Hi I'm after a bit of advice. I am currently interest only on my mortgage and owe approx 63000. This ends in 7 years. I am in no position to remortgage. Because of my poor credit rating and type of house I'm in. As I know this 63000 needs to be paid. What is the best way. Do I up my monthly payment to my mortgage company or save up over the 7 years. (I actually thought I had longer) Thank you

Hi guys, I wanted to get some advice before I part with my money to my Landlord. I'm in 12 month contract, no break clause with 5 months left but I've just accepted a new job abroad at the end of this month. I contacted the LL with a months notice and explained I'd get someone to take over the tenancy but they're saying as I need to give 2 months notice, they will need two months rent (my deposit plus an extra month). The LL is in the process of already getting a new tenant, probably giving them a fresh 12 months. Is the LL correct in asking for 2 months rent? In the agreement it states: If the agreement is not brought to end by either party on the above date, it will continue thereafter on a monthly basis until terminated by either party giving no less than 2 months notice. This is the only mention of '2 months' in my agreement. Thanks for your time.

Hi, Does anyone know what Nationwide is likely to do in our situation please? Wife is 16 years older than me so we had a 10 year self cert mortgage taking her to age 65 originally through Derbyshire/Salt and now taken over with Nationwide. About 12 months ago we rang Nationwide after receiving a standard letter re repaying the loan at the end of the mortgage term. The friendly but extremely unhelpful call center guide was only interested in referring us to an independent mortgage advisor when asking about options and whether we could extend the term as they couldn't give advice and there were NO options on Nationwide doing some sort of deal or changing the mortgage. There wasn't much point in talking to a broker as my business went south in 2009 and we have wobbly credit, can't prove income to service the loan now although have no arrears or ever been in arrears. Instead we have been trying to sell the property - £255000 mortgage and 2 local estate agents started us at £395,000 now down to £340,000 and only 3 viewings in a year! I have been trying to understand 'Forebearance' but can't find any examples of any lenders being helpful to customers when they can't afford repayment. All we want to do is to continue actively trying to sell it while paying interest only rather than have it repossessed and forced sold. Does anyone know what is 'likely' to happen - particulalrly where Nationwide are involved? Any thoughts or advice would be really appreciated. Wife was just going to leave today she is getting so upset. We have until Feb for the mortgage term to end although haven't received any notices about the mortgage since last year. Thanks

I have been living in a privately rented property since October 2010, signing a six month lease to begin with and a yearly one since April 2011. Long story short I am about to move out as I take my family back to my hometown and finally escaping the city but I am not sure what responsibilities I have when moving out. I have been living in the house with my wife and three kids so obviously there has been general wear and tear to the property (hard to avoid with kids aged 11,8 and 2) but nothing that I would deem extreme (for want of a better word). During the time that we have lived here the landlord has fitted a new bathroom and added an extension to the back to give us a kitchen diner so he has put some money into the property but the new kitchen is at least 2 years old now and there are some signs of wear on the walls (dirty marks etc). As for the living room we painted a couple of the walls red (they were all beige when we moved in) and my youngest has ripped the net curtains in a couple of places. Is it down to me to repaint the house back to the colours that were in place before we moved in or is that up to the landlord to sort out? I have filled in a couple of small holes in the wall that I made when putting up pictures (DIY is not my strong suit) but there are sizeable holes that were made by the sky engineer when he was fitting our multi room so agin is it my job to fill those or not? Upstairs there is an unpainted wall in my baby sons room which the landlord had replastered to try and fix a damp issue that we have throughout the upper floor of the house but he never came back to get it painted and I was so hacked off with his inability to sort the damp issue properly that I refused to paint it myself. On the wall going up the stairs there are small patches of damp which I try my best to keep clean but keep coming back and in my bedroom there is alot of damp coming through around where the landlord had new plaster boards fitted to the celings as his solution to the problem (I dread to think what it might actually be like under the new boards he fitted). Oh and in my daughters bedroom there is a hole in the wall where the builder who fitted the new bathroom drilled right through from the bathroom when fitting the sink to the wall. Finally there are stains on the carpet (which has not been changed since we moved in) though again I would argue that these are not necessarily anything out of the general wear and tear that occurs with kids over time. I guess what I'm asking is, how much work am I expected to put in when it comes to leaving the property and handing it back to the landlord? Do I have to repaint the whole place and are things like carpets my responsibilty? Also do I have to fill holes made by other people and is it up to me to replace the net curtain or can I just take it down? Oh and whilst I think about it the landlord fitted a sheet of lino on the floor in the new kitchen but it has never been completely flat and therefore it has sustained small tears in certain places meaning the whole sheet will likely have to come up, is this down to me or him? My wife says she does not intend to replace or pay for anything as his false fixes for the damp and other things like fitting a heat detecting alarm directly above the oven meaning it constantly goes off have annoyed her to the point that she doesn't see why she should have to. Speaking of the oven it has not worked properly since the new kitchen was fitted as evrytime you turn on the switch to be able to use the ovens ignition button it trips the circuit for the entire room and stops everything from working. Rather than agreeing to fix the problem which would have involved having to sort out the electrics by taking tiles and so on off the walls his solution was that we should light the oven with matches which involves having to squeeze a match into one of the slits in the bottom of the oven and turning on the gas whilst hopefully not burning yourself We have been doing this the entire time the new kitchen has been there. So is she right in thinking there are issues with the house so on the grounds of fairness we should not have to repaint walls etc or do we not have a leg to stand on?

Hello, By searching google I can see this has happened to a number of people however there hasnt been any conclusion so here is my problem and not sure where I stand. Out of the blue I received a shocking & demanding email from buymobiles asking me for £360 or return of goods within 7 days as, as they say I have been disconnected from T-Mobile. In April 2013 I followed a link from HDUK for a Nexus 4 at £15.50 a month with a free phone. I took up this offer and received said phone and paid T-Mobile every month however on the 18 month due to the small amount of minutes I had I decided to buy out my contract by ringing up T-Mobile and asking for a pac code which in turn gave me a final bill of approx £66. I then checked using checkmend if T-Mobile had a hold on the phone and it came up clear so sold it and used the money to pay off my bill. I then took out another contract with EE. Now I have received this email and am very annoyed about it, one that the phone was advertised as free, two that the phone was £279 new at the time and after 18 months is no where near worth £360 three that I dont know where I stand. Also they state I have recently been disconnected and have not fullfilled the minimum 2 years. But i have as I bought out the remaining months and T-Mobile said thats all I need to pay. I have just checked the terms on their site and the only one was EE and that states after six months the phone is mine to keep. I am not sure what the terms stated at the time of purchase or if I actually read them. I have finished off contracts before and have not had this happen. The email is in my next post. I understand these are not terms so not sure where they have come from and why they are paragraphed the way they are. Seems to me this company are bullies and have found a way of demanding extra money from customers when they upgrade etc early using another company or provider. Using "waybackmachine" I have found the original offer give or take a day and it clearly says phone FREE as does their terms however it seems the phone isnt free its on loan. Buymobiles have informed me there are two contracts one for the network and one for the phone. I emailed them back and I have just received this reply. I asked for a breakdown of their loss in me ending the contract early. I told them i bought the contract out. I asked for a hard copy of the terms of the sale which they sent but they could easily be changed in their favour if they think I dont have them. "In regard to this the payment for the goods or return of the goods has been requested as the network have advised us that the contract has been disconnected during the minimum term. When you placed the order you entered into two contracts, one for the airtime which is with the network provider and one contract for the goods which is with ourselves. A disconnection of any kind within the minimum term is a breach of this agreement, if you have ended the contract early this is still classed as a disconnection . We require the debt to be paid to ourselves or the goods returned, the amount due is the handset cost + VAT. I have attached the Terms and Conditions which is your agreement . " No where did it say I was entering into two contracts. If they are saying the phone was part of a loan agreement then law states they must send me an agreement to which I sign which includes the terms. This didnt happen. Annoyingly I was going to keep the phone and tariff as a spare but wanted my gold number to use on my new contract. I didnt even save much ending it approx £25. Kicking myself! dont know which way to turn now.

Hi, We recently moved house and new property did not have and working landline. Previous supplier was Virgin Media but that was cancelled by the previous occupier's family. When I looked to transfer from my current home the website said I would have to pay a new connection charge for engineer etc. As BT couldn't provide the service I arranged for Sky to provide phone line and Broadband as part of my existing TV package, BT however want to charge £169.75 early termination of contract fee and a separate charge of £31 for "cessation of broadband." My question is simple, are they entitled to make these charges as I moved house to a residence that did nnot have a supply.. Surely the contract was broken. Any advice would be gratefully received how to avoid these charges Thank You Trojan

Please forgive the length of this post. Very stressed mother of 20, 18 and 14. 18 year old staying on foster child. All in uni, college. Husband primary carer for looked after child. We rented the same house for 13 years, initially through an agent, but the landlord took over himself for the last 3 years. He was a pain and kept increasing rent every 6 months. We should have moved, but, children, work school etc. He issued a section 21 notice at which point we started looking for somewhere to live. I lost £750 in deposit and referencing fees. I have to admit that business wasn't going well and money was very tight so our rent was not very regular but it was paid. He applied for eviction and claimed arrears of rent via a money claim. The court refused him possession saying section 21 defective and he appealed. We stopped paying rent to save up a deposit and we finally found somewhere to live and moved. In the meantime, moneyclaim came to court. Sum was increased from £5k to £16k and court gave him judgement despite no notification on increased claim before I got to court. I told judge I would have come to court to with counsel if I had known. I appealed and was denied leave to appeal, but granted an oral hearing. Meantime, landlord withdrew appeal to judgement on Section 21 and asked we make repayment proposal as we have 2 very successful businesses. He has had in his head for years that we have money just don't want to pay him. He has been telling me he will ruin my credit for years everytime I argued about rent increase, looks like he will shortly get his wish. I will have to sign on and claim HB to be have any hope of being able to pay next month's rent if I don't get a job asap. I need transcripts, but can't afford to pay as I am currently unemployed though not on job seekers, I need to send a bundle to court shortly in advance of hearing but only have a thin idea of it needs to go in. Any, all advice most gratefully received.

Just had phone call from DWP telling me my ESA is ending today(8 weeks after my medical)??? I had my medical on the 1st July 2016,which as usual I have received "0"points! They have told me I have to make a claim today (so that I get a continuation of benefit??) Can somebody please tell me if they can do this with no warning? And will this cause problems with my housing benefit/council tax(which happened to me before, whilst waiting for my appeal and took months to sort out(but lost out on a lot of benefit) so now i'm terrified that its going to happen again!!!! Any advice would be welcome Thanks

Hi all hoping I can get some advice as I currently receive wtf and ctc as a single person , no other benefits, I would like my partner to move in but he doesn't wish to make a joint claim , we should be able to manage on our two incomes. Can i call to cancel my single claim and say I don't wish to make joint claim as we will be OK financially? Will they still ask for all his details ect .? Or do we have to do joint claim ? Looked around various sites for advice but finding different answers... thanks also if I can just cancel is it best end of tax year april or when start of renewal July? If it matters?

Hi there, We have a really good landlord but I am in a 3rd floor flat and have found out I have MS. Increasingly I am finding the stairs difficult, both with vision and energy. We still have 8 months to go on a 12 month contract. At the moment we are thinking of staying until the lease is up but we keep seeing ground floor properties with adaptations and are worried that nothing suitable will be around in 8 months. (last time we were looking there were no ground floor properties)

Microsoft has ended technical support and security updates for older versions of its Internet Explorer browser. The changes, which will affect versions 8, 9 and 10 of the browser, were announced in August 2014. Some estimate that these older browsers account for more than 20% of web traffic while Computerworld claims that only 55% of IE users are using the latest version. Browsers are often targeted by hackers and experts predict a crop of attacks. "Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates," the software giant announced on its website. "Microsoft encourages customers to upgrade and stay up-to-date on the latest browser for a faster, more secure browsing experience." It is continuing to support IE 11 and Edge, which is the default browser for Windows 10. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35291938

Me and my ex have been renting a flat for just over a year, we have a child and have recently split up. When it was clear the relationship couldn't be saved I put in notice to end the tenancy agreement (It's a big expensive place that I didn't want to continue with on my own and she wouldn't be able to afford), she was asked to confirm which she did and we were given a moving out date. She confirmed she had arranged to move in with family with our child until she was able to arrange a place, I know that this is fact as I actually double checked and confirmed everything was in place to ensure both would be sorted when the flat was gone. She's now gone to the council in an attempt to obtain a council house and has been advised by them to not leave the property, even after our agreement has ended and the flat has supposed to be handed back. They'll then sort her a place when she has been evicted. This obviously isn't on. My guess is I can wave goodbye to my deposit if she goes through with this which in the grand scheme of things I'm a bit annoyed about but it isn't the end of the world. I'm more worried about if I could be taken to court for failing to leave the property (although I will have left) or if I could be liable for any rent she may tot up or anything along those lines? Will they take legal costs etc out of the deposit? Could I be blacklisted anywhere? Thank you!

My good friend is in a financial mess.. ..he owes thousands to a number of companies and the debts have been sold on several times. He is making small payments on each debt every month and has had the interest frozen but it is going to take him years to pay these off. He cannot go for an IVA or bankruptcy due to the nature of his employment. Any suggestions as to how we can agree an end date with these companies, with hopefully a proportion of the debts written off? He is very demoralised at the prospect of making these payments for the next 30 or 40 years, or until he dies.... He is a proud man and wants to pay what he can, and keep working but the only option I can see is for him to do an IVA or bankruptcy and lose his job and go on benefits which he does not want to do. Any ideas??

Hi, It’s been nearly five years since we asked PayPlan to help us with our debt difficulties. And In that time our debt has gone from nearly £29,000 down to just £5,000. We are paying £340 per month. Now, the child benefits/Tax we have been receiving will be reduced with our eldest finishing college. There will be a loss of about £65 per week, but we don’t expect to regain the full amount from our son due to his indecisiveness about his future. With our reveiw due in August, we are unsure what to say about the his income. Would the creditors expect an income figure for him? or just a token board and lodge amount? The debts in question have nothing to do with him. To date he is still looking, but nothing yet. Hope this is clear.

Hi Just a quick question. We have a car on finance and still have 2.5 years to run then a balloon payment at the end. We have just got a motability car and were wondering if there is any way of sending ours back. We haven't got to the 50% mark yet. I can't default on it in any way as the finance is in my fathers name although my husband is the registered keeper. Any advice would be great Thanks

Hi My neighbor's son and his friend have for the last year been renting with a private landlord who is now selling house. They were going to rent together again, but his friend changed his mind last week. Come Wednesday next week the neighbor's son will be homeless, and is friend he was renting with who owns a one bedroom flat which he was renting out is going back to it. The major problem is in late 2014 my neighbor's son (I don't want to go into the ins and outs) ended up with a electronic monitoring tag for homegrown for himself. He cannot afford to find a lump some to take out private on his own. He was made redundant and cannot get another job due to monitoring tag and community service. He cannot go back home to mums has she is sold up and moving away. He did try and tell the courts and electronic monitoring tag company Friday gone about soon being homeless etc but no one wanted to know. Anyone got any advise, what to do. who to go and see? Many thanks Dan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2845714/Newborn-baby-boy-dumped-drain-cyclists-heard-crying.html

My wife and I are renting and we've had several instances of anti-social behaviour in the immediate area recently. Last week a car was set on fire right outside our house and last night 2 more were burnt about a 50 yards away. I thought the first might have been an accident but with the other 2 going up I'm guessing it's deliberate. We've also had a couple of letters from the police asking for reports of anti-social behaviour in the street and to attend a local meeting about the problems where we could voice any problems so it is a known trouble spot to the council and police. Our tenancy runs out at the end of February but I'd like to know if these incidents could be grounds for ending the tenancy early? Also the landlord hasn't given us any information about the deposit protection scheme or even if he's using one. Could we use this to end the tenancy?

Hi all, I am desperately in need of advice because I am unsure where to go from here. Back in 2011/12 I was unemployed and so tried to claim council tax benefit, due to the length of time that it took to sort this out I continued to pay my council tax during this time from my savings. When the savings ran out I couldn't pay it but around the same time I was granted the council tax benefit which when credited to my account resulted not surprisingly that I had overpaid quite significantly. In the next council tax bill for 12/13 there was no mention of this overpayment and so I write back to the council asking for my overpayment to be applied and for a new bill. I even included my own calculations of what I thought I owed and asked that I receive this new bill so I can pay it. But I got nothing from them dispute numerous emails, recorded letters, letters, all which contained copies of all previous correspondence, I did not receive anything back. I then found a new job and moved out the area and again wrote a letter to the council asking them to use my new address for this correspondence. The council then issued a liabilty order and bailiffs were after me, and so I found the details of executive in the council and wrote a letter of complaint to them and then finally action occurred. She telephoned me whilst I was driving and agreed that I actually owed the amount that I stated I did, she recalled the bailiffs and I agreed that I would pay it of before a certain date provided I received a letter stating how much I owe. Well I never got this letter, and so I made one payment and cancelled it and meant to chase the council but forgot. I eventually was hounded by the bailiffs again, (all correspondence was going to the old address) so I contracted this lady at the council again asking for the amount that I owe in writing....which she finally obliged in her email, only 14 months late. So I promptly paid this and the liability order fee. But now the bailiffs are chasing me for their fees as the council lady didn't pull the account back from the bailiffs. They are saying that they will advise the the council to go for committal proceedings, part of my wants to tell my side of it to a judge, as all I have been asking for is a new revised bill! And that's all it took to get me to pay it! Or do I pay the 270 bailiffs fees and forget it? Where do I go? Any advice anyone can give will be very welcomed!

Government have announced that ATOS will be ending their WCA work before the contract runs out in May 2015. Sounds like it will be happening in the near future. No more details are known at this stage.

Hello, I have had a letter from the DWP telling me that my JSA is ending in 3 weeks because my entitlement has run out. I have not got a job and I don't know what to do now. They say I may still get housing benefit and reduced council tax but I will have no income to pay my share of the council tax. I have a one bedroom council flat. They say I can appeal. I am really trying to get a job, but so far no luck. Do I move to another type of benefit now? Thanks in advance for any help.

Well my esa (contribution based) is ending in april after paying in for 30 odd years, just before it runs out my appeal will be heard which has taken about 10 months the best I could hope for was to be put in wrag as I`m not in an iron lung. I will not be able to claim esa because of my o/h earnings or jsa as I am unfit for work so do I soley have to rely on my o/h to keep me? or is there some help I could receive so I could help towards living costs ( o/h salary about 24k)

Hi There, I hope i'm in the correct place with this! I will try and keep this as short as poss but its been going on for nearly 2 yrs now so maybe long winded! My husband and I have a current loan with WFS - this is a joint loan and we have claimed the PPI on this which has come off the balance. Prior to this my husband had a loan with WFS, that we were informed was sold to him, along with PPI, by Bright Finance - a claim for the PPI has been with the FSCS for the past 2 years as WFS are being as difficult as possible and dragging things out. We applied for a SAR last year and received what we thought was all our info. The complication comes from the fact that there is no document stating what i have just received an email back from the claimanthelp people: "This refund was applied to the settlement figure (this refund reduced the amount you had to pay to settle the account) for the secured loan *******, the amount you received is shown on the Compensation Calculation which was attached to your Decision Letter, under the heading "Rebate paid/due upon cancellation". As you only held your PPI for 9 months, you did not pay for the full cost of the policy. You have now received a refund of the amount you paid towards your PPI plus the interest you were charged." Now, i've been through all our docs from the SAR - there is nothing about any of this, no mention of a rebate of PPI or anything. A couple of years back we made a complaint to WFS about how the most recent loan was sold to us - i never thought until last night to look through this as it doesn't really have anything to do with it. But i found a document stating that an amount has gone to pay off the old loa n- i thought when you SAR them, they have to send everything? !- But i believe they have deliberately left this out. Also, i've been through the figures as we have the above stated and can not make any of it add up - it's out by about £80ish - which doesn't sound a lot but it's still there! I have all the docs if anyone wants to take a look and give us a hand to see whether they are hiding something?! Could someone also point me in the direction of claiming back for phone calls and letters etc - my husband cancelled his DD last week, but i made the payment 1 day early - they still sent a letter to say they know we cancelled the DD and they want £12 in charges haha Sorry if this a a little skittish, but there's been a lot going on!!

Good Morning, I wonder if you knowledgeable can help me out with this one. I am currently house sharing with childhood friend of which I have recently fallen out with. We've been in the property since May 2012. We initially signed a 12 month lease on the property. Since being in the property there are several things I am unhappy with. Probably the thing I am most unhappy about is my housemates inability to pay his share of the rent AND he seems completely uninterested in sorting out his Housing Benefit. He is unemployed also and has made no effort to look for work nor even do chores around the house. In fact he seems quite happy and thinks it's perfectly acceptable to sit in-front of his computer all day and play games:-x Something my partner is also incredibly cross about. But that's another story. Also She would not be able to move into the house as she is at University in London studying an MSc Anyhow. I also have several medical conditions (which probably due to the stress this and several other things) is being made much, much worse. I am due to have serious surgery to put one of them right. Something under the current situation I am seriously considering delaying. Receiving a Court Summons for unpaid council tax which my housemate had told me was paid was the final straw! Simply truth of the thread is that I want to fold on the tenancy. Normally the letting agents would do 6 Month Agreements but ours was twelve which we actually signed to show commitment believe it or not... The tenancy will become due for renewal in May 2013. However sensibly speaking, Financially I will NOT be able to support the house even IF I evict my fellow housemate. It is unlikely I will find another individual to take my place in that time. Nor do I really want to, to be honest! The rent is £700 and the deposit secured is £969 My Dad also stood guarantor and has made it clear he WON'T pay my debts which I completely understand. I personally have NEVER had problems paying my rent since I was 17! Hence him standing guarantor was no issue for him. I have spoken to the letting agents and they said if I terminate early that I will be liable for the rent until May 2013 UNLESS they let the property before May 2013. They also said in this case I would be liable for a further £350 in Landlord Management Costs IF they let the property prior to May 2013. Can anyone offer me some advice on how I tackle this one please?

Hello everyone. I am looking for some help on a secured loan (second mortgage) with GE Money.... The loan was taken out mid 2005 for consolidation of credit cards.. Figures are: Amount Borrowed £44,800 fixed at 6% above base rate over 180 months less Broker Fee £500.00 less PPI £4800.00 (yes, we were told we had to have this in order to qualify for the loan!) Processing Fee £500.00 Amount Received £39,000 Monthly payments have been maintained to date, albeit many times payments late so there are loads of charges, (approx £3000 + interest on charges of £800!) The trouble is as of today, having paid GE just over £42,000, they have told us there is STILL £32,000 to go! So we end up paying just short of £75,000 for a £45k loan. I know taking this loan was probably the worst thing we could have done, we were under a lot of stress at the time and wanted to pay off a load of credit cards and other finance. Can anyone tell if this agreement is 'legally' fair? or are there any options available to get our agreement looked at? It would be great to get PPI back/charges or even see if the ridiculous total repayment can be lowered Thanks in advance, J