Please help us with mortgage advice for poor credit applicants

7CS

Throwaway account for privacy. Hoping someone can help.

My wife and I are both self-employed and have relatively low incomes (£30k ish combined).

We also have pretty poor credit histories due to both being a bit crap with money.

We have two children.

At the end of last month we had two CCJs registered against us. One for £2700 which we may possibly be able to have removed, as we thought we were paying it off, and one for ~£500 which we could clear if necessary, but obviously it’s a bit late now.

Due to a family bereavement we are soon (possibly 6 to 8 weeks) to inherit around £30k.

We are currently renting but our landlord needs to sell our house. We wanted to buy it but it’s probably out of our reach, although we retain a faint glimmer of hope.

I’m hoping for some advice or ideas on how to proceed. If the CCJs are as bad as they seem, what should be our next move? If we can’t buy, what’s the most sensible thing to do with our inheritance other than sit on it?

I’m so tired of paying rent (we’ve wasted over £80k on this) and the dream is just to own our own home, but our stupidity might have ended that dream for now.

Just looking for help really. I don’t know what to do.

John_

You can’t view the £80k as wasted, you were spending it on living somewhere, just like you spend money on food, or going out. You also avoided maintenance costs, mortgage interest, and the risk of negative equity.

csgohan4

pay off the CCJ's, time will heal your credit history, but I would engage a broker who will be able to advise how long to wait and what you can afford

[Deleted User]

How much do you want to raise?
How old are the ccj's?
Any other credit issues in last 3 years?
Any credit card/loan/car finance payments at the moment? 

With a fairly steady employment history there are still plenty options with ccj's.  Quite a few lenders will lend with ccj's under 12 months for instance. 

ACG frequently makes a point about not being to hasty in paying off defaults or ccj's, to an extent the damage is already done to your credit report so it may be better to have more deposit than pay off a ccj.  

ACG

How much will the house be sold for roughly?
How much time do you have before it goes up for sale? 

I would try and get that £2,700 CCJ removed if I could.