Help

molly1412

I am very new to this and amazed that there is so much advice and support on here however as there is so much threads & posts I am finding it rather daunting so thought i would sum up our situation and see what advice you guys gave.

I will try to be as brief as possible

We are currently struggling to pay all our debts and live (some months easier than others as my husband receives bonuses - not always guarenteeed) our house we bought in 2007 (ahh!!) and now probably £30,000 in negative equity due to housing market (same old i know) with regards to loans and cc we have about £40,000 in debit and a £15,000 loan to our parents. i am expecting (v early days) which is sort of bitter sweet as excited as we are we really cant afford to have another baby (already have 2 year old) the worry is when we have the baby we wont be able to have childcare for both so i wont be able to return to work full time therefor we will be down £1250 a month which means we wont have nearly enough for the mortgage & bills never mind to live off and the only option that we will see is bankruptcy (obviously we will take advice on this)

what i wanted to know was - as there so much negative equity in our property should we walk away before declaring bankrupt? we could go into cheaper rented but is it better to hand the keys back? and what happens to the house? negitive equity?

my husband earnings are ok £2000 basic a month and we will be a 2 adult, 2 children (+2 from previous marriage) family what are the likely payments he will have to make? and how long will this continue for? the chances are our wages wont improve until i am at a point where the kids go to school and i can work full time again.

do they look favourably or not on the fact that the reason we are in this pridicament is change in circumstances i am concerned they will look at our spending and think it wreckless as we have lived a very comfortable life and if i was still working full time would be manageable but i hear horror stories about BRO & BRU and i dont really know what this means and the implications.

any advice would be gratefully appreciated

thanks - worried pregnant mother x

silvercar

If you are on a low income you would get childcare tax credits worth upto 80% of your child care costs.

tigerfeet2006

The first thing you need to do is talk to someone like National Debtline. They will go through all you options with you and give you the information to make a descision on how you want to go.

Do you want to leave the house? Or would you prefer to stay if you can? How much is your mortgage? How much would a suitable property cost to rent?

The OR will agree with you your outgoings and if there is any surplus then he will take anything over £20 for 36 months. If your circumstances change then the OR can change it up, down or suspend it. The suspended months count towards the 36 months.

joanna01

You sound just like us!!

We have 2 children from previous (they live with their mum) whe have to pay maintanance and I have a 4yr old (no baby on way though unless I get my way!!lol). We got our house in 2007 and lost 20k so far!! We are goin to go BR. At the min we are saving for deposit for rent also the BR fees (£600 each!) We have spoken to cab but they was no help so we called natinal debt line, they was brill went through everything with us told us BR was our best option although we was paying everything (kind of up to date) but owe so much we will never have a life and the kids suffering, we had nothing to live off we owe family 15k too and are still borrowing for food petrol etc.. so this had to be the last resort im not looking forward to it but reading on here is a big help!
My advise is call national debt line and be honest!! I think we will have IPA after as we earn around £3200 per month between us but I know once its all done we are moved and can start again life should be less stress full I hope!!
Give them a call see what they say I hope it goes well keep us informed!!

x

molly1412

thank you for your responses

tigerfeet i am really not bothered about the house as much as i love it, its brick and mortar and we are only on an interest only mortgage and 30,000 at least in negative equity - do you know should we go bankrupt and then hand keys back or wait to get repossessed or rent before proceedings x

kepar

You could look at it that if you carrying on living there until you go br , then you can save the mortgage and live there for free. This will enable you to have enough money to pay the br and have enough money to move. By all means look for somewhere to rent, but I would stay as long as I could.

tigerfeet2006

I take the other view point and say get a new rental before you go BR. It will be easier to get a new property before the BR is on your credit file in my mind.

I would stop paying mortgage, secured loan and any debts. Save the money for the deposit, rent, moving costs and BR fees. Move out and settle in. Inform the mortgage co. that you have moved out and want to vol. repo. and go BR. There is a little bit more to it than that but if it is the way you want to go after you have taken professional advice on BR then the board will help you through it.

Obviously that is my take on it but you have to weigh up all the pro's and con's and decide what is best for you.

molly1412

if i was to stay in the house for a certain amount of time (northern rock do payment breaks when on maternity) then look to move to rental just before declare bankrupt if i dont pay any of our bills until declared bankrupt and put that away for fees and rent for new place will this be looked at by the OR as i have fraudulantly hid money i have seen lots of stories on here of people who have been given BRO or BRU (not that i fully understand them) and i wouldnt want to get in trouble.

also on another issue which i am sure i know the answer to already but we owe my parents 15000 as they kindly helped us out and if i hadnt been expecting now i am sure in time (albeit 5 years) we would be back on our feet but hey ho!! i know that family loans wont count but is there any way of me paying some of this back in my outgoings or what if we take money out like lump sums and pay them before bankruptcy will this also go against us? i dont want to do anything that will get us in trouble i just dont want to also let our parents down as their support will be cruicial through this

thanks again xx

Flyright

Please see my reply to your other post regarding this. Getting another loan or withdrawing lump sums to essentially prefer one creditor over another is not advisable as you are clearly aware that you are insolvent and will likely result in a BRO.

molly1412

thank you for your reply on the other post.

but on the subject of withdrawing money and how OR sees it. most people seem to be advising me to stop paying creditors in the run up to bankruptcy and putting this money "aside" for rent for new place, fees and moving costs surely the OR would look at this as negligent and we would get in trouble for this - has anyone done this? if so hoe long did they not pay for and put money aside and what did OR say? x

Tupperware_Queen

I did exactly what Tigerfeet said, no problems at all with OR, they understand that you have to have money to be able to move.

my house is still not being repo'd, think I will have to vol repo it to get rid!

I could have stayed there, but then would have been living with the threat of homelessness over mine and my kids heads, and I couldnt have coped with that. Although it would have given me time to get things a bit more sorted - I'm still living out of boxes at the mo!!