Newby in need of advice pls

claireac

Hi,

I'm very glad to have found you all and hope that you can please give me some advice.

A bit about me - I'm working mum (15mths, 16 & 18) living with my partner. He is a self employed roofer, but has only been self employed for about 3 months.

We own our own home and have £40,000+ equity in it think (getting valuation v soon).

We prob about £20,000 in debt between us. We have defaults, ccj's mortgage arrears the lot.

What we are thinking now is to sell our house, buy somewhere a bit cheaper and pay off our debts.

Does this sound like the right thing to do?

Also, where do we stand with getting a mortgage given that my partner is self employed with less than a year of accounts and that we have a bad credit rating??

Worried sick about everything. At the moment I'm being constantly hassled by bailiffs trying to get payment out of me for our council tax.

I do want to pay them, it's just that our mortgage is now soooo expensive (variable rate) that we have a minimal amount of money left.

Many thanks for listening to my rambles if you've got this far....

Claire xx

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hello my lovely,

It's very stressful all this isn't it?

I am no expert by any means, but unfortunately I think you might have problems getting a mortgage in the currrent economic climate with your CCJ's and OH's new job.

One of the "sub prime" lenders might give you a mortgage but at a high interest rate so you wouldn't be any better off - especially as it costs a few thousand to to move these days.

How about posting you SOA on here and seeing if we can help you make your pennies work better for you - giving CCCS or Payplan a ring to see what they advise.

A year ago we owed £96,700 and we earn approx £2600 a month so we looked at selling the house, remortgaging, IVA, DMP, and bankruptcy as options but just getting on top of our finances and managing it all better is working out pretty well for us.

There'll be a solution honey. Martin says there always is.

The more info you can give us the more help we'll be able to be.

Love Jacks xxx

In_Search_Of_Me

Just to say welcome. You need, if you can, to post your full SOA so people have have a look but if you dont feel comfortble doing that (I never have on such a public forum!) the suggest you ring one of the free debt agencies for some advice. Is OH getting enough work to afford being self employed? ARe you able to work at all - although I suspect not with babies! One thing to remember is that you are not alone, although I know it feels like it sometimes.Big hugs for you & hang in there!

Larumbelle

:wave: Hi!

I would second Jacks and FF that if you feel comfortable posting an SOA we can all help to find ways to ease things for you.

I know it can be hard to lay yourself bare but remember that most of us are and have been in a similar position. We are here to help, not to pass judgement, and it's all pretty well anonymous!

Personally I think it is harder to look at the SOA yourself than it is to show it to others, if that makes sense. Either way, contacting one of the free debt agencies such as the CCCS is an excellent idea. What you'll notice here if you stick around is, different people pick up on different things, so it can be great to get all the different perspectives.

claireac

Hi, thank you for the welcome and for your advice.

Even though I have a baby I do work 4 days a week, and I'm lucky to have a good job with good prospects. OH is also doing well, sub contracts off his brothers roofing co. and they have sooo much work that my eldest son has just joined them too.

Everything for the future looks rosy - we just need to get over this! I find it very frustrating as I got myself into and out of debt before - vowed it would never happen again but circumstances were against me after a very messy divorce. I know I can do it again (somehow!!) but wish I didn't have to.

I will have a good look around and try to do the soa - then see if I have the courage to bear my soul haha.

Many thanks once again
Claire x

Gemmzie

Hi Claire, just found your thread after your cheerful hello in the chat thread

In regards to debts, pay your mortgage and your council tax first. Council tax debts are priority debts, credit cards etc aren't so please please make paying those number one importance¬