Made redundant - Mortgage help needed

foundationsmcr

Hi guys, I've not posted on here for awhile but I could really do with some advice. I was recently made redundant which has come as a bit of a shock having been in continuous employment since leaving Uni in 2001. I was the main income earner in the household (66%) and we found out we were pregnant the day before I was laid off. It happened quickly with no warning (the business was placed into Administration unexpectedly) and I'm only likely to receive statutory redundancy. We don't have sufficient savings to live on and we're currently being helped out by bank of M&D but this is obviously far from ideal.

We have a £299K mortgage (outstanding) on a house we bought 2 years ago which is on a 5 year fixed rate 90% LTV deal with HSBC. My question is this, would you recommend speaking to them to find out whether we can take an interest only period whilst I regain employment?

The reason I ask is I'm worried of the obvious impact of this, and the potential unknown consequences. For example, will the bank view us as higher risk when we come to remortgage at the end of our current deal etc.

I'm extremely confident of regaining employment and have a number of irons in the fire, but they are taking time to come to fruition due to red tape. I'd just rather reduce our overheads for the short term whilst we get back on our feet. (we've already done the usual cut backs on our expenditure).

What would people advise?

Thanks in advance

ACG

HSBC do not deal with brokers so I cant answer your question with any conviction however I dont believe they would allow you to go on to interest only for any period unless you really were up a creek without a paddle but that would usually be put on your credit report as arrears.

foundationsmcr

ACG wrote: »

HSBC do not deal with brokers so I cant answer your question with any conviction however I dont believe they would allow you to go on to interest only for any period unless you really were up a creek without a paddle but that would usually be put on your credit report as arrears.

Thanks for the reply, I'm hoping it wont come to that. I have maybe 4-6 potential roles that are rumbling along, but they haven't made an offer yet and it's taking so long I need to do something to reduce the overheads. Would you recommend speaking with them to find out what their position would be, or would that in itself be enough to raise a "red flag"? I don't want to do anything to damage our reputation with the bank, but I also don't want to end up "up the creek" as you put it!

Thanks again

PasturesNew

After 13 weeks there is some mortgage help available. I don't know what it is, but it might be something like "A fixed %age amount, for the first £200k of mortgage value, if the mortgage was taken out to buy the house (e.g. not to do an extension/pool/whatever)".

Somebody, soon, will know the nitty gritty.

It used to be 9 months before there was any help.

ACG

I dont know their processes so I would hate to have a guess.

Pastures new - I think you are referring to this - https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/overview

Thrugelmir

Any unsecured debt, credit cards , car loans etc?

foundationsmcr

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Any unsecured debt, credit cards , car loans etc?

Hi, yes, we have an unsecured loan (Tesco), and 2 credit cards (Amex and Lloyds) which are all up to date and being serviced. Albeit we've reduced the credit card payments to minimum following the change in circumstances.

Thrugelmir

foundationsmcr wrote: »

Hi, yes, we have an unsecured loan (Tesco), and 2 credit cards (Amex and Lloyds) which are all up to date and being serviced. Albeit we've reduced the credit card payments to minimum following the change in circumstances.

The existance of unsecured debt may well result in your mortgage lender taking a hard line. Default on unsecured debt before the mortgage. By default I mean approach these lenders and make reduced payments.

foundationsmcr

Thanks for the pointer. We've already reduced the credit cards to the minimum payments, I'll give the loan company a call to see if there is any room for movement on our loan repayments.

Thanks again. I'm hoping the job situation will be resolved swiftly and all of this will be avoidable!