Unwanted difficult decision-help pls if you can.

suburbanwifey

bundance wrote: »

Thank you. I know I am fortunate to have £440 per month, but this is all I will have to live on inclucing housing costs.
Here's my answers to your question:
1) Your age bracket (to ascertain employability) - 45yrsold
2) What you are sick with (illness that kept you on IB) - anxiety and depression (and now tranquiliser withdrawals)
3) How much is your mortgage payments - £311 mortgage £16.34 insurance (both per month)
4) How many more years until your mortgage is complete and paid off? Mortgage complete in 2025
5) How much income would be actually lost (to see if there is a way to make that amount some other way etc.) approx £130 a week, or £520 a month

Thank you so much

Thank You for answering those questions, I did try to ask in a way that enabled me to get a clearer picture whilst also protecting your privacy. OK .... the one question I forgot to ask and is relevant also is - is your mortgage on a fixed rate and for how long? (a few banks have started to raise rates a touch this past few days, so it needs consideration)

Anxiety and depression can be crippling for a long time so I'm assuming here that there is little chance in the short-term or long term future of you returning to work (anxiety about losing your home won't be helping either, try not to worry, I've usually found there is always a solution to most problems, it just needs to be figured out)

Your mortgage payment is low for now, which is good news and you have only 11 years for it to run to completion. My first and primary thought about all this is that you need to try to keep hold of your home, if it is at all possible and it should be. I personally would rather pull my own teeth out than move into rented / insecurity of tenure (6 months usually) the rent would cost you way more than that on most rentals, you'd be uprooted which is not what you want when you need to be concentrating on getting yourself well. But, saying that, your health is always more important than any house.

If you weren't suffering from anxiety and depression I would suggest a temporary emergency measure of the 'rent a room scheme' which could bring in a large portion of that money you would lose. But in your circumstances, as I've just read the rest of your thread where a few more people have answered, you only have a 1 bedroom flat, so that isn't an option

I also, like you mentioned, think it may be hard for you to find a landlord who will take you on in your current situation but you only owe 37 K on your mortgage and it would be ludicrous to lose your home at this stage!

You haven't had that medical yet and you may be worrying unnecessarily about failing. Anxiety, depression, self-harming are all serious problems, I would hope any ATOS examiner would treat your issues with the seriousness they deserve (but like you I read the horror stories on here so can see why you are worried).

I was hoping to be more help, but having read your replies to others since I posted its not as simple as I originally thought. I'm gonna sit and think a short while, try not to worry, worry helps no problem, be patient whilst we all have a think, someone on here may have an answer, it may be me it may be someone else, I hope we find one for you.

Old_Git

have you a friend or relative you could stay with and rent out your flat.

suburbanwifey

bundance wrote: »

I think I am worried, because, if I sell, and no landlord wants to entertain me, I will be stuck, high and dry. The council wont help me either if I sell as they will class my as making myself intentionally homeless.
I am just so confused. Every avenue seems to have a pitfall.
I feel trapped.

I agree on that point. If you sell, you make yourself intentionally homeless. As I said earlier, you need to try to keep your home if at all possible, if you can't repossession protects your position regarding intentional homelessness. The way to look at it is this, if you sell or are repossessed you aren't likely to be able to get a mortgage again in the future anyway, so the credit rating knock that would result from repossession, is irrelevant to you at that point. They can't chase you for money you don't have and your credit rating would be ruined if repossessed yes, but you wouldn't get another mortgage if your credit rating was great if you sold either as you are unemployed and poorly. So, stay in your home until they repossess, if that's the way it goes would be my advice on that point.

suburbanwifey

Annisele wrote: »

Given an outstanding mortgage of £37,000, mortgage payments of £311 per month, and a term that completes in 2025, I assume you have a repayment mortgage with an interest rate in the region of 4.5% *.

It might be worth talking to your lender about things you can do to reduce the monthly payment - for example, extending the term or switching to interest only. Neither of those are ideal solutions, and (depending on the value of your flat) your lender may flat out refuse the interest only option.

I appreciate that won't solve the problem on its own - even if your mortgage became magically free, you'd be saving £311 against an income shortfall of £520 - but it might free up £150 a month or so.

Are you absolutely certain you're not eligible for help with your mortgage interest?

* Please forgive me if my maths is dodgy - I hope I'm close enough that the point stands.

Good point, I'm trying to work out why he would not be eligible for help with mortgage interest... do you have any idea OP? I know a lassie who has a child who's guy left her and she gets all her mortgage interest paid. She has a child though, so maybe that's the reason why she does. I don't know ... anyone out there know more about the criteria for getting mortgage interest paid when unemployed?

Corelli

Hi,

hopefully you will not be in a position to have to make this decision about your housing. My feeling is that although you are very sensibly looking at a worse case scenario and planning for it you should also be looking at the medical assesment and how to get through that.

It is not always bad news, a close family member who has various emotional difficulties and has a history of heroin and alchohol abuse (clean for many years now) failed her first assesment but got her benefit reinstated after apealing. I know a lot of very genuine people have been turned down but there are still people who do get support after the assessment. A recent radio 4 programme followed various people through the process and you might find it worth listening to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018csz1

I'm new here and don't know my way around the forums yet, I expect there is somewhere here for support around this.

Regarding having a lodger, could you not take over the living room so in effect it became a home with two bedrooms but no living room? Are there rules to prevent that?

If you can cope with a lodger and find someone you could share with that is.

Wishing you well at this dificult time.

ruggedtoast

bundance wrote: »

I do art, but that won't make up the money I need per month.

Also, although I do want to try to work from home, either with saucy phone lines or matched betting, that the DWP will stop my benefits early.

It's like catch 22

Saucy phone lines?

Are you sure you aren't well enough to work?

carefullycautious

As above poster if you are well enough to do saucy phone lines it begs the question as to why you wont try to work

If you at least try to get back into the work place at least you will have shown you are trying

The problem comes when people refuse to even try to work, then the GPs hands are tied as they can not support your application as they have no idea whether you are able to work or not.

You have choices in all of this. You have got to want to change nobody can do this for you.

I do wish you luck and realise that it is difficult. life is hard out there.

*Robin*

Hi Bundance,

Is the bedroom of your flat big enough to be a bed-sit? If so that gives you an obvious option; either you move your bed into the living room which becomes your bed-sit, and you rent out the bedroom to a lodger. Or do it the other way round to get more income (as the largest room will attract a higher rental).

Having someone to share the flat with could be very positive for you (it's easier to give way to depression when alone).

A long time ago I was told the best way to get out of the whirlpool of depression is to forget your own hassles and make the effort to help someone else!
In your situation, I would suggest something like volunteering at your local animal shelter - get out in the open air and walk the abandoned dogs, cuddle the rabbits etc. You will be amazed how different you feel almost straight away, though I acknowledge that the first step will be very hard - but you can do it (the fact that you've posted here says that).

Good Luck!

silvercar

Support for mortgage interest pays the interest (but not the capital) on your mortgage payments at an assumed rate of interest of 3.8%. You can claim it for 2 years.

Yorkie1

usernamed

We are asked to be nice to new users. That goes both ways. You have been a member of this site for less than a week and are attacking someone who is in distress and asking for advice.

If you had been a member for longer then you would know more about the OP than you clearly do, and approach the question in the spirit it was asked.