Big problems joint mortgage & loan with ex

jorussell_2

Hi Giddytimes
thanks to you also for more feedback. I do keep a tight budget and record every penny, anything left over I give to OH to put away. I don't want to involve him in my debt but he is willing to contribute which is amazing. You've made it very clear and a good point about increasing payments bringing it down to 8 years. will defo have to do the figures on this, a nice possible light at the end of this tunnel!
I believe my ex is struggling too but only because he has a pattern of borrowing and not paying back money. I don't want to go down the BR route at all. The thought of him then being liable for everything is very tempting but that would be a vindictive move on my part and I'm just not like that, even if he might be.
We are taking this weekend to look at rental options and budget even further, and with RAS's and your suggestion to look how we can increase repayments will see if we can work a way forward.

I'd be interested to hear people's opinions on IVAs, seeing as my credit file is bad now, how much more have I got to lose in that regard? It's something I'd like to explore but not too keen on it apart from the 5 year/60 month period, I appreciate credit file would be bad for 6 years from start of IVA. would like to explore all options.
thanks again.

Giddytimes

Just a couple more suggestions in red below-

jorussell wrote: »

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1613.50 (expected income if I get the job I've been shortlisted for)
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1154.50
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2768
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 762.10 (interest only)
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 139
Electricity............................. 47.57
Gas..................................... 30.34
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 45 Do you have arrears? This seems high to me, is it a water meter?
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 75 (I'm on a contract £35pm til 2012, Can you lower your tariff? partner uses his phone for work Do work not reimburse him for this? Has this been included in the income?)
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 (I would cancel this)
Internet Services....................... 20
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 (looked at last 4 weeks shopping and have based figure on this. OH pays bulk of this) You should be able to reduce this, have a look on the OS board
Clothing................................ 40 (this is averaged out over the year and includes partners work clothes he works in construction. Clothes shopping done in charity shops. I also sold off the contents of my house in 2009 to pay mortgage and bills, contents belong to my OH)
Petrol/diesel........................... 300 (I will be doing 24 miles a day and my partner does min 75 miles a day Is he travelling for work? Is any of the 75 miles reimbursed? Is this included in his income figure?, he has the diesel, I have the petrol, we've sold original cars for cheaper ones. Live in rural position so need 2 cars) Could your partner not drop you at work on his way, is it in the same direction? If not selling and renting a place near one of your works would allow you to sell one car as well as hopefully paying less in rent than the interest on the mortgage.
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 60 (It is a multicar policy, renewal in Jan 12 we will review then)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 60 (Old cars we budget £360 each to get through MOTs)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20 (This would be eliminated if you were renting).
Contents insurance...................... 21.5 (B&C paid together, have got quotes several times, never comes up cheaper)
Life assurance ......................... 19.58 (Would cancel in your situation)
Other insurance......................... 15 (This is monthly fee for credit report need to pay this until I get mistakes recitified. will stop paying this soon as)
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 8.3 (oops, sorry the £100 was NOT a monthly figure, it's annual - I've changed it to monthly equiv)
Haircuts................................ 0 (Presume this and entertainment is where your supposed surplus every month goes, in the long run it's not realistic to have no budget for haircuts & entertainment) ETA- you've explained your surplus is saved away every month-I'm very impressed!
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 17 (oops, sorry the £200 was NOT a monthly figure, it's annual - I've changed it to monthly equiv, we‘re taking a 4 day break in a caravan with a token collect promotion)
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2153.39
Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 186000
Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 184000...(762.1)....4.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 184000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
nram loan under dm.............37618.1...96........12.79
tesco cc defaulted.............1518.4....4.........14.09
Total unsecured debts..........39136.5...100.......-
Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,768
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,153.39
Available for debt repayments........... 614.61
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 105
Amount left after debt repayments....... 509.61 (N.B. this is a joint figure. my partner is not responsible for my joint debts with my ex. As I would be earning 58% of income, this figure should be £295)
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 186,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -184,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -39,136.5
Net Assets.............................. -37,136.5
Created using the SOA calculator

I'd roughly estimate by selling/making some adjustments you could free up-

Reduction by renting a 1 bed place close to work- 200 (estimate, I'm not sure where you live)
Lowering mobile phone package- 10
Cancel sat TV- 20
Reduced petrol from only needing one car- 125
Car insurance- 30
Car maintenance- 30
Groceries reduction- 100
Building insurance if renting- 20
Life insurance- 19.58
Credit report- 15

Total estimated saving possible- 539.58

Of which 58% would presumably be your share- 313.

I know I have been ruthless and you probably feel I've overestimated savings but I'm just trying to show what might be possible if you sold up (presuming you can actually achieve enough to cover the mortgage) and focused on the loan for a few years. If you freed up 313 on top of the 295 you say you already have as a surplus every month then you suddenly have another 600 a month to throw at the loan! It would be gone in no time. :j

If I were you I'd be researching 1 bedroom rental properties near to your new place of work and doing my own calculation of how much could be saved if you sold.

tallyhoh

Check with your mortgage provider before cancelling life insurance, most insist on it.

jorussell_2

Hi Giddytimes, wow! thanks so much for all the trouble you are going to, we will look at everything you have suggested, and I understand, it is good to be ruthless to start with because it sets out facts and figures and we can reason from there what we can realistically cut out and if we decide to sell up where we can move to - it is hugely important that we are happy where we live so we have to balance money and quality of life and happiness. Better to be poor and happy than poor and unhappy.

Re the cars, OH works odd hours and sometimes nights (so doubles) without notice all over the south east so we couldn't realistically go down to 1 car, but we are looking at changing the petrol for a smaller diesel car.

Water has come down over the last year, got a meter and this figure covers fresh and waste water, I query and run through every metered bill with the supplier when they come in and get a full explanation of how it's been arrived at.

One major improvement that cost nothing is accepting we are determined to work through this and that any solution will take some time to work and we can't solve anything overnight so that immediately removed the element of panic and a lot of stress. All of you are really helping us find clarity in our situation.

And honestly, I have really, really long hair, last went to hairdressers ooh, maybe 2005, I'm not a girly girl, never ever wear make up and probably buy new clothes once a year as I HATE shopping! OH uses clippers and our entertainment is dvd (from OH's collection) and pizza(home made) every saturday night without fail. :-)
What does ETA mean?
Thank you again, your feedback is really appreciated, will get the calculator out and crunch some more numbers tomorrow.

Giddytimes

jorussell wrote: »

What does ETA mean?
.

ETA = Edited to add.

You sound so much more positive already! :beer:

It's amazing what can be done when you set your mind to it, I know, when I woke up to my debt and realised I'd run up more than my annual salary I couldn't see a way out, but after a few changes to my lifestyle (painful at the time) I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm so much happier for it.

Have fun playing with the numbers tomorrow, tweaking my spreadsheets to bring forward my debt free day has become my favourite activity. :rotfl:

PS IVA's are generally considered a bad idea on these boards, if after you've played with the figures tomorrow you are still considering an IVA I'd suggest starting a new post/searching the boards for advice first, someone more knowledgeable on them than me will be able to give you the pro's and cons.

jorussell_2

Hi Giddytimes, I was going to ask you about your spreadsheets but found a snowball calc. What do you think of the possible following option?
: clear tesco and o/d in one go. Sell house and rent. leaving nrock loan which we then paid say £400 pm towards.
Do you think it likely that nrock would keep the arrangement in place ie frozen interest? or if I were making more than the original agreement payments would they revert to the original agreement which would be £328pm with interest over 29 years.
If they did keep interest frozen, the debt would be cleared by 2019 - and would my credit file rebuilt from now rather than taking the hit of an iva, as I would be seen to be keeping up payments and get a good history?
Hope this makes sense. Thanks again

Giddytimes

Hi jorussell,

Look how quickly everything is coming together now.

I think freeing up 400 a month is a fantastic idea and honestly believe the best way forward for you is to sell the house and therefore cut all ties with the ex.

I don't know if interest would stay frozen, I suggest ringing your DMP provider to ask them their opinion on this, but I would be tempted to say- if my boyfriend/mum/whoever was to offer to contribute an extra 300 a month towards helping me pay this debt what would be the effect on my DMP, would interest still be frozen? So they don't immediately think you have disposable income and the plan should be reassessed. I guess in the end it would be down to Northern Rock to decide, they'd be more likely to agree to it if they thought you were only going to get this money from someone else on the condition interest stays frozen.

The other alternative (and the one I'd probably take in your situation) is to put the money away until you have enough to make a full and final offer. Do a search on these boards, you'll see that people have managed to settle the debts (and agree with the creditors no default would appear on their credit file) for 50% of the debt value, sometimes less. If you could negotiate something like this it would mean you'd be free of it in half the time.
I'd try this with the credit card too rather than paying in full.

I've never been on a debt management plan so I'm not sure how it would effect the plan if you were to clear one of the two debts in full and not the other-this may not be allowed, so that is something else you need to check.

If you have the cash to clear the overdraft and that isn't part of the DMP I would do that asap.

Hope you're starting to feel like a weight is being lifted off your shoulders, there is always a way. :j

jorussell_2

Thanks again Giddytimes. I've now got it down to 4 options. Really I need to wait until I secure this new job so we know exactly what our budget is and how much we can save.

It still looks like we would need to sell the house in any case just to remove that part of my association with the ex. (not being able to administer the mortgage as he won't co-operate and because he knows where I live and could gain entry any time has me on edge 24/7).

Hopefully if we sell and there's any equity I can get the ex to agree to put the whole of any equity towards repaying the loan.

Unfortunately it is absolutely heartbreaking for me and my OH to even think about having to leave our home, and doing so wouldn't free me from my ex as I would still have a link with him through the joint loan.

It's frustrating because I would like my ex to be accountable and responsible for his share of the debts, but it looks like I'm going to have to give up on the idea of justice and deal with the debt in order to get myself straight. So my ex gets away with just point blank not taking one ounce of responsibility for what we jointly signed up for.

Hum ho, onwards and upwards, let karma deal with the injustice. Will keep you posted on progress. :-)