Will we lose our home?

notthinking

I am very aware that this is not what you want to hear but the facts are that you may end up out of your house. You need to face this.
It probably sounds cruel to you but is not my intention.

I spent a long time fighting for my house in 2007 -08, stressed myself out completly, worried about what to tell people, family and friends. I thought the world would end.

I got some very blunt advice, cried a bit then started packing. 8 weeks later I had gone BR, handed the house back and moved on.

The world didn't end. The debt and stress did.


Maybe you should look at changing your user name, perhaps to something more positive. Sometimes the smallest changes make a difference.

poormummy_3

notthinking wrote: »

I am very aware that this is not what you want to hear but the facts are that you may end up out of your house. You need to face this.
It probably sounds cruel to you but is not my intention.

Not cruel at all - we can't pay the mortgage so I understand we're most likely going to have to lose the house/have to move - it's just working out the best way forward and the practicalities... eg. no cash to use as deposit to secure a rental property so would need to sell first, so all financial transactions would need to somehow be on the same day etc. Or wait for bank to start legal proceedings and hope the local authority will buy the house so we don't have to move (as no cash available for selling/moving). I guess bankruptcy isn't the right option for us as we have some equity in the property.

FBaby

I think you are doing to much thinking on the alternatives and what would be best. If you are getting so many confusing/contradicting advice is because there are no right or wrong one, none are going to give you exactly what you would want or take you back where you were. What matters is that whichever you decide to go with, you give all you can to make it work.

I can understand your depression. I assume you were one day a 'normal' midlle class family, both working and earning a decent wage, living the dream of ownership, bringing up children, enjoying a decent life and building up debts but without concern because you were working and able to afford the repayments. Like most on this situation, the prospect of finding yourself in your current situation seemed foreign. The only way out of your depression is to accept where you are, but keep faith that you CAN get out of it stronger and better. Once you are out, you will appreciate simple things that you might have taken for granted before. You are currently in a vicious cycle, depressed because of your financial situation, but not able to work because of your depression.

Saying that, I don't think you guys are taking the right approach by waiting for your husband to find the 'perfect' job. You live in the South East, so there bound to be jobs around. Each month your husband doesn't work is an extra barrier to employers wanting to take him on. You might be better off on benefits now than if he took on a less paid job, but he is making it much harder to get back to a proper career and good salary by not doing any jobs. I do wonder whether you unconsciously put pressure on him not to work because part of your depression is that you don't want to be alone all day? You are not goijng to get better if you only make yourself more dependent.

My suggestion is to put the house on the market whilst your partner takes on any job full-time. Use the equity to pay your debts and put a deposit to rent. Focus on getting better, force yourself to go out, socialise a bit more every day and most likely as you become a bit more in control, you will start to feel better. In the meantime, your partner should continue to look at jobs and apply for better paid ones. Hopefully, you will feel soon better and be able to get back to work too and... maybe in a few years time, you will be able to consider buying a house again.

Fiddlestick

poormummy wrote: »

Unfortunately I suffer from severe depression so am unable to work, so my partner has to do the childcare when I'm not in a fit state.

In that case you should not be claiming JSA.

When you sign on you make a legal declaration that you are actively looking for work. If you are not then you are fraudulantly claiming.

If you are really so depressed that you are unable to work then you should see about claiming Incapacity Benefit or whatever it's called these days.

silvercar

poormummy wrote: »

Not cruel at all - we can't pay the mortgage so I understand we're most likely going to have to lose the house/have to move - it's just working out the best way forward and the practicalities... eg. no cash to use as deposit to secure a rental property so would need to sell first, so all financial transactions would need to somehow be on the same day etc. Or wait for bank to start legal proceedings and hope the local authority will buy the house so we don't have to move (as no cash available for selling/moving). I guess bankruptcy isn't the right option for us as we have some equity in the property.

You are not going to be able to secure a rental without putting down a deposit. So you need to save a deposit so that you can secure a rental that you can start the tenancy on as you complete on the sale.

The simplified path:

Stop paying the mortgage at the same time as trying to sell your house.

Save up what would have been the mortgage payments for your rental deposit and first months rent.

Once you have a buyer, look around for a rental.

Hopefully you can arrange for the sale and the rental to go through at the same time - using your saved mortgage payments for rental deposit.

The same theory will work if you don't get a buyer and the home is repossessed - your saved mortgage payments will be for the rental deposit but this time the time to secure a rental will be when you are notified that your lender is taking you to court for possession.

The strategy works if you accept you are losing the house.

poormummy_3

No chance of saving any money unfortunately. The mortgage interest benefit gets paid straight to the bank.

SingleSue

Have you taken a little trip over to the debt free wannabee forum part of this site? They may be able to help you cut costs down a little in preparation for saving some pennies (or pounds!) for a rental deposit.

Or even just cut costs down so that the stress is taken off a little.

Also, the old style board, they can do amazing things with very little money and food!

jinky67

SingleSue wrote: »

Have you taken a little trip over to the debt free wannabee forum part of this site?!

I have suggested that twice already :cool:

silvercar

poormummy wrote: »

No chance of saving any money unfortunately. The mortgage interest benefit gets paid straight to the bank.

Well if the mortgage interest benefit is not enough to meet your mortgage payments and your income isn't going to increase, the writing is on the wall.

Time to devote your energies to finding a decent rental.

Contact the council to see if they operate a bond scheme whereby the council give the landlord a bond instead of you raising a deposit.

Then find the councils attitude to the repossessed. With a kid you will be counted as vunerable so they should house you unless they count being repo'd as making yourself intentionally homeless. See what the council say, if you are repo'd they could well have a duty to house you, initially this could be one room in a housing unit, but at least it would be a roof over your head. Within 6 weeks they have to assess you and rehouse you more appropriately.

allen35

poormummy wrote: »

No chance of saving any money unfortunately. The mortgage interest benefit gets paid straight to the bank.

See the link about intentional homelessness

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/homelessness/help_from_the_council/what_the_council_will_check/intentional_homelessness#2

It seems by your posts your circumstances were beyond your control.

Visit your local council office and ask for housing association registration form.

If you need to rent privately you may get help from local council or request a crisis loan for a deposit