Government Mortgage Rescue Scheme/ Unsuccessful Experience

immoral_angeluk

alexandra_cmpbll wrote: »

I think the government should help first time buyers. They should also widen the criteria for these schemes to help people like myself.

and they are, through such schemes... it's just that they have to limit the criteria or else everyone would be buying, and then inevitably you would have a large number of repossessions when people started to find the payments difficult.

alexandra_cmpbll

I would ask to that then, where have the people who do not meet the criteria to live? There is a dire shortage of housing in scotland, council/housing associations. Poorly paid people are left with no option but to take expensive private rental properties and if you work like I choose to do, i am left to pay 530 pounds a months to my rent and only receive a single persons discount. I am having a very hard time making ends meet. I am told the same by all the organistaions, Its the high rent and council tax that take up what I earn. I have obviously looked for cheaper accomodation for me and my two children, its all dearer, so chance there. I have been on the council waiting list for 6 years, and have been told by them i could wait another ten years. Happy days,Not.

immoral_angeluk

alexandra_cmpbll wrote: »

I would ask to that then, where have the people who do not meet the criteria to live? There is a dire shortage of housing in scotland, council/housing associations. Poorly paid people are left with no option but to take expensive private rental properties and if you work like I choose to do, i am left to pay 530 pounds a months to my rent and only receive a single persons discount. I am having a very hard time making ends meet. I am told the same by all the organistaions, Its the high rent and council tax that take up what I earn. I have obviously looked for cheaper accomodation for me and my two children, its all dearer, so chance there. I have been on the council waiting list for 6 years, and have been told by them i could wait another ten years. Happy days,Not.

True, but I'd imagine the landlords are probably having to charge high rents so that their buy to let mortgage is met, which is obviously affected by the recession. Councils have just had their funding cut so won't be able to build more houses, and HAs are not for profit so are on limited funds anyway.
Do you not qualify for local housing allowance?
Sadly it's all a product of the reccession, we're now paying for years under a labour government of basically being very fortunate with government hand outs and easy access to funds...

Angiepange

AMC56 wrote: »

I'm new to posting here - so hope I've posted in the correct section.

This is quite a long saga – so my apologies in advance – but I thought others may find our experience useful to be aware of. :sad:

Thanks to redundancy, lack of employment opportunities in our area and some self-employment attempts which failed – all mainly due to the recession over the past couple of years – we fell into debt and mortgage arrears, and faced repossession at the end of last year. We’d asked both our lender and council for some help – including information about a new government scheme we’d heard about to help people in our situation – but both denied knowing anything about it, so we went to court to ask for time to find alternative accommodation.

Which is when our solicitor mentioned the Fast Track Mortgage Rescue Scheme [FTMRS].

To cut a long story short, we were allowed time to make the application – which had to be made through our lender [which has a story of its own!] – and we received an introduction letter from the FTMRS dated 1st March 2010 confirming our eligibility, etc. They sent a Valuer in April, made an offer to the lender [obviously below current market valuation] – and advised us of their offer. That was the last contact we had from the FTMRS.

In May, our lender stated they wanted another valuation done as they’d received a Drive By Valuation for a much higher amount. The Valuer returned – and gave the same valuation! The only confirmation that the FTMRS were still involved came from our Lender – who phoned us regularly to ask if we had any news!

From June to the end of August we tried every way we could think of to contact the FTMRS – but there was absolutely no response. Then, at the beginning of September we suddenly received a phone call from a local Housing Association to say they’d received our file from the FTMRS, and would now be handling our application. And we needed to complete new application forms – which we did with some concern. Then we were advised a Structural Survey needed to be done – which we had never been told about previously.

We were concerned because although we had done a considerable amount of structural repairs and refurbishment previously, the house badly needs a few additional tweaks and a complete redecoration – but were reassured that cosmetic stuff was not important, so thought everything would be OK.

However, we’ve just been informed – 8 months after our initial application - that we’ve been turned down because the amount of work they would have to do to bring it up to Social Housing Conditions is too expensive. Such as rewiring the whole house as the electrics are more than 2 years old - and overhauling the central heating system because 2 bedrooms don't have radiators, even though the system was installed last winter through a government scheme!

Everyone has known for months there would be a shortfall in the amount we owe, but we've now been told that if there’d been enough equity left over in the property, it could have been enough to cover the refurbishment – which means that not only are Housing Associations able to buy properties below the market value, but they are then able to use up some of their new tenant’s left over monies to refurbish the property with, quite frankly, unnecessary alterations! And there was us thinking this scheme was about rescuing people from mortgage debt – and not about property acquisition and development!

The Mortgage Rescue Officer at the Housing Association told me they have to be sure a property is habitable. I pointed out that we've lived here for 14 years, brought up our children here, and installed a new kitchen and bathroom suite just over 4 years ago – which apparently they need to rip out as well – and yet we have survived so far!


I’m not sure what will happen now – probably why I’m posting this at silly o’clock in the morning as I can’t sleep – but it looks like we’re back at square one again and facing repossession.

As for Fast Track . . . . !

I appreciate there have to be rules and regulations – and know there are some successful applications – but I am beginning to wonder what this scheme is really all about.

Hi AMC

Can I just say i am so sorry to hear of your situation but am not in the least suprised you have encountered such problems and lack of advice and information.

Sunnylooloo kindly posted a link to my experience with Mortgage Rescue, and if you have chance to plough through it (:overy long!!) you will see that I have been going through this scheme for the last year.

I could almost have written your post myself in relation to the lack of contact you have had and the problems over essential repairs etc!!! I was never dealt with by the Fast Track Team, but spent months and months as the middle man between all the officials involved, trying to bring it all together and move my application forward. So frustrating, so hellish, and as soon as one problem was dealt with there was something else to resolve.

I was told by my Local Authority that the Fast Track team were disbanded in June as a result of cutbacks by the new Govt. It's despicable that you weren't told this or at least been passed to someone else more quickly, 3 Months!!!!!. I know what stress and worry you must have been going through with the threat of repossession hanging over you, I am so sorry.

If you get time to read my thread, there is quite alot of advice and suggestions from people about options if my rescue does fail. I don't know if it will help you in any way, but just a thought. So all I can say is my heart goes out to you and if there is anything I could possibly help with, please ask.

Angie x

AMC56

Hello Angie

I've spent most of the day reading through your experiences - and will add my thoughts there, rather than here, to add my support to your quest!

Have been feeling very despondent - epecially after so little sleep - but will add that Angie's postings have almost made our decision about what to do next. I haven't spoken to the mortgage company yet - on a bit of an emotional roller coaster at the moment - but now have a couple of possible options to put to them, and if they don't agree to any of them, then I think we will save for as long as we can then move to another part of the country where we know there are still job available for our skills, and let them get on with it! We're fortunate that both of our daughters are older and no longer dependent on us.

And then we will declare bankruptcy - although we will be asking some important questions elsewhere in this Forum first.

I appreciate this won't be an easy option - especially as we are already discharged bankrupts thanks to the previous recession in the 80's and 90's [our business start-up timing is impeccable!] - but the stress and fight involved in our current experience [4 years so far] has already had a detrimental effect on our health and, quite frankly, enough is enough.

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my thread - which I will add to when there are further developments which could be of interest to others.

mummydebs85

Hi, I read your posts about the homebuy and I think there might be a bit of confusion about the deposit you think you need. I have just started the process and you pay part rent and part mortgage. Say you decide to purchase a 25% share then you just get a mortgage on this part therefore the deposit is only on the 25% share. For example, if you were looking at a 25% share in a £100,000 house you pay rent on 75% of it and then get a mortgage for £25,000. You normally need a 10% deposit for the mortgage but this is only of the share, so would be £2500. A huge amount less than if you were to purchase a whole house!
I think it sounds like a great idea but I am only at the start of the process!

immoral_angeluk

mummydebs85 wrote: »

Hi, I read your posts about the homebuy and I think there might be a bit of confusion about the deposit you think you need. I have just started the process and you pay part rent and part mortgage. Say you decide to purchase a 25% share then you just get a mortgage on this part therefore the deposit is only on the 25% share. For example, if you were looking at a 25% share in a £100,000 house you pay rent on 75% of it and then get a mortgage for £25,000. You normally need a 10% deposit for the mortgage but this is only of the share, so would be £2500. A huge amount less than if you were to purchase a whole house!
I think it sounds like a great idea but I am only at the start of the process!

The 20% deposit was specified by the lender, not homebuy. But from what my boyfriend was told he was unlikely to be accepted if he could not get a 10% + deposit, but the 20% was due to only certain lenders doing homebuy mortgages and giving a good rate etc etc etc..
Of course as you say it is much less than full out buying, which is why I think it's a decent scheme