Elderly Mortgage Advice

Button_Lodge

I am 65 and my husband is 72. We have lived in our home for 35 years and the mortgagehas always been with the Woolwich and paid on time.

We re-mortgaged 20 years ago to build an extension for our growing family, and wehad always planned that by now we would of paid it off or had saved enough toclear the debt. But with business dramatically slowed down and the loss of a large contract we have become very stuck.

Anyway, its sneaked up on that we are now at the end of the mortgage offer and we received a letter from Woolwich last week asking for the balance of the outstanding mortgage of £81k to be paid within 3 months, this is something we have no chance of doing. We have asked them to extend the mortgage but perhaps due to our age it isn’t something that are willing to do.

We are aware that selling the house and downsizing is an obvious plan, but selling the house within three months before the deadline isn’t really going to happen.

Can or will the Woolwich really throw us out?

Any advice will be really appreciated as we are a pair of OAPs who havent slept a wink through worry.

happycamel_2

Was this an interest only mortgage, do you not have a repayment vehicle? In that case I think downsizing is your best bet. If you tell Woolwich you have the house on the market at a realistic price then they may accept continuing payments in the meantime.

It will take them time to default and repossess so it isn't as if they can physically turf you out in 3 months.

Button_Lodge

happycamel wrote: »

Was this an interest only mortgage, do you not have a repayment vehicle? In that case I think downsizing is your best bet. If you tell Woolwich you have the house on the market at a realistic price then they may accept continuing payments in the meantime.

It will take them time to default and repossess so it isn't as if they can physically turf you out in 3 months.

Yes it was interest only, unfortantley we didnt have the foresight to add a vehicle to it as we thought that by now we would of overpaid enough to clear the balance (how wrong we were:()

JimmyTheWig

What's the value of the house?
Is it just the two of you living there now? Presumably, if so, you could downsize significantly. What sort of price would you be looking at paying for somewhere suitable for the two of you?

holly_hobby

Firstly please, please don't panic or get in a tizz right now ... possession is the last possible action the lender would want to take - ulitmately it benefits no one, throw in your ages and you're acceptance of what needs to be done (ie sell the property to redeem the loan), I am sure they will be as flexible as they can be - and will sl help as much as possible ... but you must speak to them about this right now !!!

Putting that to one side, dependant upon the value of the property, and if you are happy to move, complete downsize is the best solution.

You could consider a lifetime equity release mge (again dependant on property val & condition), if you really, really wanted to stay where you are, but this brings its own issues - generally and the most important being the erosion over time of the free equity in your property (which you may wish to retain for the benefit of your family) - I can explain lifetime mges on a more detailed basis if reqd, just shout !.

So, first things first, bull by the horns and ring the Woolwich, they won't bite and will strive to assist where possible.

Hope this helps

Holly x