Desperate for help

SparklyShoes

Hello,



I brought my first house last year with my partner and it's thrown out or finanaces completly. Naively we didn't expect our bills too jump up that much. Since then it's been a complete nightmare and I'm currently having councelling to help deal with the stress because I just couldn't cope with it all.

My first question is about weather I am liable to pay for a debt. you see when we brought our house we used a mortage advisor. The agreement was if we took out life insurance we didn't have to pay for the advise. We took out the insurance in good faith but the insurance company failed to take the money. We set it up twice and there was money in the account but it just didn't come out. We spoke to our bank who confirm the direct debit had been set up and the money was in there.The advisor kept hassling me about it at the time depsite me explaining that I was at work and unable to do anything about it and he'd have to speak to my partner about it. In the end I responded with a snotty email explaining that I had repeatedly asked him to speak to my partner which he had failed to do and if he didn't stop contacting me whilst i was at work instead of my partner as agreed I was going to complain about him to the FSA. According to their recrords he left one voicemail and that was it. I spoke to my partner about it who has told me that actually he spoke to him and was put through to the insurance company and confirmed all of our bank details ect.

Now this mortage advisor was useless. We had to sort out or building insurance because he had also set that up incorrectly he also copied in people from another company who had nothing to do with us on an email that contained my personal bank details which I was not too happy with. After that we didn't hear anymore and assumed it had been sorted.

A few days ago some woman from the mortage company turns up on our doorstep about it. My partner told her to come back when I was there. She cancelled because of the snow and we discussed it over the phone today. Apprarently the original guy is no longer with the company.Now we were lead to believe even if we did have the insurance we only needed to have it for a few months and we could cancel. She is claiming we have to have it for four years or pay their bill.

I don't think I should have to as A) the advisor was incompetent and failed to set up anything correctly. He didn't set up the DD for our mortage which he said he had done. he didn't set up our housing insurance properly so we had to ring them up and sort it ourselves and he didn't sort out the life insurance
If you are receiving any commision from selling a product you have to offer it to the customer first who are entitled to keep it or say you can keep it in leui of payments. He failed to make that clear. Would I therefore be withing my rights to say ok we'll have the insurance and we'll pay your bill. Please set it off as a contra entry against the comission your are receiving and pay us the difference?
C) We can no longer afford this. Our circustances have changed and we can no longer afford it. My partner has had his overtime rate cut and no longer get's as much overtime as needed. On top of this we are up to our eye balls in debts.

Shes going to look at cheaper insurance options for us but to be honest I feel like I'm being forced into taking insurance out that I do not want or need. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. I cannot afford to pay the bill fpr the mortage advisor and I cannot afford another monthly payment. however If I don't she's threatening me with legal action.


My second issue is I took out a fixed rate account with EDF for gas and electric which they have been taking. Our previous supplier is still charging us for Gas and electric as the account hasn't been shut. (I thought this was something EDF did when they got our meter readings ect form First utility) Would I be liable to pay for the gas and Electric to First utility still seeing as then I would be paying for it twice?

I'm so stressed out. It's seems like it's just one thing after another. I can't sleep because I'm so worried about it. My partner doesn't help at all. I've asked him to do things like set up a DD for his credit card so we don't get late payment fees and call up and get his phone rate lowered and he's just not doing it. I have cut down and cut down as much as I can and he's just wasting money left right and centre.

Oh and just to add to it all I had a lovely budgeted spreadsheet that now wont work because when I installed Exel years ago I didn't put the code in properly and no longer have it and PC world wont help despite me having a reciept for it so I can't use my wondeful spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

sorry I'm just winging now. I just feel like I'm never going to get this sorted and I'm never going to get my credit card paid off and I'll never be able to afford flooring for my bedroom and I'll never get married or be able to afford kids. It's like you try and do the right thing but all these companies have infinate money to persue you to make you pay for things you shouldn't have to pay for and If you don't you get a poor credit rating.

Sorry I am really going to stop whining now. but if anyone could help I'd realy appreciate it.

whitewing

You will be able get your credit card paid off.

You will be able to get married.

You will be able to have kids.

(From a financial perspective at least).

It's fairly normal I think to have a bit of a panic when you first buy a house, especially if you don't come from an affluent family that have taught you about finances.

Don't panic. Take it step by step. Statement of Affairs would be good.

Let all your stress about the excel spreadsheet go and start again.

You will make mistakes on it all, but the mistakes will begin to be smaller and further apart.

Now go to bed!

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi it might be wise to post a statement of affairs. I recently took out life insurance with free advice from a financial advisor we didn't have to pay because of the commission they got from us taking out the life insurance I know from reading the paperwork and small print that the life insurance policy has to be running 4 years or we are liable for the commission the company gave to the advisor company because they take it back. I'm not sure what you can do about that?

Regarding gas and elec no you shouldn't have to pay twice ring both company's up tomorrow an sort out the problem. We had this with edf we were going to fix with gas and elec and they kept making mess ups so in the end I fixed with the original company and blatantly told them I refused to pay for fuel twice.

I'm sure things just feel abit up in the air but posting a statement of affairs might help :-)

R_P_W

Hi - can you just clarify what insurance you are referring to? Buildings? Contents? Life? Critical illness?

I ask because having building insurance isnt an optional extra. It will be a condition of your mortgage. Contents, life critical illness and others are optional however some of them are a sensible option if you can afford it.

heartbreak_star

I can advise downloading OpenOffice for your spreadsheet (it's free!).

HBS x

foxgloves

As a condition of your mortage, you will need to have buildings insurance, as obviously they will not lend such a big amount without knowing their investment is covered in a disaster. Contents insurance is a very good idea & I absolutely wouldn't be without it. However, as far as I understand it, Life Assurance is another matter. When i bought my first house, I was sold a life assurance policy as though it was an essential part of taking out a mortgage. I subsequently cashed it in as it was expensive & useless (devalued v badly in the financial crash). I have taken out another much cheaper more basic policy thru my trade union, but while this was going on, I discovered that it is NOT an essential thing to have if you want a mortgage. You can't be forced into having life assurance. If someone is doing this, then I suspect they are on commission or similar. So I would check exactly what policy it is they are pursuing you about. You MUST have buildings insurance, but as far as I understand it, if you choose not to pay for a life assurance policy, that is up to you.

SparklyShoes

Hi All,

Thanks for your input I really appreciate it. I'm feeling a little calmer now I've had some sleep.
We have buildings insurance but they're trying ot make us have life insurance or pay for their services. The point I'm trying to clarify is as I do not want the insurance any more should I have to pay their bill when they mucked things up so badly. The way I see it was at the time we took out the life insurance in good faith and went out out our way to sort it. As the insurance company failed to take the moeny out of our account surely the mortage advisors company should pursue the insurance company for their comission not us? I might offer to pay half of their bill in installmemts instead of having the insurance as I do not feel I received a good service from them.

I will do a SOA later as I have an exam later today (Ironicly an accounting one!)

Once again thanks for your help! :-)

FireWyrm

foxgloves wrote: »

.... I discovered that it is NOT an essential thing to have if you want a mortgage. You can't be forced into having life assurance. .

That's quite right. It USED to be a stipulation of a mortgage that life insurance as well as buildings insurance was in place, but the rules were changed in the mid 90's because people were borrowing more and couldnt service both a mortgage and the insurance each month.

However, it is ALWAYS advisable to have such in place regardless because if you die, the bank will simply foreclose and your heirs will get whatever equity there is from the sale. The point of such insurance is to pay off the mortgage after death and thus safeguard the home for those left behind.