Forthcoming BR / unclear about property.

se0303

I've finally bitten the bullet after a decade of serious debt problems, which have tipped over into a disaster since redundancy more than a year ago. I am optimistic about returning to work fairly soon now (a long way through one recruitment process), and I have my BR hearing the week after next.

However, I am still really unclear about what happens with my home. I have a mortgage and secured loan (paid on concessionary schemes with both lenders, who are aware of my situation), with current negative equity of £9,500-11,000, depending on which agent's valuation is used.

I would be grateful if someone could advise me - as I understand it, this means that the OR would not seek to sell the house until such times as there is more than £1,000 equity again.

But - they can force a sale even in negative equity if they believe the mortgages are too great a part of a future salary?

They then have a 3-yr period during which they retain charge over the property. If it is still in negative equity then, it reverts back to me.

What is the actual situation with buying back the beneficial interest? I understand this is done for a nominal sum, such as one pound, on a property that's in negative equity, but it depends on the individual judgement call of the OR dealing with me? Is this correct ?

I would value advice from people who've kept/lost their homes in situations of similar negative equity.

Thank you.

kepar

When I went br , I was in a similar situation to you, although slightly more negative equity. The problem I had was that the OR would only allow me average rent for the area, if I had only being paying a mortgage this would not have been a problem but the SL payment would not be met from the allowances.

se0303

So the OR might decide that the secured loan can't be factored into my acceptable monthly budget? If that happens, I might as well surrender the property and include the two shortfalls in the BR. What do they take as the baseline for calculating reasonable housing costs? Nationwide, to whom I owe my main mortgage, use the same source as Zoopla - the house price index. What do official receivers use?? The difference between the HPI and estate agents can be tens of thousands.

tigerfeet2006

How much would a property that is suitable for your needs be to rent in your area? How much is your mortgage and SL?

This is what the OR will look at.