Advice & Help needed please

DisabledDebtDisaster

Hi all I am hoping for some advice and direction really and this will be a long thread.

Over 10 years ago my disability worsened and my partner who works full time as well as being my carer was struggling in assisting me, after an assessment by occupational therapist recommended it was unsafe for us to stay in the house without adaptations and major work, including a lift installing, doors widening etc which would cost over £20,000, we couldn't afford that and the house was only small so we put the house on the market and got a council house and the adaptations all done.

we put the house on the market in the January 2010 we got offered a house in June and moved in November 2010, the house we could not sell, we was then having to pay rent and mortgage which we struggled with and stopped paying the mortgage. Northern Rock sent us an advisor who recommended us to surrender the house for self repossession and not to worry as the house couldn't be undersold, we was worried of having a massive debt to pay which wouldn't be able to afford.

We gave the house back over roughly Jan/Feb 2011 and we learned that it had been sold about April time for over £30,000 less then we bought it for (the house across the road had sold the year we put ours on market for £80,000 and didn't have garage, central heating or double glazing which ours did, with the same estate agents northern rock had handed ours over to!)

We was now left with a massive debt, we was advised to go into an IVA which would last for 5 years, as this was the only viable option we had to put in our credit cards and catalogues etc even though some was only a few hundred pound we wasnt allowed to keep and pay off.

so pay plan was all arranged and we was informed it had to be 6 years not the 5 initially told of an after first few months they told us they had calculated payments wrong an upped them, we was basically paying what our mortgage was on top of the rent, we wish to this day we had just kept the house on and rented it out.

I was at this point still working but my work situation changed, my employer sold the company and we was all put on zero hour contracts in 2013, I went from doing 40/50 hour weeks to 0-20 hours, my pay took a massive tumble and never knew what going to get each month, I explained all this to pay plan as struggled to make payments but they couldn't budge, I worked from home off the computer. After many changes and stress between unable to make full payments and the job I ended up going on sick in Jan 2015 due to my disability taking a bash from over a year of the stress.

Payplan started to default the IVA, in May 2015 my employer made all of us redundant, none of us got much pay out as they had craftily reduced our hours over the year and a bit they took over so our redundancy packages where very little.

Payplan notified us in Jan 2015 that we had now left the IVA officially and they distributed funds, We'd paid over 14k into in three years roughly , they took over £3k fees and rest to the creditors. One of the annoying things was they got quite a bit back PPI some of which would of paid off a few cards but on the release statement hardly anything appears to of got paid off.

When discussing options with pay plan during the time wen struggling payments they advised us to not acknowledge any contact as we are unable to afford to pay the mortgage company will apply to and make us go bankrupt.

We had heard nothing from the creditors and nothing on our credit reports. We got ourselves back on track over the last 5 years , over the last year have got credit back, got credit cards again and sofa on credit and an iMac to help me as my condition worsens and finally booked a cruise which is something I have wanted to do for ages but never been able to afford for 2021 and then out of the blue we got letter from NRAM for the £23k left owing and now I really don't know what to do, I know if they make us bankrupt it will be big problems, my partner has a decent work pension for when retires and I don't want them to touch that and I know they might.

I feel awful as its totally my fault due to the disability and it getting worse, we just ended up in the situation where we couldn't win and everything went against us, from house being sold massvively short, to work hours then redundancy and sick and condition worsening a lot in last few years.

EssexHebridean

I can't offer you any advice but didn't want to read and run - and also wanted to say that the situation is NOT your fault any more than your disability is your fault!

sourcrates

Hi,

I am assuming the 23k is the mortgage shortfall debt, that NRAM are chasing, well all i can say is good luck to them, they won`t make you bankrupt, what purpose would it serve if you don`t have the money ?

It currently costs £680 to make someone bankrupt, then what ???
Assuming you have no money or assets, they get absolutly nothing, you would be the benificiary, bankrupcy would wipe out your debt, and you think they would pay for this to happen, never in a million years.

Contrary to popular belief, large mortgage shortfall debts are extreamly hard to collect, not many people have 20-30k lying around doing nothing, simply write and tell them your situation, they cannot take what you do not have can they ?

They will never make you bankrupt, but its an option for you should you need it, your pensions are safe as long as they are not due to be paid out within 24 months of you going bankrupt, bankrupcy only lasts 1 year, then you are discharged, the most likley senario is they will just fade into the background once you have sent them proof you cant pay this debt.

Do a little reseach online about mortgage shortfall debts, you will find many people never repay them.

DisabledDebtDisaster

Thank you for the reply, yes it is mortgage shortfall, we bought the house for 80k and 10k loan on top (stairlift, ramps needed at start) so 90k total we'd lived there 7 years and not missed any payments until needed to move, we couldn't sell the house and they sold it for 60k, we was left on entering the IVA with just over 30k and letter states just over 23k to pay, we haven't dealt with or had contact with NRAM since date handed keys back in 2011 and they not been paid anything since IVA defaulted 2015

sourcrates

DisabledDebtDisaster wrote: »

we haven't dealt with or had contact with NRAM since date handed keys back in 2011 and they not been paid anything since IVA defaulted 2015

Was the shortfall included in the IVA ?


National debtline has some useful info :

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/mortgage-shortfalls/mortgage-debt.aspx


also FOS :

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/mortgages/mortgage-shortfall


You can try and agree an affordable monthly payment, based on your circumstances, that will apease them for now.

DisabledDebtDisaster

All we know is that the IVA amount for northern rock, which is the shortfall from them selling for 60k and what we left owing on mortgage

sourcrates

It would help if you could provide a little detail here, do you now rent or own another home ?
Any worthwhile assets ?
Any cash in the bank ?

Roughly whats your combined income/expenditure ?

Normally we ask you to fill in a statement of affairs (SOA) so we can see if there is room in your budget to make any kind of payments :


http://www.stoozing.com/soa.php


Fill this in, and post it on here, don`t forget to press format for MSE when it asks you.