£30k CC debt - can't pay - wait for court?

tentimes

Hi,

This is about my partners situation. I am really looking for peoples best guess of what will happen. The situation is:

£10k Overdraft Halifax
£5k CC (credit card) Halifax (this + above being pursued as one debt)
£7k Barclaycard
£7k Santander

He is being chased by debt collectors for all these. Was paying £100 a month on each, now nothing as nothing left.

He has:

£159k on Mortgage to go over next 15 years with A&L - up to date.
£16k of that is a secured loan on the house, which is now in negative equity.

The problem is he now has to start paying the mortgage after a payment holiday. He wants to pay the mortgage as this is a priority debt and keeps the roof over our head.

I am disabled so cover my own expenses and buy food (i.e. we do not join our income)

After the Mortgage is paid each month (£1350) there is £650 left, and that isn't enough to pay the car, electricity, gas, food, bills etc. I am making up the difference.

So there is about £30k of unsecured debt there and no money left to pay it off.

Is it worth waiting to see who will go to court and trying to hunker down until the 6 years is up and statute of limitations comes into play? I know this sounds crazy, but the only alternative I can see is making token payments, which keeps all debts alive, for all time.

My thinking is that he has already paid more than the 10% that the debt collection agencies paid for the debt, and some of them might not go to court. Leaving it seems the only way to find out who will go to court. At that stage we know which ones he is stuck with.

The only hope I can see is me having a miracle cure and being able to work again.

We are in Northern Ireland, and that will mean that CCJ's would need to be converted to orders here in order to be enforced by the EJO, who would then re-asses our income.

It's not that he is trying to get away from it - but the housing market collapse over here meant we lost about %50 of the value of the house and selling the house is now only going to leave us homeless and in debt vs in debt and housed.

EDIT: Mortgage and all debts in his name. I have nothing to do with the debts and they are his pre relationship. We have changed our phone number to stop them harassing us, just letters now.

[Deleted User]

If I were you I would contact one of the free, impartial, and confidential debt organisations such as CCCS, Payplan, National debtline, or the CAB as they will be in a much better position to advice on the specific details of your partners situation. There are contacts in a sticky at the top of this form page.

If you want to post s Statment of Affairs (SOA) here, then people here will be able to advise if there are any cutbacks/savings to be made in your current expenditure, and help advise you on how savings can be made in this way. Again, there's a link in a sticky at the top of the forum.

HTH

D9

tentimes

He refuses to go to the CAB so I am stuck trying to find answers - I was hoping somoene might venture an opinion on what the majors are like on moving on people. I can't seem to find much reference here to how likely they are to go to court.

[Deleted User]

Personally I think he should look into an IVA. Also it is possible to go bankrupt but still keep your home.

Tixy

Opinions on here differ as to how likely creditors are to go to court. I've seen CCJs for as little as £200 from places like mobile phone companies, and as little as £500 from high street banks.

For the size of debts you are talking about I'd think it was reasonably likely that 1 or more may take court action.
How long since he stopped paying? are you being chased by internal debt collectors, eg blair oliver scott for halifax? or by third party debt collectors?

Really his best advice would be to seek help from a debt advice charity. If he won't go to CAB would he call somewhere like advice4debtNI or contact them online? Or could you call them for advice?

Has something happened that has reduced his income so he can no longer afford much in repayments? is it something that is likely to reverse - ie finding a better paid job for example?

Tixy

Deleted_User wrote: »

Personally I think he should look into an IVA. Also it is possible to go bankrupt but still keep your home.

If he can't afford more than token repayments then he wouldn't get an IVA accepted - his monthly repayment wouldn't be enough for creditors to agree to. Agree though that it might be worth considering Bankruptcy depending on his financial circumstances.

MattLFC

£650 per month, after mortgage, and you've no money?? Sorry, but my nephew is on £880 per month (I know as I got him the job), 21 years old (or 22 I forget), so ineligible for all these tax credits and the like, and manages to pay £420 per month rent and still affords to live. He too has a car (and probably pays through the nose for his car insurance given his age) and commutes to work each week which is about 25 miles a day round-trip, is liable for council tax, water rates, electric and gas and all the rest blah blah, and yet he just about has enough to put some into an ISA each month. He even still goes out with his mates once a month!! And before you say it, he does not know his father, and his mother certainly isn't in any position to be funding him; I could probably help out, but with all family, I would only ever do so in a get-out-of-jail situation, since it's not the way I learnt to stand on my own two feet.

I've taught a few things about economising and maximising his money, and I guess it's worked. £650 after mortgage may be tight, but to say you have no surplus, you are obviously spending far too much on crap. If you have kids, I could understand it, but I see no reference to kids in your post. Post your SOA and then we can evaluate, as said above, where you can make savings and efficiencies. The mortgage at 1350 was always going to be far too high based on your combined incomes, never mind his sole income. Tell him to cease the silliness and quit acting like a child, and get his !!!! down to the CAB, else he deserves to lose his house.

Sorry for the rant-sounding post, but it amazes me how stupid/wasteful people can be. You can't afford the life you are living. If I were you, I'd change your life right away, cut-back, or get the house on the market and prepare to lose it, or start saving in your name for the inevitable moment when the banks and courts call in the debts, and take possession of his house and assets.

I notice it's you who has to come on here looking for advice, just like he won't go and see the CAB who will only try to help him out of this situation... what is he, a man or a mouse?! Why should you have to do all the work, bailing his financial failiure out each month, looking for help to resolve the situation...

mrsb83_2

MattLFC wrote: »

Sorry for the rant-sounding post, but it amazes me how stupid/wasteful people can be. You can't afford the life you are living. If I were you, I'd change your life right away, cut-back, or get the house on the market and prepare to lose it, or start saving in your name for the inevitable moment when the banks and courts call in the debts, and take possession of his house and assets.

I notice it's you who has to come on here looking for advice, just like he won't go and see the CAB who will only try to help him out of this situation... what is he, a man or a mouse?! Why should you have to do all the work, bailing his financial failiure out each month, looking for help to resolve the situation...

Your post is unnecessarily harsh and unfair. We have limited information about OP and her partner's situation. Your nephew's finances are irrelevant.

OP is in debt crisis and looking for support, not judgement and name-calling.

Tentimes, call a debt advice charity yourself so that you can educate yourself about the options. Given the level of debt I don't think ignoring it is going to be viable, but bankruptcy might be. I know that's a frightening prospect but there is a dedicated board here and people so manage to move on. Good luck.

eloquin

Putting an SOA together is the starting point. It helps you to understand your finances as well as being a document you can use if necessary when agreeing repayments to creditors. As regards debt advice, you don't have to speak to someone face to face, there are online agencies willing to help those who are more reticent about their debts. Start with these 2 things.

As for token payments making the debts last for all time - they won't, though it may sometimes feel that way. Interest won't be charged if matters are in the hands of debt agencies so you would in fact be making inroads, albeit slowly.

GL