please help! worried sick!

wot_a_life

Well, this is the situation so far............

We have just calculated all of our debts and we are about 40k in debt to unsecured debts.

We have a mortgage to which we owe £169,000, we have had no secure debt on the property but we do have a charging order on it for £2,100.

The mortgage repayments are interest only at £1070 a month plus a further £105 for arrears of £2000.

We have had the house valued at £199,950 but we are not going to get that for it in todays situation and we have been offered £184,000 for a quick sale from one of those avoid repossesion companies.

What shall we do? we are thinking about selling to this company and going into private rented because we just can't see a way forward. We can't afford to pay the mortgage, it's just too high!!

If we went bankrupt, do we have enough equity in the property for the OR to sell it from under us?

Doozergirl

Why are you paying so much interest? I work that out at 7.6% :eek: Have you tried to remortgage at all? You should be able to get it down nearer to £750-800 a month although if you;ve defaulted it won't help. Can you remortgage with your current lender?

If a quick sale company are offering you £184,000 then I would certainly think you can do better than that on the open market. You must give yourself the opportunity to get the best price you can before you accept a low offer from someone who is only ever going to make a low offer, iyswim. It doesn't matter if they think it's worth more, they won't give it you, someone else is more likely to.

SquatNow

If you went bankrupt then yes the property would be sold.

Please also note that there is not really any "unsecured debt" anymore as the laws were changed in April 2006 making it a quick and easy matter for unsecured debt to be turned into secured debt. (takes about 5 minutes)

You don't say what you income is... this may decide if you are even ABLE to go bunkrupt.

To declare bankrupcy you need to show that you are unable to service your debts and will never be able to pay them off.

If you are physically able to service the debt, then your bankrupcy request will be turned down.

If it means you have to work the rest of your life, finally paying off the debt a day before you die, then technically, you are not bankrupt. This rule isn't always enforced, but it can be depending on the circumstances.

Whatever happens you need to accept the simple fact that at the end of this you will come out with absolutely nothing. If your lucky any outstanding debt may be written off, but you arn't going to come out of this with any cash in your pocket.

wot_a_life

Thanks for replying,

Yes we have tried remortgaging, but we can't get anything lower than we already have, probably due to the fact that my husband has 4 ccj's against him

Our current lender is less than helpful and we have seen a financial advisor who has suggested that we get them to review the mortgage because it states that we paid 182k for it when we didn't, we paid 177k! 3 years ago, so it's all a huge mess at the moment, what with all the debts, (had bailiffs this week), and our quality of life is pants, we are just looking for a solution

SquatNow

wot_a_life wrote: »

what with all the debts, (had bailiffs this week), and our quality of life is pants, we are just looking for a solution

In legal terms, quality of life is irrelevant.

If you can pay, then you must pay.

In the next few months I expect to see hundreds of cases just like this on MSE.

wot_a_life

Thanks squatnow, if we could pay, then we would pay, there is no doubt about that, I hate having debt hanging over me and I am looking for a second job to help with finances.

The situation is.........
I work 30 hours per week for approx £500 a month
Hubby - self employed builder/plasterer can earn in the region of £4k a month, WHEN he can find work

When he is out of work, we claim tax credits, we have 3 children all in full time education.

We have cut our grocery bill from £120.00 pw to £70
Elec and gas are metered
Arrears with water & council tax, we pay what we can when we can, but obviously we have to eat
Then there is the mortgage, the arrears, the debts

I'm not expecting to walk away with a huge profit from selling the house, just to make life a little easier and reduce our outgoings, we can't afford a mortgage of £1070 a month and the arrears, but if selling it is not the best option, then we will battle on, but loosing the house one way or another is probably our only option

Doozergirl

Then talk to agents and see what sort of price they think will see it sell witin the timeframe you want to see it sold in.

You can't give up before you've even started. You don't know what it's like out there, you might just be able to sell - you have this £184,000 figure to beat.

A while on the market and selling up sounds far better than struggling on a rip-off mortgage that you're not even paying off because it's IO. You'd be better off renting

wot_a_life

I have come to the conclusion, (correct me if I'm wrong) that seling the house is the best option, thanks Doozergirl for that, however, I am trying to stay in control of the debts and I am worried that by putting the property on the open market, I will have creditors hounding me.

I am already paying the majority of them a monthly contribution and I don't want to rock the boat and cause more pressure if you see where I'm coming from, I'm just trying to do the right thing???/ what ever that is

My hubby by the way wants to go up to the mortgage lenders and hand over the keys and just start fresh, the build up, depression, lack of sleep and arguments all this has caused has been going on for 2 years now and all we want is to take control of the debts.

silvercar

We have had the house valued at £199,950 but we are not going to get that for it in todays situation and we have been offered £184,000 for a quick sale from one of those avoid repossesion companies.

This doesn't add up. No buy-me-quick company would offer 92% of value.

Either they are a cowboy outfit who will fleece you for a valuation fee then offer you well under £150k or you have the full valuation wrong.

Seek help on the debt board for managing your debts. Don't assume that bankruptcy is your only option and don't assume that bankruptcy autmatically leads to losing your home.

SouthCoast

Have you had professional advice about your situation from the free debt charities?

Bismarck

SquatNow wrote: »

I
Please also note that there is not really any "unsecured debt" anymore as the laws were changed in April 2006 making it a quick and easy matter for unsecured debt to be turned into secured debt. (takes about 5 minutes)

This goes against what a lot of others have said elsewhere and against my understanding of priority payments...Please can you elaborate for my benefit (and others)