Worried About Losing My Home

PANDORA

Hi

Wondered if anyone has had a similar experience to mine.

My OH ran up credit card debts of over £30,000. Citizen's Advice arranged reduced payments for him and this has been ongoing for around 6 months now. They are only dealing with his financial situation as I didn't want a joint debt plan. We own our own house and there is around £60,000 equity. CAB say that creditors could only claim OH's share of equity if it went down the court route, but that doesn't help me as I'd lose my home!

Is there anything I can do to protect house? Don't think remortgage on my own would work..........Morgage is£80,000 My salary £20,000

To make matters worse, my mum raised money on her house so that we could build a side extension to ours to have her come and live with us. It's gone through Planning etc. but I'm scared to go ahead with it and jeapordise my mum's security. I'm running out of excuses as to why we haven't set a build date!!

I'm totally stressed out about it and can't work out what to do.

Would be grateful for any advice.

Conor_3

Sorry but if it does go that route, unless you can raise funds to secure the other halfs interest, they could get an order to force a sale. If he goes bankrupt, it's a certainty.

As it is, keep up with the payment plan if it's going along Ok.

Shineyhappy

Would it be possible for your mum to move in now and pay you rent to help get OHs debt down? I would think that the last thing the creditors would want to do is go down the legal route of forcing a sale of the proprerty. I gather its quite an expensive thing to do.

Have you posted a list of your incomings vs outgoings (a statment of affairs)so we can help you make a few cut backs and get the debt paid off quicker?

PANDORA

Thanks conor. Hoping not to go Bankrupt route, but if creditors get fed up with the small payments they're getting, they might force it. It's so unfair, I've worked hard to keep things going financially but at the end of the day it's probably been a waste of time. The damn credit card companies should be held to task for allowing people on limited incomes to withraw huge sums of cash!! if there was something to show for it it wouldn't seem such a waste!

Don't know what I'm going to do about my mum.......... What a nightmare!

PANDORA

Hi Shineyhappy

No, my mum wouldn't move in unless she had her own space (for various reasons) and I wouldn't subject her to the stress of the financial mess. I haven't posted yet, I've started writing it all down, but don't have paperwork for all balances........ but I'll get it posted.

fermi

It would be very very hard for a creditor to get the house sold to pay for the debts.

To do that they would have to have a County Court Judgement against him, and have been able to secure that against the property with a charging order.

Even if he had that judgement against him he could apply to pay back the debts in instalments. An important case (Mercantile Credit Co Ltd v Ellis in 1987) makes this difficult for the creditor to obtain a charging order unless he defaults on the instalments.

And then it's still rare for a creditor to either try to force a sale, or for the court to permit it.

In others words it would take a series of quite unlikely events and situations for the house to be seriously at risk.

PANDORA

Thanks for that. That gives me a bit of hope. I'm paying the creditors monthly via my debit card, but should maybe arrange direct debits (though CAB advised against this). Bank account is in my name. But probably safer to have them coming off bank so that there are no mishaps?

PANDORA

I don't have all the details to hand, but here is my rough SOA:

Mortgage

fermi

CAB advise against direct debits for the very good reason that the creditor can change the amount once the mandate is given. That has caught many people out when they suddenly find the creditor taking more than was agreed.

If you wish to set up an automated payment, then make sure it is a standing order because you are totally in control of those.

Likewise don't make any payments by debit/credit card because collectors have been known to abuse those as well by taking extra money and payments.

Shineyhappy

I think I would follow the CABs advice on that one.

I found that one of the best things to do to and shift some debt and ease panicing was to Ebay loads of stuff as you could log onto your account and see that you would have Xpounds to pay of a particular debt.

Another good tip for someone to raise some cash is to have a store cubboard challenge and try and use up as much as you can of the more exotic foods we all have but hardly use and see how long you can avoid going food shopping for.

PANDORA

I don't have all the details to hand but here is a rough SOA

Mortgage £80,000 £600
Standard Life Endowment 53 (for mortgage)
Prudential Endowment 55 (for mortgage)
Councill Tax 150 due to increase Apr
Friends Provident 12.34 for me
Scottish Power 71 - about to increase it to £111
Gas CH maintenance 23.06
House Insurance 8.63
Nat Ins contributions (OH) 8.40
Northern Rock loan 89.99 -my name only £4319 May 06
1st National (suite) 29.89 - clear in May 08
Car Insurance