Sinking sinking sunk

ScaryWaters

Hello all, long time lurker first time poster.
Your threads and stories have quite literally been my lifeline over the last six years or so. Thank you.

Not sure why I am posting really, just can't sleep. Guess I am hoping someone will wave a wand and make everything ok. or maybe I just want to tell someone.

We are on a DMP

I am so ashamed of the mess we got into. I don't teally know how we did. We never lived a lavish lifestyle.... at least I didn't think we did but over £70k of loan and credit card debts seems to say otherwise. We don't srink kr smoke and have no kids. We have a modest home. We earn a combined income of £64k a year

Signed up to a dmp with stepchange (CCCS then) in 2010 or 2011 and have managed to get this down to £18k as of today.

A few months ago I had a call from Vanquis who offered me a credit card and, perhaps stupidly and in violation of the dmp I applied and was succesful. I used it for food shopping and have paid it off it full each month and not left a balance on it. Then I got an offerfrom Tesco cc also offering me a card so I applied and was accepted so I have been using it for petrol only and paying off each month in full. Both have increased the limit to £1k and £1.5k but I have only used for food and petrol and paid balances off at once.

So I thought our credit rating was maybe not so bad. Maybe 'they' could see we have been really trying to pY off the debts and got down from £70k to £18k and thought we were ok.

A few months ago we found out our house has dry rot. Badly. In the space of six months window frames have turned to dust and everything in the kitchen is covered in red dust. No amount of bleach or cleaning keeps it gone for long.
Had a builder in who has shown us the problem and it is pretty bad. Need to spend around £9-£10k mark to treat and repair the structure. The kitchen, back door and windows will all need replacing.
We cannot actually openor close the window or doorr anymore at all as the frame is so rotten. I am terrifiedit is goingtk spread next door

So today we tried to remortgage thinking maybe our credit wasn't as hopeless as we had thought.

Explained everything to the bank about our finances and they still said it would be fine.

House is values at £119k with £70k mortgage outstanding.

They said we could remortgage and borrow £15k and LOWER our current monthly payments

But they turned us down

Am so gutted

Could actually cry

Stupidly got my hopes up that the house could get sorted. No more mould. No more rot. No more red dust. Could do the structual stuff and relave the mouldy kitchen, have a tap that runs and doors that open.

Now it is going to have to wait another 16 more months by which time I don't know what will have happened to the house.

I feel sick. I don't want to get into more debt but I don't see how we will get £10k anytime soon to do this work

Sorry for complaining. I know I am pretty lucky really to have a home and a good husband but I don't know what to do.
Doesnt help I read online that people die from having mouldy homes. Gets in your lungs and now Ki am panicking we will get some awful lung diseasr.

So so stupid for getting into debt!!!!

-taff

Have you tried your home insurance?

Bobarella

How horrible about the dry rot. I have to admit I dont know anything about it though. Have you considered asking the council for advice? Surely someone in their environmental health department would have come across it and the possible effects on people? I really hope you get some information soon.

Georgiegirl2012

In terms of feeling ashamed - I am sure the majority of people on here can relate to how you feel - I know I do (£17kish in the 3 years since I sold the house to become debt free) but well done on doing so well so far. You know that taking out the credit cards is putting temptation in your way, but you seem to managing that, but I would suggest you need to stop using them even if they are just for food and petrol.


In terms of the dry rot, I would be ringing SC and telling them of your predicament and see if they can suggest the best way to deal with this. not only might the dry rot be having an effect on your physical health, the stress and worry you are experiencing will have a negative impact on your mental health.
Take care and keep us updated xx

MrsTinks

Have you actually checked your credit files? Any defaults will drop off your file after 6 years and depending on when you signed up to the DMP you may find most of these will start dropping off very soon. Depending on how recently you took out the credit cards then you have potentially had too many new credit applications recently which might not have helped. Part of the rejection could be down to that and part down to internal criteria for the lender.

It's important you work out if the information on your credit file has affected the application or if it was based on internal factors at your mortgage company.

Start at the beginning and get all 3 of your credit reports first.

enthusiasticsaver

If you have got down from £70k to £18k in 6 years that is really good. How much longer have you got until the dmp is cleared?

I would be contacting your insurance company, environmental health at your local council and stepchange if that is who you are doing the dmp through. You should not have credit cards though if you are on a dmp.

That is a violation of the agreement as you are already aware. Vanquis preys on people with poor credit history so the fact you were offered one does not surprise me.

Can the work be done in stages rather than having to pay out £9-£10k in one hit? Is it possible for stepchange to renegotiate your dmp payment to allow you some budget leeway to at least do the critical work? Your mortgage company should be able to advise you too. It is still partly their asset so surely they don't want it crumbling away.

Skylar34

Firstly well done on paying off so much debt so far that is really positive.

With regard to the dry rot situation please try not to panic I will try and help you here as much as possible, my partner is a building surveyor and deals with a lot of work relating to dry rot/wet rot so will pass on his advice here.

Partners advice was to get a reputable damp specialist or surveyor round asap to assess it because if it is dry rot you are dealing with you cannot afford to waste time and leave it as the problem is only going to get worse and keep spreading until treated. Not sure how much it would cost to have a specialist round but sometimes the appointments are not too pricey, I know you said you had a builder round to quote but you need someone with specialist knowledge because it has to be chemically treated and completely eradicated or will just come back.

This stuff can spread unseen behind plaster, into joists, floorboards, roof voids etc and can potentially spread to neighbour.

The red dust you are seeing are the spores, these can be spread to other properties via clothing or anything taken out of the house into other buildings as the spores get everywhere.

To treat this you would need to firstly find and repair the root cause of water ingress then remove all affected timber throughout the property which has to then be destroyed in the correct manner, then chemically treat the property before replacing removed areas with new timber.

Unfortunately dry and wet rot are not covered on home insurance policies, I appreciate this is not what you need to hear right now but there is no sugar coating any of the above, this is serious and you cannot afford to bury your head in the sand and hope for it to go away, you need to deal with it and the sooner the better because this stuff spreads and fast.

I hope you can get this sorted but please try not to panic, there will be a solution somehow

TrustyOven

ScaryWaters wrote: »

I don't teally know how we did. We never lived a lavish lifestyle.... at least I didn't think we did but over £70k of loan and credit card debts seems to say otherwise. We don't srink kr smoke and have no kids. We have a modest home. We earn a combined income of £64k a year

Wow!!

Hmm. I think, going forward, it would be really important to think long and hard, do some retrospective thinking, as to how you got into such a situation.

Basically, you want to do everything you can possibly do, to never get to that situation. And in order to prevent yourself from having that problem, you need to know how you got there.

Don't you track every penny of your income and outgoings?

ScaryWaters wrote: »

and have managed to get this down to £18k as of today.

Yay well done!

ScaryWaters wrote: »

I feel sick. I don't want to get into more debt but I don't see how we will get £10k anytime soon to do this work

Combined income of 64k should probably be easy for you to save up for the work? 10k = 10 months if you save 1k a month? listentotaxman.com says if each of you earns 32k then it's about 2k each per month after tax.

runforlife

Let's reword your original post:

I am so ashamed of the mess we got into. I don't teally know how we did. We never lived a lavish lifestyle.... at least I didn't think we did but over £70k of loan and credit card debts seems to say otherwise. We don't srink kr smoke and have no kids. We have a modest home. We earn a combined income of £64k a year

Signed up to a dmp with stepchange (CCCS then) in 2010 or 2011 and have managed to get this down to £18k as of today.

Amazing! You have settled £52,000 of debt in 5 to 6 years. So as well as living day to day within your means you are now well on the way to being debt free.

A few months ago I had a call from Vanquis who offered me a credit card and, perhaps stupidly and in violation of the dmp I applied and was succesful. I used it for food shopping and have paid it off it full each month and not left a balance on it. Then I got an offerfrom Tesco cc also offering me a card so I applied and was accepted so I have been using it for petrol only and paying off each month in full. Both have increased the limit to £1k and £1.5k but I have only used for food and petrol and paid balances off at once.

After years of debt repayment, penny pinching etc you gave yourself a little light relief with a credit card. And whats more you are managing the cards very well ensuring they are paid off and incur no interest. Brilliant! Also you are maybe slightly concerned about their credit limits. Why not just reduce them to a figure you are comfortable with, say £500 each?

A few months ago we found out our house has dry rot. Badly. In the space of six months window frames have turned to dust and everything in the kitchen is covered in red dust. No amount of bleach or cleaning keeps it gone for long.
Had a builder in who has shown us the problem and it is pretty bad. Need to spend around £9-£10k mark to treat and repair the structure. The kitchen, back door and windows will all need replacing.
We cannot actually openor close the window or doorr anymore at all as the frame is so rotten. I am terrifiedit is goingtk spread next door

Had one quote from builder. Why not get other ones in to give you some quotes? Play one off against the other for the best price. How much would it cost to repair only the absolute essential elements? Would any of this be a DIY for you, family or friends? Remember look at just the essential items.

House is values at £119k with £70k mortgage outstanding.

You have good equity in your property.

They said we could remortgage and borrow £15k and LOWER our current monthly payments

But they turned us down

Equity that remains and perhaps has increased since the refusal. You haven't taken on any more debt.

I know I am pretty lucky really to have a home and a good husband but I don't know what to do.

You have someone that loves you. Some people without debt would gladly swap.

I hope reading this helps you, even just a little bit. The only practical solution I can suggest is why not reduce your DMP payments to token ones for a few months whilst you save towards the cost of some of the repairs. You are both earning good money and have paid a lot off in a short space of time, so I imagine your DMP payments are pretty high. It may not take that long to save for what you need.

You can do this. Keep thinking out of the box. Good luck.

EssexHebridean

Cut the cards up. Firstly they're breaching the terms of the DMP. Secondly they're making you nervous. Thirdly if you're paying them in full, you don't need them. Cut them up, pay them off, close the accounts. That's one bit of stress gone from your life.

If you have defaults on your file then simply using a CC isn't really going to have a particular impact on your credit history, IMO, as the defaults will currently be too "negative" for the positive of the cards to offset, if you see what I mean.

Do a new, up to date, ACCURATE SOA. Work out where there can be any slack in your budget.

Take notice of the advice above about the Dry Rot situation - you MUST deal with this fast - if it spreads to neighbouring properties your problem increases.

You've done SO well already there is no way this is going to beat you now. Financially you're in a good position, and shortly going to be in an even better one - as Mrs Tinks says you can't be far off the defaults dropping off now in any case - a call to Stepchange to see what they suggest and a thorough look at your credit files is a great place to start dealing with this.