sell up or DMP

mumof4littleones

I have a house worth £250,000 and a mortgage of £185,000 leaving a 'profit' of £65,000....... I am £30,000 in debt with credit cards and the overdraft. My husband has left me and we have 4 young children......... I went to see a solicitor yesterday and I'm even more confused now..... My ex says he doesn't want anything from the house, he wants to be removed from the mortgage and dept free so he can get a new mortgage.
The solicitor has discussed things with me and from what I understand, I can keep the house but have to take on the debts leaving me unable to cope OR enter a DMP and stay in the house, the thought of being behind in payments/going to court and having to fight constantly us making me physically sick. The ex thinks this is a great idea as he appears to have been able to walk away and move on. The house is on the market, is it best to just sell up and clear the debts but lose the family home or go down the DMP route and ruin my good credit history

Tixy

Hi

Do you think you earn enough to be able to get the mortgage in your own name? Will the bank be prepared to lend you the £185k on just your earnings? especially given the current debts? I think that might be one of the first things to think about. If they won't let you take on a mortgage in your own name then you won't be able to just remove husband from the mortgage.

Aside from this issue I think you need to look out how you would stand financially if you could keep the house. How far you would be short of making the repayments on your unsecured debts etc. It might be worth drawing up a statement of affairs for the new situation to see how much you would have for a DMP or whether you could manage without, or whether you won't even have enough for a DMP. I suppose you don't yet know how much maintenance ex will be required to pay so you might need to estimate that figure.
This calculator sets out all the costs etc you need to think about and calculates your surplus or shortfall for debt repayments - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Once you have worked through that hopefully it may help your decision as to whether to sell up or not.

GeorgeUK

Was the house recently valued? The market is changing so fast that anything more than 6 months ago may be out of date.

Do you have any joint accounts or other finances that are linked?

mumof4littleones

The house is on the market and has been valued at £250,000. We have a joint bank account which all the bills come out of, apart from that we just have the house in joint names.

littlesue

your ex seems a real piece of....work.Leaving you with 4 young children and expecting you to pick up the debts its not fair. We were in a simlar situation a few years ago, we had debts and a morgatage and we couldn't cope. it was a hard thing to do but we sold up and went back to renting, it broke my heart leaving the family home but sometimes you have to do these things and start a fresh. I'm not saying that its the right choice you but it could be something to think about.
I wish you the best in what ever you decide. Take care of yourself and those little ones. There plenty of lovely people on here whom can give you lots of good advise.

dancingfairy

you could look into the mortgage rescue scheme and see if you would be eligible - this involves selling to a housing assoication and then renting the house back from them - i beleive you also then may possibly qualify for housing benefit to help with the rental costs. It depends on whether you meet their criteria - or rather whether you house does.
There is a long but very informative thread on the bankruptcy board about it or you could start you own thread over there and i'm sure people will help.
df