Repossession, Repossession, Repossession

margaretclare

I didn't see the programme. As one who so nearly ended up in that situation in 1992 it's a bit too close to home for me. Some of the TV programmes that I do see, however (I don't watch it all that much) seem to search out for the absolute extremes - I suppose that's what makes good drama? Like the 'Supersize-Superskinny' series on Ch 4. The guy who weighed 35.5 stone....

Christmas 1992 was absolutely the lowest point in my life. In the spring of that year I was widowed and made redundant at the same time. I was in my late 50s, not all that physically able, and I had a £45K mortgage. Christmas that year I had nothing to do - had just come back from 3 months in Saudi, couldn't stand it, arrived home to a freezing cold house, gas boiler had packed up, had to replace it. Try getting something like that done in mid-December, try getting a heating engineer in - 'yer 'avin' a larf, ain't yer, missus?' I did eventually get somebody to do it. Christmas Day and Boxing Day I spent working in the homeless shelter and all I could think was 'by another Christmas I'll likely be joining these poor folk'. I met a man there who'd lost everything - his business, his house, his marriage, his kids....

I found an agency through which I could go away living with old people in their own homes 2 weeks at a time, relieved by somebody else, go back again. I was carer/driver/cook/companion/bottle-washer, you name it. It was a living - of sorts.

I had pets that had to be re-homed so that I could stay away from home, and where I took them, they were overrun. So many people were having to re-home pets.

Now, in a second marriage, DH arrived on my doorstep like a refugee in November 1997. We did equity release in 2003 which transferred the original mortgage to a 'lifetime mortgage' to be paid off in the event of the death of the second of us. Living on retirement income, no money worries now. We live simply but comfortably.

Was talking to my daughter just now - she had an accident at work in November and is now facing some pretty gruelling orthopaedic surgery over the next few months. It may be ages before she's back to work and back to her normal life. They exercised their RTB and last year, had a conservatory built. They've had some nice holidays too - both working, one daughter still at home and still in college. She was telling me that her PPI has come up trumps, on both a loan and the mortgage - especially the mortgage, part at least of it will get paid and backdated to the time of the accident. So although she's still on paid sick leave, that at least is an absolute godsend.

Anything can happen to anyone at any time. Life is fragile. As they say, stuff happens.

Margaret

emmy05

I definitely wanted to know how they got a council house bearing in mind my friend ended up in a hostel with two small kids as the council said she wasn't an emergency (her husband left her and cleared their joint accounts and remortgaged the house before he went so she ended up being evicted).

very close to what happened to my friend, she was left with 4 children, they put her into 1 room, then housed her where you had to drive thru beirut to get to her into something they called emergency housing, thankfully shes rehoused again, but what a horrible trip for her to get where she is now, and this was over the course of over 18 months.

that couple got a flat didnt they? but the council told my friend cos it was her fault, she wasnt entitled back onto the list! and is over 15 miles away from me now, i hate it:(

glossgal

The programme was complete cobblers, twas to television what the Daily Sport is to journalism . Im surprised the CAB put their name to it, can only assume they were mislead..

As for the 'glamour model', she was touting her wares on Living tv show 'Pete Burns PA' only a few months ago so her credentials are somewhat dubious. TBH I don't believe any of these documentary progs anymore, channel 4 are the worst, their shows just smack of the production company having raided the nearest am. dram class for 'earthy' stereotypes.

MABLE

Hermia wrote: »

They programme makers clearly wanted that couple to be the sympathetic focus of the programme. They obviously knew that the bimbo and the guy who is buying geegees (to presumably overcompensate for some personal deficiency?) were going to be the 'villains' of the piece. The shots of the father crying and the child's bicycle being packed away were obviously meant to make us sympathetic. It was just ridiculous how the programme just skimmed over the whole thing so quickly.

I definitely wanted to know how they got a council house bearing in mind my friend ended up in a hostel with two small kids as the council said she wasn't an emergency (her husband left her and cleared their joint accounts and remortgaged the house before he went so she ended up being evicted).

Remember we are talking factural here. They did not a council house it was a flat.

nelly_2

I liked the nob with the horse

Did you see how not happy he was when his horse come 3rd and he picked up only 300 n odd quid as owner?

Thats cos he put a 2 grand bet on it winning

Oh and his quote 'yeah I love this life style I get to mingle with jokies'


!!!!!! is that about???......small boy pedo fetish if you ask me

loveandlight

Why is it that whenever people fall down on very hard times there are always plenty of people ready to sit in the judgment seat and act all smug and superior towards those who are clearly suffering for whatever reason. Compassion seems to have gone right out the window. Bad things do happen to good people. Some people actually do have more control over their lives than others. It's not always about making the right decisions in life. Life actually does treat some people more kindly than others. Some people make the same decision as others but get a very different negative outcome. Some of the comments on this thread are so naive.

In the last recession I was in the legal profession and a very good friend of mine was a senior barrister in his late 60's. He was extremely clever and had helped many people for free.

He had been married to his wife for over 50 years and one day he found out his wife was dying of cancer and didn't have long to live. They were never able to have children. He nursed her himself for what turned into several years and paid for various treatments to keep her alive before she eventually died. He went back to work but by this time was deep in debt. He told virtually no-one because he knew how quick people were to judge others who had fallen on hard times. He had problems keeping up the mortgage repayments on his home.

One day the bailiffs came to repossess. He was waiting at the door for them and told them that he couldn't face losing his home as well as his wife and no longer had any fight left in him and no-one to turn to. He then bid the bailiffs goodbye and handed them the keys to his home and then proceeded to walk straight into the River Thames where he drowned. Some of you will say from your judgment seat, serves him right. How sick, sad and naive some of you are. Only real life will teach you otherwise.

Lotus-eater

FGS loveandlight, we are talking about extremes here not your friend who killed himself, we're talking about a couple who spent too much on the good life and suprise suprise, couldn't pay it back, because they didn't earn enough.
We're talking about a complete nob who buys racehorses and owes a million quid, lives the highlife and says "its not my fault"
We're talking about a wannabe famous "glamour" model, who thinks she looks so good, she has to spend way over the amount she earns just to keep looking good, so she can manage to get on third rate tv programs and so that someone sad in the street might recognize her.

country_sport

Can only say one thing. A fool and there money are easily parted.

margaretclare

One day the bailiffs came to repossess. He was waiting at the door for them and told them that he couldn't face losing his home as well as his wife and no longer had any fight left in him and no-one to turn to. He then bid the bailiffs goodbye and handed them the keys to his home and then proceeded to walk straight into the River Thames where he drowned. Some of you will say from your judgment seat, serves him right. How sick, sad and naive some of you are. Only real life will teach you otherwise.

In post #132 above I described the situation I was in when I was widowed and made redundant at the same time.

Your post rang a bell with me, because on more than one occasion I went down to the estuary (the Thames near its mouth) and cried, but I didn't have the courage to walk down into the water. I went there, but I just couldn't do it.

Poor, poor man.

Margaret

Rabiddog_2

What was a sixty plus year old man doing with a mortgage still? How many ordinary people get to keep working after 60-65 on judges money? It is sad.. that he had so little respect for others that he killed himself.. a house is just a house is just a house. Downsize, its not the end of the World..

Onto r/r/r That kid as well, who was going to be paying back his money for the next twenty years.. at £71 per month...Maybe up it a little? Duh?