Advice Needed

Martin1986

Hi Everyone I'm new to the forums, I often use them to look to try and gather some ideas,
I feel my situation as got to a point where something needs done for my long term future. I have a pretty long and complicated situation that I will try to explain the best I can.
I will start from the beggining, last August I split up with my ex partner who I still have ties with in the form of a joint mortgage, joint loan and my 2 year old daughter (she is relevent to my money situation). To cut a long story short she agreed to pay the mortgae and the loan when I left as I was leaving her the house and I had significant debt in the form of 3 credit cards, 2 loans & 2 catalouges that were for the benefit of us both earlier in our relationship. At first this was fine I was manageing my payments and had a good credit rating so planned to stay on top of my debts, balance transfers etc. This was until she allowed the mortgage and loan to go into arrears without me having any idea. I found this out because I was in the process off speaking to the mortgage company about getting removed. This was all underway until the contacted me to say they could no longer remortgage for just my ex because there was 2 months arrears. I was in no position to pay this as I had my commitments and my ex earns considerably more than I do. Anyway again cutting out the non important details they agreed that if she got a guarantor and made continueous payments for 6 months they would remove me in December this year, which is on track.
As for the loan this is more recent and I tried negociating with them this week as she is refusing to contribute, but I will get back to this as it fits in with my current dilema.
After all this my credit rating has took a massive hit and now nobody will touch me and I am left paying lots of intrest, so the minimum payments wich I can afford to pay barely reduce my balance.
My Mam helped out earlier this year by giving me a loan which I manged to pay off 1 loan, reduce my credit card balances away from the credit limit (although the card issuers reduced my credit limit staright away) and pay off the buy now pay later balances on the 2 catalogues meaning I wouldnt pay any intrest on them. This was a massive help and for the last couple of months I have got on top of everything and with a bit of unusual overtime around at work I was beggining to see light at the end of the tunnel.
Until the beggining of this week, when my ex decided that she was going to stop me seeing my daughter as much as I do. Which means huge solicitors bill as I plan to fight her. Also my child support is going to increase because of the reduced time I am rele!!!!ly going to spend with my daughter. On top of this I have just moved into a property with my new partner that we are renting as our baby is due in November.
This is where the joint loan comes into it, i had a telephone appointment on monday to try and re structure this loan as my ex is refusing to pay anyting and I dont want to ignore it. They took my income and expenditure (used my basic wage as overtime is not guaranteed) and they told me my current situation was I was paying out more that I earn and could not help me. They gave me the number for the CCCS which I plan to ring this evening.
I did not realise my situation was that bad due to the recent overtime, and really want soemthing done now before I start to incurr the new costs of increased child support and solicitors bills.
I would be truely grateful of any advice as I don't know where to turn, especially with all my personal credit up to date and the prospect of that changing as of now.
Hope this makes sense

HappyMJ

An SOA would be great. If you are paying the mortgage of the property where your child is living then you can reduce your child support contribution by the same amount as it's all for the benefit of the child. Are you doing this?

Martin1986

Hi, I am not paying anything towards the mortgage. So won't change the CSA, but I do have a baby due in Novemebr which will reduce it by 15%. It will still be an increase as I currently pay the lowest amount as I have been having my daughter over 175 nights per year, but my ex wants to reduce this for no reason (well probably for money)

Here is my current SOA

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1 (daughter has been with me 3/4 nights per week)
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1300
Partners monthly income after tax....... Me & my partner are both independant financially
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1300
Monthly Expense Detail
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 368
Rent.................................... 200 (share payment with my partner to a family memeber who we rent from, this incluse all bills, gas & electric etc)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 45
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 70 (CSA)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 1053

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 12000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 12000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 18500....(368)
Total secured & HP debts...... 18500

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly
Halifax Laon...................700.......23.42
RBS Joint Loan.................2500......70
Halifax CC.....................260.......11
Laon from Mam..................10000.....130
Littlewoods....................490.......25
Choice Catalouge...............1000......60
Virgin CC......................2150......65
Barclaycard....................2400......55
Total unsecured debts..........19500.....439.42

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]
Total monthly income.................... 1,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,053
Available for debt repayments........... 247
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 439.42
Amount short for making debt repayments. -192.42

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 12,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -18,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -19,500
Net Assets.............................. -26,000

This is my current situation but I do't know how much it will change with solicitors and CSA

anh1904

175 nights per year is shared care, and makes your CSA payment look very high, I would be inclined to talk to them about it.

What is the HP for, and is there an option to walk away from it, for car finance (I am not an expert) there are rules about being able to surrender without penalty which you could research.

Other than your mobile (can you go sim only for £10/month for example) I'd say your living pretty cheaply.

Martin1986

Yeah 175 nights per year is classed as shared care but still requires me to pay £18 per week as I don't recieve the child benefit so am still classed as the non resident parent. So I am pretty worried what they are going to expect from me now my ex is trying to reduce my overnight stays

If I surrenderd my car finance then I would still owe the company alot of money as my car is not worth what I owe due to it being only 9 months old.

I am tied into a contract with my mobile until June next year, plus I require the free minutes on my contract to keep in contact with my daughter as I don't have a landline.

I basically have always managed to get by every month often with some help from family, but now don't see how in my current and possibly worse future situation I can manage to live and take care of my new family when baby arrives in november.

What sort of help will the CCCS possibly offer me?

Can they help me while I am currently up to date on all my accounts apart from the Joint Loan my ex has kindly left for me to deal with?