Really trying but not coping very well

carole_twigg

I am unable to work at present as recovering from cancer. I am in receivership of IB high rate and also receive child maintenance of £200 per month under court order. I have a mortgage of which I owe £80,000. My mortgage has increased from October £561.00 to February £610.00. I will be 3months in arrears as from Feb. I have applied for IS for mortgage interest relief and have been informed that I am £42 per month over the entitlement. I have been advised to reapply in May which will be 39 weeks of being unemployed/sick.
CAB advised me to sell my property. However I will have to extend my lease which will cost £40,000. I am also £12,000 in debt to creditors of which I have come to an arrangement. I unable to downgrade/move from the area as I still have one son still at college locally.
My mortgage lender accepted a token payment of £100 until I recieved a reply from IS.
I do not know what to do now. To sell and then rent is going to cost far more than £610 per month.
I am 52 and have worked hard to bring up my children and to keep our flat. We have been here 21 years. It's not a palace but it's home.
I have had estate agents round in view to sell but I am ADVISED to re carpet, repaint etc etc. I do not have the funds for this.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for waffling!
Carrie

PoorDave

Is your mortgage repayment or interest only? If it's repayment, you could ask your lender if you can switch to interest only, even for a short while.

Do you have any idea how much the flat is worth?

cattie

Phew, £40,000 to extend a lease, that's a huge amount. Is this the amount quoted to you by the freeholder?

Do you know you can apply to a valuation tribunal to set a reasonable market figure for lease extensions if you can't reach an acceptable agreement with your landlord?

These people are the ones to help you. It's a government funded agency offering help & advice to leaseholders.

I'm so sorry that you find yourself in such a predicament when trying to recover from cancer.

Do you get DLA? If not apply for it asap with the help of a welfare rights specialist as if you are successful the extra money would really help you right now. Remember with the forms it's important to state how things are for you on your worst days as this gives you more chance of a successful claim.

Another thing that may help you financially for a while is if you have a spare room & could rent to a student for a little while to tide you over. Often colleges will have students looking for rooms so think about this if you have the room & could cope with it.

MortgageMamma

Hi Carrie

Sorry to hear about your situation, I hope things improve for you soon. I was just wondering, what is your position with your lender? Have they sent you any letters or anything? Are you on your own in the flat or do you have a partner to help? do you have any children who are working who could help with repayments?

carole_twigg

Loan a/c 1 is capital and Interest
Loan a/c 2 is endowment
Flat has been valued at 265,000
Thanks

MortgageMamma

Carole have you been to your local citizens advice about this? Some lenders operate what is known as a mortgage rescue scheme. I don't profess to be overly knowledgeable about this (although perhaps I should be by nature of my profession) but what I understand is, they buy back part of the hosue from you and allow you to continue living in it without making any more payments in return for some equity. I think there may be other ways round it. Also, I don't know if this is worth considering but you could always sell your property and have over £185,000 left over - could you not buy something and live mortgage free with the proceeds of the sale? I know you will have an emotional attachment to your home but, I don't mean to sound harsh - its better to lose the emotional attachment than to lose your home by force? I understand you will have to carefully manage any stress involved in this to minimise the risk of your cancer returning. Also I've heard that the mcmillan nurses can put you in touch with professionals who can tell you what your rights are andthe best thing to do in this situation...

carole_twigg

Thank you very much for the advice I have an appointment at the hospital next week and will contact a McMillan nurse for info.
I have also heard from DHSS/Income support informing me that I will be able to apply for assistance with mortage interest in May 2007. I do not know if RBS will wait until then I will contact them on Monday.
Thank you again for your kindness.