House repossessed, mortgage shortfall

jessicaRabbit

Hi all, please bare with me as my first post may be a long one! My husband had a house when we met but moved in with me to my rented house. We let his house out. We had a few tenants but there were problems so we decided we were going to sell. My sister agreed to move in until it was sold. This is where the problems start! She paid one payment and then stopped! She refused to move out and we couldnt afford to pay the mortgage and our own living expenses. The mortgage company took her to court to have her evicted and the house was repossessed early last year. It was sold later for £101000. Today, we have received a letter from the mortgage company stating we owe £37376.77. We obviously dont have that sort of money so what are we going to do? I now feel sick to the stomach and am panicking. I have recently been trying to clear all our debts and had checked our credit reports. The mortgage is showing as a default on my husbands but it also says it is satisfied? We never really received any paperwork about the repossession or sale and only know it was sold as we were told by an ex neighbour. We only know how much it sold for as I have just looked on the internet! Any advice would be very greatfully received right now.

Tixy

Hi and welcome

I think you are going to need professional advice on dealing with this one - I'd suggest you contact one of the debt charities here - IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.
This factsheet may be useful - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=11_mortgage_shortfalls this also has a sample letter to ask for a full breakdown of the debt they have calculated.

I think your husband may need to decide if he can pay off this debt gradually with monthly payments or if thats never going to be realistic may even need to consider bankruptcy.

jessicaRabbit

Thats the thing, he obviously wants it paid and out of the way but on that sort of amount I would imagine they are going to want stupidly high repayments? Cant believe we have worked so hard to pay off other debts and are probably going to end up bankrupt anyway

Tixy

Well they may want stupidly high repayments but he needs to work out what he can afford and offer them that.

If they decide they are not happy with these then they would have to take him to court. If they did a judge will not make him pay more than he can reasonably afford (assuming he asks to pay in installments and provides the relevant info to the court etc).

jessicaRabbit

They have sent an income and expenditure form. Should I fill it in and send it back to them?

LandyAndy

jessicaRabbit wrote: »

They have sent an income and expenditure form. Should I fill it in and send it back to them?

Not without taking some professional advice first.

Tixy

I'd agree with Andy. If there is a chance OH might consider bankruptcy you don't want to send in an I&E that might then differ to the one in his bankruptcy application. I would seek some advice from one of the debt charities first and decide what you are going to do.
The only thing I would send to them at the moment is a request for the breakdown of the amount they say is owed (if they haven't sent it already).

jessicaRabbit

Me again!! I am just doing the letter on national debtlines page for the breakdown of the account. It wants me to add a paragraph with extra information or current circumstances, what should I put?