Mortgage Holiday for account with arrears

Why_oh_why

I was wondering if anyone has managed to have a mortgage holiday for a few months when they have got arrears?

In February we had court repossession papers for our secured loan, this has now gone to court and we have agreed to pay an extra £70 a month. So far we have been doing this.

Whilst sorting out the secured loan, I contacted my mortgage company to see if we could reduce our mortgage payments for a while because we were really struggling. The guy I initially spoke to said that we could go for a new fixed mortgage arrangement which would save us money. However, we then got a call from their arrears department to say that we had to pay extra. Because they said they were on the point of sending us to court I agreed to pay an extra £230 per month.

Therefore, we are now paying £900 for our secured mortgage and £499 for our unsecured loan.

This is basically all of our money swallowed up.

We now cannot afford to buy food, the council are breathing down our necks and we have to make a payment or they want the whole years council tax paid (over £1000), we haven't been able to pay our monthly bills of £70 (including 2 or 3 CCJs).

I am desperately selling stuff on eBay but will soon run out of stuff to sell and doing as many things on the Up Your Income Board as possible (alongside my full time job). Our income isnt going to change for a few months.

Hubbie should be entitled to a £2000 (annual) payrise in 2 or 3 months which should help a lot but I basically don't know what to do now. That is why I was wondering if it was worth contacting my mortgage company to see if we could stop paying our mortgage for 2 or 3 months to try and get us back on our feet again. Any opinions?

louise1111_2

Hello!

i do not have a great deal of knowledge about this but....

did the judge order at court for you to pay an extra £70 a month? if so, how could the mortgage company ask you to pay more if it has already been to court and decided? they should only take you back to court if this arrangement has not been kept to.

i think they are trying it on!!

Why_oh_why

It is 2 separate companies - the court order was for an extra £70 for secured loan which is with Paragon - which is all fine with the court and Paragon (total monthly payment to them is £500).

The extra £230 is for Yorkshire mortgage, which takes my payment to £900.

louise1111_2

hello!

are there a lot of arrears as £230 is a lot of extra money to pay!

Why_oh_why

I think for the £230 we were about 3 months in arrears when I made the arrangement.

They were trying to get me to pay at least £330 extra per month but managed to get it down a bit

pania

Why oh why is your mortgage on interest only currently? if not the lender may be prepared to switch it and "roll up" the arrears... IE spread it over the rest of the loan although increasing the monthly mortgage payments slightly.
Best to go bakc to your company, say that you are extremely concerned that you are struggling and have other priority debts to pay and can the advise you of any otehr options including the "rolling up" procedure and the possibility of switching to interest only for a while.
Unfortunately payment holidays are generally a no no while you have arrears.

Good luck let us know how you get on.
Kind regards
P
xx