Private Renting

trish22_2

Could anyone tell us please going to walk away from our property interst only anyhow,before going Bankrupt, but am having problems with finding rental accomadation,as people ,estate agents etc landlords are asking where we are living at present ,is it mortgaged, why are we leaving,and yes we have a couple of CCJ,s only because a massive financial investment went wrong with a financial advisor .Long story, My husband has got a full time position which is permanent, but how can we get round this, I really don't want to mention bankruptcy before we have gone down that route, want to get a roof over our heads first.Any ideas please. Stepcha he did mention handing the keys back and renting a property, but it does,nt seem that simple.

bluesnake

Start by going to CAB -if they have not been disbanded You need professional help as there possibly may be a way of keeping the wolves from the door? Or even which wolf to feed, and which one you can starve. I am unsure if handing keys back, if the council sees this as you have made yourself voluntarily homeless, where if the bank repossesses, you have not voluntarily been made homeless.

My first choice: Maximize resources: Rent all the spare rooms in the house. If you can, rent the lounge out as well. Throw out all the kids if they are of working age. Harsh maybe, but these are harsh times and family do not generate cash, and they may end up separated from you anyway, if you do not

Usually it is best to sell the property yourself on the open market, providing you have not left it too late.

Ok, say in 1999 you bought the property for 120k. you put down 20k deposit owing 100k and paying the interest on 100k. Now it is 16 years later and the property is worth 300k

Usually handing the keys to the bank is about the worst thing you can do. Your sole purpose to the Bank is to make the bank money. The banks want their money, providing they get their monies owed, they do not care how much your house sells for. They are not interested in getting the best price for your house. If you owe 200k due to not meeting repayments, the bank will sell your 300k house on the 'open market' to their business friends for 200k, loosing you a 100k. - I as a non bank friend was told by the EA that an offer I once made in the above circumstances my bid will not be submitted as the bank was happy with current bid even though a property was well under priced.

If the property is sold for 200k and you owe 300k then you still owe 100k, Some one told me, possibly incorrectly, that money owed in property does not get cleared by bankruptcy after 5/7 years - this i am unsure of. Nor do I know what was meant by 'not get cleared' means.

If the financial hole is too big and time has run out, there are people out there that may take over your property and give you a few thousand pounds too in the process. In effect they are buying your debt plus your 120k property. That must be much less than the 300k selling price, so that they can make a good profit. The usual outcome is to walk away debt free with enough money to tie you over for a couple of months, but still sightly better than being in a hole.

Some landlords want months of bank statements, others will contact you place of work too. Many do searches and checks. http://www.experian.co.uk/background-checking/comprehensive-tenant-check.html

luvchocolate

not enough time at the moment to reply fully to the above post,....but please note once a house has been repossessed and sold by the lender any shortfall will be included in the B.R, so if you are sure you want to leave the property that is not a problem.

Gary1970_2

I was in the same boat a few years ago, we were in a mortgaged house in negative equity but to be honest neither the letting agents or the landlord was interested in our current position as long as we passed the credit check we were fine which was only a basic check. We had already fallen behind on loads of things, we got the keys for the rental in the Feb and filed for bankruptcy in the May handed the keys back to the bank and that was that really. Best thing we ever did gave us a fresh start and now operate a successful business. Just plan it out properly and you'll be fine!

trish22_2

Thanks for the advice everyone,but we have had a charge put on our property for a massive amount,nearly £250.000.we have only about about 30,000 pound equity and on a interest only mortgage,and now with this charge on the property it could never be cleared in. A lifetime, that's why we are thinking of giving property back and private renting, but each person I have approached regarding renting want to know why we are moving from property we are in ,or why are we renting if we have a mortgage, I just am lost for words what to say, or how to go about it.

woodformoretrees

luvchocolate wrote: »

not enough time at the moment to reply fully to the above post,....but please note once a house has been repossessed and sold by the lender any shortfall will be included in the B.R, so if you are sure you want to leave the property that is not a problem.

As long as both partners are declaring bankruptcy, otherwise shortfall becomes responsibility of joint owner....
If bankruptcy by both partners inevitable, and house has no equity then surely better to hang on in there?

f0nz

trish22 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice everyone,but we have had a charge put on our property for a massive amount,nearly £250.000.we have only about about 30,000 pound equity and on a interest only mortgage,and now with this charge on the property it could never be cleared in. A lifetime, that's why we are thinking of giving property back and private renting, but each person I have approached regarding renting want to know why we are moving from property we are in ,or why are we renting if we have a mortgage, I just am lost for words what to say, or how to go about it.

It's no one else's business as to why you're doing what you're doing. Please don't let others make you feel like what you're doing is wrong. They do not know your circumstances, nor are they living your life so just take it with a pinch of salt and be proud of th fact you're doing what you need to do for the benefit and wellbeing of your family.

If you really feel like you need to give an explanation you could say you need more space/need to be closer to somewhere/want a garden but can't afford it right now so whilst you rent that particular kind of property you going to continue saving so you can afford it but circumstances dictate you move sooner than later.

alastairq

t's no one else's business as to why you're doing what you're doing.

Whilst very true, it is a sad fact of life, we have to get past that 'first hurdle'.

To the OP, why not approach letting agents, just one of you?

You could answer that question quite easily, by responding, 'you are splitting up with your partner, and need somewhere to live?'

Teen_the_Drama_Queen

Hi Trish

We did exactly what you are thinking of doing back in 2011.

At Christmas 2010 we had a mortgage, second charge, loans, credit cards, etc etc we had no way of ever repaying, even if we managed to live to be 300 years old, I am sure. (It didn't help that I had recently been made redundant).

We checked around for privately rented properties and when asked by the letting agent, we just said we wanted to get off the property ladder for a while. In the January 2011 we found a suitable property (a landlord who didn't mind that we had a dog) and we stopped paying the mortgage, second charge, loans etc etc. This enabled us to build up a lump sum to cover the first months rent and the reference fees etc etc.

We then voluntarily handed the keys back into the local branch of our mortgage lender (albeit the manager didn't quite know what to do with them!!).

By the end of Feb we were settled into the rental property, went BR in the April and both discharged in 2012.

We both had IPAs which obv ran for the 3 years from July 2011 and ended last July.

Looking back it was a scary time (but only insomuch as it was something we had never done before, a big unknown and we sort of faced it one day at a time) - but it was the best thing we could have done.

We are still in the same rented property now and live as sensibly as we can - no credit cards, if we can't afford something then we go without, but on the plus side we own both our cars outright and we don't owe anybody anything - more importantly we can sleep at night.

The only advice I can give you is don't panic, you are not the first to go down this road and you won't be the last and no matter what happens, you will get through it and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

xxx

trish22_2

Thank you so much, for everyone who answered my query, you have been absolutely brilliant,I don't want to go into too much, just incase , but we got done over big time by a financial advisor, a proper crook.
But you have certainly made us feel better. Thank you so much for your replies.

National_Debtline

Hi Trish

If you haven’t already tried this you could go directly to the landlords through classified adverts rather than through an agency. I know people who have done that and the landlords haven’t even done credit checks. I think estate agents will be more likely to ask questions as part of their standard procedure.

Also, bear in mind that some private tenancy agreements have a termination clause regarding bankruptcy. This may come down to the landlord’s discretion though and they may be fine as long as the rent is paid on time but it’s worth bearing in mind.

James
@natdebtline