Help needed Selling up and then renting

Tony1966

Hi,
I've been scouring the internet all night looking for somewhere where i can post my problem and seek advice, and this is the most suitable place i've found so far. Apologies if it isnt a suitable place, but please hear me out. I'll keep it as brief as possible......

Basically, i need to sell my house immediately before it gets repossed. I am a few months behind on my mortgage payments, and my secured loan payments. I've been off work since September 2006 with stress and depression caused by my ever mounting debts which have made my life a misery. I dont even know when i will be able to return to work.

I am aproximately £65,000 in debt (£40,000 mortgage, £20,000 secured loan, £5,000 Credit Card) and i want to wipe the slate clean. My house is worth roughly £100,000 so i could pay off all my debts and still have money left. I would then need to move into rented accomadation. But here is my problem....

How can i move into rented accomodation when i have absolutely no money to pay a bond or months rent in advance ? Both my bank accounts are also in the red and over their overdraft limited.
I phoned the housing association Shelter today for advice, and was told to phone my bank and ask for a bridging loan so i would have money to pay for removal fees and a down payment on a rented flat/bedsit. Problem - My bank isnt going to loan me a single penny more.
Shelter also told me to look into local community credit unions, with regards to borrowing money from there, but there are no such things in my area.

So basically i need to know how i can get some money from somewhere to pay a rental bond or months rent when my house is sold and i need to move into a flat or bedsit (I am phoning estate agents tomorrow to put it on the market).

Please, please, someone help me who's been in this situation before. Surely i am not the only person in this kind of situation ? I appreciate any help whatsoever, but please don't post "try this" and "try that" suggestions. I need concrete definate details of what i can do and who i need to contact with regards to a short term loan or whatever. I feel trapped in a Catch 22 situation at the moment, and i feel suicidal. Please help.

To recap....
I will be putting my house on the market tomorrow. Say for arguments sake somebody agrees to buy my house in one months time..... I need to find somewhere else to live but dont have any money to pay for removal fees and a bond on my new home. (Even though i will have roughly £30,000 in my pocket after the completion of contracts and paying off all my other debts). I need to find money from somewhere in order to move out before i get my money from my house sale.

Thank you very much in advance. Please help, i'm desperate.

lynzpower

Hi Tony,

I was certainly in a similar position, I was unemployed, in debt and sold my flat to rent.

You do have a few options here.

1) are you certian that your bank would not be able to add, say 2k ( which is probalby all it will be to your mortgage at this stage, then when the place is sold, they get paid by your solicitor immieidaltey? HAve you asked them?
if you havent, do ask. You just never know

2) you could ask for the money in your bank for the deposit. Now I know that solicitors dont always do this, but after exchange, whatever happens that deposit money is yours. usually its held by the solicitors, but IIRC, you CAN get at it. therfore on exchange, you will have 10k that is YOURS- will you be able to ghet it? I dont know, you possibly could make it a condition of the sale with this money you can then, put down deposits, pay moving men etc.
You could then plan in 28 days between exchange & completion, which would give you adequate time to a) find somewhere to move to, sort out your finacnes, c) book movers and so on.

My understanding of credit unions is that in order to borrow off them you have to have saved with them before although this might have changed.

lynzpower

the other thing to mention is that IF your estate agent also does lettings, there MAY be an opportunity for you to reserve theproperty, and this could be paid when your completion money comes through.

In any case I strongly reccommend you open a new bank account without an ovberdraft facility ( eg co-opcashminder/ natwest step) wehere the proceeds of your house sale will go to.

Generali

I've been puzzling over this and I reckon your only choice is to open a deposit account (or even get a shoebox) and squirrel away what cash you can. Can you get a cash in hand job for example or get your benefits paid by giro which you can cash (don't know if you can still do that)? Sell some stuff on eBay if you have anything.

You won't need that much cash to move if you hire a van and put in the hard graft yourself. If you know you're going to have plenty of money when you've moved, you could always move in to a cheap hotel for a week or 2 - they may want some of the cash up front but it'll be a lot less than a deposit and a months rent. You can also probably cut a deal with the manager to pay the first couple of nights only and then pay the rest when your money comes through.

Get yourself down to the CAB for some advice on keeping your creditors at bay until you can sell the property. I realise it probably feels like your world is ending but at least you have equity so you'll walk away with plenty of cash and most likely without having to go bankrupt.

hearts

Am I missing something here? You sell your house. You then have 30k. You then move? Stay in a B+B for a few days till your cheque clears and the money is available. Hire a van for a few days to keep your stuff in....or did I miss something.

franklee

Alternative way of getting a loan is the peer to peer loans like zopa. "Zopa is the marketplace for Social Lending. People lend and borrow money with each other, sidestepping the banks."

https://www.zopa.com

Worth a look. Yours would be a short term loan and you will have the means to pay it back.

Melissa177

I'm a not a big fan of them, but what about those cheque cashing places that you see on the high street?

The trick is that you don't know how long it's going to take you to sell your flat.

Do you have friends/relatives that could help you move? Try spareroom.co.uk for somewhere to move to rent, perhaps - these tend to be cheaper, and if you're lodging with someone, you might be able to come to an arrangement with a landlord who understands your situation.

Good luck.

nikkiandmidgets

Surely once you have a confirmed sale on your house the bank will give you a loan for the money you require to rent a property - similar to a bridging loan? Or does it work differently in England cos of this gazumping thing? Have you no relatives or friend you can stay with for a few days, and store any stuff at, or perhaps use a place like cash converters or similar to sell off some of your household goods to get the deposit? or what acout the local council and these crisus (Am sure I just spelt that wrong!) loans\hardship fund? It has to be paid back I think but if you have been on work then surely you are getting some sort of benefits? have these paid into an account your bank cant gain access to and delay paying the bills till the house sale comes through?

Just some things i would try...

thecornflake

The money from your sale will come through on completion day. Which means you could stay in a b&b or with friends for a couple of days to cover the gap.

If you find somewhere to rent you're going to need to pay a holding deposit (ours was £300) and then reference etc fees come out of that. Private renting may be more flexible, one place we looked at said they were happy to take the deposit and months rent a few days after we moved in.

Plus you'll have a credit check if you try to rent through an agent, although ours said they only look for CCJs and bankrupty. This will vary between agents I guess.

It may take you a while to sell your place - from offer to completion you could be looking at two months or so easily. However, once you accept an offer the bank/mortgage company may be a bit happier about the arrears - we've found companies to be happy to defer payments once they knew we we were selling. However this can go badly wrong if the sale falls through.

I wish you the best of luck and hope everything goes ok for you. We're selling to rent at the moment (just exchanged) and from what I've seen a few others here are as well so there are people here who have experience of what you're doing.

Wannabesaver_4

We are selling our house and moving into rented and have an agreement with the letting agency that the deposit and 1st months money is transfered on the day of completion from our solicitors - its a wire transfer so is immediate.

You may be able to find an agency which is happy to do this but you would need to have a couple of hundred pounds for holding deposit. Maybe cheap hotel idea is the best one!

thecornflake

Wannabesaver wrote: »

We are selling our house and moving into rented and have an agreement with the letting agency that the deposit and 1st months money is transfered on the day of completion from our solicitors - its a wire transfer so is immediate.

You may be able to find an agency which is happy to do this but you would need to have a couple of hundred pounds for holding deposit. Maybe cheap hotel idea is the best one!

I didn't know you could do that - I might ask our agent if they are happy to do it.

By the way I just realised - if you do take the b&b/hotel option, you still have to find somewhere to store your stuff...