Northern Rock, selling house & deficit on mortgage

Suncake

I live abroad and have been renting my house since 2008 because I couldn't sell it. As of 2 months ago, I have no tenants but have a buyer for my house. I have never made money from renting and now we accepted a purchase price 20k lower than our mortgage. I don't have 20k and was hoping that Northern Rock will do a pay plan over X amount of years to clear the deficit I have. In the meantime though, does anyone have any knowledge of what I can do? I need to get rid of the house as it just draining my bank account rapidly. Of course the other option is to hand the keys back. I don't know what all the consequences are. Never be returning to UK but have to pass through on occasions. Need advice please. Thanks.

Thundercat_2

As far as I'm aware (mostly from these forums!) there isn't really an option of just "handing the keys back". You owe money to Northern Rock and it's up to you to agree with them what to do about that. A bank won't just accept back the keys to a property that you owe money on and then handle all of the sale for nothing. They will normally charge fees and may not get the best price for the property, leaving you in even more debt to them.

I'm sure others will be along to give you far more accurate advice, but just to make you aware that this isn't really an option.

Best of luck with your flat sale.

Suncake

I know its a bit drastic handing the keys back and your right, its not an option. I will be calling the Northern Rock later today and I would be really happy if they helped me to set up some payment plan for me to repay back the 20k over a certain amount of time as I really don't want to lose this house sale. Is there anyone else out there who has encountered this situation?

poppysarah

Can you get a loan from elsewhere?

Suncake

Poppysarah, no, we live abroad, so its quite difficult.

grey_lady

I'd be interested to know if Northern Rock agree to your plan as you'd presumably be asking them to swop secured for unsecured debt and you dont live in this country - doesnt sound like they'd be getting a good deal. Does your buyer know to hold off on shelling out for fees etc?

Arthritic_Toe

Suncake wrote: »

I live abroad and have been renting my house since 2008 because I couldn't sell it. As of 2 months ago, I have no tenants but have a buyer for my house. I have never made money from renting and now we accepted a purchase price 20k lower than our mortgage. I don't have 20k and was hoping that Northern Rock will do a pay plan over X amount of years to clear the deficit I have. In the meantime though, does anyone have any knowledge of what I can do? I need to get rid of the house as it just draining my bank account rapidly. Of course the other option is to hand the keys back. I don't know what all the consequences are. Never be returning to UK but have to pass through on occasions. Need advice please. Thanks.

I was in exactly the same boat in 1995 and did just that, i.e. took out an unsecured loan with the mortgage lender (Alliance & Leicester in that case). You are actually in a strong negotiating position as you can subtley point out that you wont ever be returning to the UK and this is their best chance of getting their money back.