Advice Needed Yet Again Please

shadowdragon

Congratulations on the move, thats v good news, and fire away with the questions, theres lots of informed people on the forums, and having been about here for a little over a week I can say definatley knowledge is power, and the stress of having an impending BR date is easy compared with the stress of debt hanging over your head.

Im sure the move will go smoothly as it seems to be ticking along nicely at the moment.

Shadowdragon.

Toon_Dave

Excellent news RF on the rental..Glad thats worked out for you..:T

Just dont do a merry and expect the packing fairies to turn up and pack for you!! :rotfl:

And as Shadow says, Fire away with the questions whenever you need. I only moved into my place middle of april after leaving mortgage house behind. It was the best thing i could ever have done, feels much more like 'home' now too.:D

Best of luck with the move and BR..

Dave

rfdebt

shadowdragon: Thanks for your message. Will definitely agree with you that knowledge is power, without this forum and the brilliant CAG forum and the excellent contributors we wouldn’t know even half of what we know now! The thought of filing for BR still fills us with dread but it surely can’t be any worse than the stress we are suffering at the hands of Creditors and even nastier DCA’s!!


Toon_Dave: Thanks for your message. You don’t know how much we wish the “packing fairies” would come and pack up the house for us!!! We will be moving from a 3 bed semi with 2 reception rooms to a 2 bed, 1 reception room – but it is detached with a garage so that’s a bonus!! In effect, it will be like fitting a pint pot into a half pint pot so will have to be very mercenary and ditch a lot of stuff!!

I have an interview for a pretty well paid job next week, so it has put us in a bit of a quandary really, if I am successful and get the job, we could possibly keep the house as we will be able to afford the mortgage but only just. Our sensible heads tell us, move on anyway and look for a bigger rental in a year or two.

Besides, we don’t really have the time to “wait and see” if I get the job if I’m honest! Also, there is the distinct possibility that the OR (when the time comes) would probably say a mortgage of just over a grand a month is too much for two people. We have had three repairs done on the roof since we moved in nearly 18 months ago; the roofer said that ideally we need a new roof. He quoted us £3,000 which is very reasonable, but we haven’t the money. Although the house insurance paid each time bar the excess (£100 a time) there would come a time when even they would say enough is enough – no more repairs I suspect!!

The rental is just under £500 a month, which makes more sense financially. Anyhow, I definitely know I’m rambling now, so will close Thanks for reading again!!

shadowdragon

The forms

I did mine online, but beforehand I created a spreadsheet with my Income and expenditure and also the list of creditors, accountnumbers and amounts owed (I dont have any bankaccounts so you could also put them on the spreadsheet).

this made the actual form filling quite simple then when i got stuck i asked on here, and I was given guidance, BUT I have yet to submit them although the system says they ae 100% complete, once that is done take some time to reflect on the form, as I know I went back to them twice already!!!!

Shadowdragon.

Toon_Dave

Best of luck with the interview next week RF.

Whatever decisions you make regarding the house and moving into rented etc even if you get teh new job will be supported by us. At the end of it all only you can make the final decision as to wether it is best to 'start afresh' with it all or continue as you say.

I suppose the OR could look at the amount of mortgage you are paying and ask you to downsize anyway if they feel it is uneccesary and has contributed to you 'living above your means' but again that decision is between you, OH and OR.

Good luck with it all and i'm sure it'll all work out for the best for you.

Dave.

rfdebt

Hi all,

Well I have just had a phone call from my brother who has only just received the forms to sign acting as guarantor for our rental property. We are supposed to be moving in the end of next week.

He rang because he’s a tad concerned about the tenancy length. It says it’s a 3 months short term let ( we were informed by the person who showed us the property that it was a six month contract with the option of a rolling tenancy, we pointed out that we don’t want to be moving on every six months!). Knowing that provided we’re good tenants and pay the rent on time and also my brother would be guarantor, then we would be alright.

My brother is in the process of scanning the entire contract and emailing me it so I can look it over. To say I am not happy is an understatement! I have been in a quandary since I have been invited for an interview (tomorrow) and the possibility of keeping the house if I am lucky enough to be offered the job as it is. Now I am very worried about this tenancy agreement. The last thing we want is to be made homeless in 3 months time, we may as well stay in our house if that’s the likelihood!

If my brother had just signed and sent it back to the Letting Agency, I would not have known! At least not until the day before we are supposed to be taking out the tenancy and have to sign the contract and pay the 3 months rent (in cash) upfront. Also, as my brother said, even if they say that it can be renewed after 3 months, that means admin fees and maybe even the possibility of upfront rent would be expected again. A very mute point was made by him too – why would there be need of a guarantor if that’s the case?
I am sorely tempted to pull out, I know that if we pull out, the admin fees are not refunded, but I had to pay the bond (equivalent to a month’s rent) as well. In their terms it does state that part or even the entire bond can be kept too. I feel that I have been misled and feel that the whole of the bond should be repaid to me.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this please? Any input gratefully received as usual! Thanks

rfdebt

Update:


My interview went exceptionally well and I have been invited back for a second interview next Wednesday, well it’s to see if I find the environment suitable to me working in it or vica versa I also have two other interviews on Tuesday, it’s a bit like buses really, they all come along at once! But I am not complaining!

I am delaying the move into rental for a couple of weeks because if I get the first job the wages are enough to keep the mortgage. Both my wife and I have done a lot of soul searching and have decided that if we can keep the house we will. TBH, both of us really don’t relish the idea of moving again so soon and be restricted to abide by the LA and LL terms and conditions etc!!

Anyway, time will tell as to whether or not the OR (when the time comes) will allow us to keep the house, but we think it will be worth the risk of waiting.

My Rant:

Yesterday, I had a letter from Metropolitan Collections (re a debt with First Direct) dated 12th June offering a repayment plan and that the first payment was due to reach them by today. I was really annoyed, I set up a payment order from my bank online yesterday but they won’t receive it until at least next Wednesday. I wrote a letter to them basically saying that I presume they won’t hold me responsible for paying late due either to their incompetence at sending the letter when they had dated it or Royal Mail delivering it late!

My money (if I had any-lol) would be on Metropolitan deliberately sending it late so that in effect I would be defaulting on the payment arrangement, therefore giving them the opportunity to say I am now liable to pay the whole sum (just over £400) in one go!! Well, if that’s the case, they can go whistle as they are the bottom of pile of all of my creditors at the lowest debt owed!

Now I have had a rant over Metropolitan Collections I feel better, thanks for reading!!

tigerfeet2006

Will keep my fingers crossed for you on the job front RF. Hope you get it.

Why are you paying these debts if you are going BR?

rfdebt

Thanks for that tigerfeet!

We are only paying Metropolitan Collections £1 a month which will only take around 39 years!!!! Their payment arrangement letter came out of the blue; we were totally not expecting that! We are paying £1 a month to all creditors at the moment, excepting two which have so far been non compliant with my CCA requests.


I am going to postpone going BR for as long as I can (unless one of my creditors petition for my bankruptcy first). The reason for this is: if I am lucky enough to get the job which I have this second interview for, I would like to have been working for them long enough to build up some credibility with them. If they can see that I am a competent worker, it may have a bearing on whether my going BR would go against me (consequently sacking me) should they either be informed or find out about it.

Hope I have made sense there!!

Both my wife and I were planning to go BR originally (because she has one nearly 20k debt in her name only) the rest of the debts are in my name only. My wife’s creditor has agreed a token payment plan of £1 for 12 months, so basically it could well mean that she won’t have to file for BR at the same time as me.

TBH, it’s all hit and miss at the moment and we’ll have to play it by ear if you know what I mean!

Feel free to give your opinion on this, we wouldn’t feel offended as we may well be blinkered!!

tigerfeet2006

No I follow your thinking and see exactly where you are coming from from. The only thing I would say is it will be on your credit file for 6 years and the sooner you do it the sooner it will be off your file.

Will be keeping my fingers crossed on the job front.