisor, this is too important to risk not getting the correct advice, no matter how well intentioned it is.

And Annisele, please dont attack me for posting this, i have good reason, please accept that

Annisele

No intention of attacking anyone.

Your original post didn't say that CCCS had a vested interest in getting an IVA; looks like I posted the wrong info; so you corrected me. If somebody thinks you're wrong about CCCS - or has something to say about NDL - they can post that, and then you can say what you think about their post.

In any case the OP knows more than he did before, which is exactly the way forums are supposed to work. Given the nature of forums, an OP who takes any single post as absolute gospel truth is somewhat naive - but hopefully they'll still manage to gain something from the collective wisdom of this place.