Accessing my Equity

angelofabundance

I have also posted this on the debt free wannabee board but thought you mortgage experts might also like to have a say on my dilemma.

VERY NEW TO THIS AND NAMED MYSELF "ANGELOFABUNDANCE" BECAUSE I LIVE IN HOPE!
My partner and I are on a Debt Management Programme with CCCS who have been fantastic. We've made real progress and our debts are reduced from £50,000+ to £22,000.
We know that even after we have paid off all the debts it will take some time to repair our credit rating.
We have a £70,000 mortgage and the house is worth about £230,000.
We wanted to release some equity, pay off the rest of the debts and borrow a little extra as the house is in a poor state of repair due to our circumstances. We are especially worried about the heating and electrics and worry about their safety.
The mortgage is with Alliance and Leicester, we explained everything to them in detail and demonstrated how we would be better off, initially it looked as if they were going to help us especially as they can see that we have paid £700 each month against our debts without fault.
Unfortunately they have ultimately said No and will not negotiate.
I have spoken to someone who arranges mortgages for people in our position but he has said that he could not get as good a deal and that also A grade lenders may not be interested in us. He said that there are advantages to staying with reputable lenders like A & L esecially where credit rating is concerned.
We are worried that we might go to another lender and then if they shoot the rates up we do not have the flexibility to move like other people because of our history.
We feel we are really out of the woods now, we have the equity we just can't access it. We don't ever intend to be in such a position again. We want to start to repair our credit rating, otherwise we'll be retired before that day comes.
Any thoughts or ideas are welcome, we think we have thought of most avenues but just hoping there is someone out there who can think of something we have not.
Thanking you all for your cumulative brain power!

£MTWB£

Hi There,

It does sound like you could be in a bit of a pickle but it may feel worse than it is.

There are a number of mortgage packagers and lenders who specialise in lending money to people in situations like yours. I have been told by friends in the industry that London and County Mortgages Ltd. and Birmingham Midshires Building societies have good rates for people in difficult circumstances at the moment.

Depending upon the lender the rates will vary but it is not always true to say that these lenders will cost you more.

I would have to say it is true that in general you will pay more but have a good search around and you may find some great deals. A friend of mine who I would assume has a great credit rating (good job etc) actually found the cheapest rate with a lender who specialise in adverse credit lending... they were cheaper than big banks and building societies! But they did want him to pay a fee - I just checked and the site was..http://www.mortgage-locator.co.uk

Also depending upon your age there are a number of companies who specialise in helping retired people (normally 55 plus) in releasing some equity from their homes. There are a number of ways that older people can unlock some the equity in their homes please take a look at my site listed in my footer, to find out a bit more...

Hope this helps

angelofabundance

Many thanks, someone else mentioned Birmingham Midshires some time ago to me, I will look into this.
It's great to be able to gather knowledge from other people in this way, everyone knows something but no one can no everything.
This has really helped me start looking at different solutions.
Thank you again

JayS_3

Hi angel

I can't recommend London & Country highly enough, find them here: http://www.lcplc.co.uk/

Martin recommends them on this site, I've used them twice. They are independent, so they look at the market not just their own products like Birmingham Midshires, and do not charge a fee (they get paid from the mortgage company if you take a mortgage).

Best wishes
JayS

payless

Just a point JayS
Whilst L&C are no fee brokers - they are not allowed to be classed as independent - as they do not offer the option of charging a fee and rebating the commission

There is a thread on this point somewhere

angelofabundance

I rang A & L last night we are tied in with our mortgage until end of Oct but I will be sure to look at London and Country, I hadn't heard of them before so really pleased I posted now.
Thank you very much for the info.

JayS_3

payless wrote:

Just a point JayS
Whilst L&C are no fee brokers - they are not allowed to be classed as independent - as they do not offer the option of charging a fee and rebating the commission

There is a thread on this point somewhere

Sorry payless, well pointed out.

JayS

pickle

Perhaps you should discuss it with the CCCS to see what options they would advise. After all they seemed to have sorted out the finances in the first place.

angelofabundance

I have asked CCCS for advice and they thought our good payment record would result in A & L allowing us to borrow the remainder on the mortgage, unfortunately A & L did not agree even though we gave them a thorough breakdown and they could see we would be struggling less. We also thought that they would not want the house to fall into disrepair but we tried to borrow £1000 a few years ago for a new flat roof and they would not even lend us that. We had to borrow from a good friend because obviously that was not a job that could wait.