Morgage Hell

Hi wife left with new man,took children and set up in rented accomodation 400yds from family home. Joint names on morgage house up for sale but offers falling through, left to pay all bills by myself even though she also earns.
CSA starting to take payments and so cant afford the morgage that was calculated on dual income, Any one with any guidance of this situation.

Hello els,

I think your first port of call might be Citizens Advice.

They are very good at resolving debt issues and although this may not be a debt yet, it could well become one very quickly.

It may also be an idea to find out from your mortgage lender whether you can take a payment holiday. You could call them and ask for some information without actually giving them your details.

You could also ask them how they can help you during this difficult time. They only need to know the circumstances you don't have to tell them your account number, name etc just say you would like some general information about how they would deal with a situation like this. Some lenders are brilliant but some are not so forgiving thats why I say best not to tell them who you are at this stage!!!

It may also help you to consider changing your mortgage to interest only in the interim whilst waiting to sell. This would be most beneficial to you because lets face it whilst you are on a repayment basis YOU are paying off the capital which will benefit your wife once the property is sold. As long as you cover the interest you will be keeping the lender happy and you get the benefit of the extra money for yourself now!!! I don't know the circumstances of your mortgage but this could save you anywhere between 50 to 200 pounds per month! You may have to pay a fee which is usually only a nominal amount to cover administration costs (as if they don't earn enough out of you already!!)

Hope this helps!

Keep me posted, OBEs 1

i asked my mortgage company for a payment holiday and they said it was ok. only problem as it was in joint names i needed her to sign but she refused, i dont know if its an interest only loan i will have to ask, but i might need her to sign for that.

Thanks for the advice Obe spoke to the morgage company but they are chasing 1 month arrears from when ex left and raided joint bank account.Have told her that I cant pay this month due to csa payments but her answer is let it get repossed even though their is 40000 equity in property.Seems to like it that I have to scrape for money so that I cant contest her divorce accusations and is trying to get me homeless so cant have access to children overnight.
Anyone had similar case senario?

Hi els

I believe under the FSA guidelines that your mortgage company have to be more helpful than just informing you that they are chasing last months payment. Have you informed them of your position and have you made it quite clear that you are not trying to evade your payments, you merely want some advice as to how they can help you during this time. If they are not seen to be helping you, as you made the effort to call them to find ways to put this right then I cannot that see they have a leg to stand on if they try to reposess.

Mortgage companies are highly regulated and come under the guise of the FSA ( I believe that is correct) they must listen to you and at least try to help you through this period it is in both your interest.

If you feel you cannot call them again then I strongly recommend you to seek further advice from Citizens Advice who will tell you where you stand with this.

You can also call the Financial Ombudsman Service (website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk. I think they will send you a leaflet with guidelines to help you. If you are not happy with the way in which your lender is dealing with this, the ombudsman will recommend that you write to the lender in the first instance asking them to come to some sort of compromise with you to help you in the interim or that you should ask them what they suggest to help you so as not to be re-possessed. They must answer you with a reasonably satisfactory reply within 8 weeks. If they fail to do that or do not give any form of reasonable help then you can register a complaint with the ombudsman who will take this up on your behalf. This then puts your case on hold whilst they are dealing with it and I do believe that the mortgage company cannot re-possess whilst the ombudsman is seeking clarification of their reasons not to help your situation. ( I think you must continue to make your mortgage payments though).

This will give you some breathing space as I have a current complaint against an insurance company and up to yet it has taken them almost 10 months to get round to dealing with my case!!! I'm not sure what the complaints time limit where Lenders are concerned if any but I am sure there are plenty of complaints being dealt with right now, mis-conduct etc.

Did you enquire about putting the mortgage onto interest only?

You mustn't sit back and hope this will go away otherwise you will be re-posessed and £40k is still a lot of money to hand over on a plate to any lender.

Kind regards

OBEs 1