Debt issues/with Eurodebt!!!!!

[stevenwhiteley]

Hi all, first post and as with a lot of people im struggling with my finances and have been for approx 10 years with them gradually getting worse and worse from loan to secured loan to EURODEBT!!!

 

Just wondering if anyone has any advice for my current situation. Ok here goes.

 

Im 26 and have my own home (39 years into 40 year mortgage) with my fiance and gorgeous daughter who is 2 in March.

 

As well as the mortgage we have a secured loan on our house to the value of £29000 left and 24yrs out of 25. The outstanding amount on the mortgage and secured loan comes to £125000 ish and the house is worth about £100000 but at the time desperate times desperate measures and they offered us their wonderful hand (First Plus that is) and got us out of yet another sticky situation and then we realised the situation they then put us in.

 

We both work and get a lot of support from family but basically with income and outgoings tightly controlled we just about manage. This does not include luxuries like buying clothes for our daughter/ourselves, emergencies, etc. This is basically bills and food.

 

A while ago we were put in contact with a mortgage broker (By Eurodebt advisor) to help with our secured loan and mortgage to try and bring the cost down and got right to the point of valuation and had got a combined mortgage/loan on mortgage rate for 25yrs instead of 40 paying slightly less a month when this company turned round and said that they dont lend against a 'Spooner' house type (Timber-built or something) but they took our £300 valuation/admin fee and left us to it. So back where we were.

 

We have considered bankruptcy a lot and apart from the obvious downside's the one down side that is stopping us is that my partner has a loan that is in her dad's name and we pay him £250 per month (Something she got before we met) and that is going to be for 10 years and as I understand if we declared bankruptcy we would not be able to pay this loan money for a period of time (1-2 years I think) to her dad and that cannot happen because that would put a lot of strain on my partner's retired parents.

 

So we are a bit stuck and I have to constantly check the bank to make sure our bills get paid each month.

 

So to sumarise we have a 39/40 year mortgage, secured loan with 24/25years left which combined are more thatn the value of property they are against, with Eurodebt covering approx £10000 worth of debts and cant (so I am lead to believe) declare bankruptcy because that would mean the loan in my partner's dad's name would not get paid putting pressure on a retired couple.

 

If anyone can offer any kind of help in our situation it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I dont want to deal with Eurodebt but dont know of another way of dealing with our debts at the low rate they are now.

 

We both work full time and our daughter is looked after my my partner's mum when we are both at work so we dont have much scope for gaining more income by working more unfortunately and due to the fact we earn a decent amount per month (even though it goes out again with bills/debts) we get very little benefits.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you need any more information to help my situation just ask and I will divulge.

[stevenwhiteley]

Can anyone help with my situation. Is there any other debt management company that wont rip me off like Eurodebt?

[Guest ian cognito]

Bankruptcy would not be a solution for you as you would lose your house anyway (and stll be left with debt)

 

I have heard a few people on here mention CCCS (CCCS -), they are a charity who give debt advice so I suggest this would be a good place to start.

 

Also, have you no charges you could be looking at claiming? this could help relive the pressure a little while you sort yourselves out.

 

Good luck.

[stevenwhiteley]

Thanks. I am currently in the process of claiming charges back from one of my bank accounts.

 

I originally spoke to CCCS before joining with Eurodebt but they werent very helpful. They were telling me that we needed to get rid of our mobile phone contracts and earn more money and until we did this they could not help and said that the only thing we could do was to try and negotiate with our creditors ourselves but didnt advise how.

 

Wish I had found this website about 12 months ago.

 

Might be worth speaking to them again though. Dont suppose anyone knows if it is possible to move debt companies without charges from Eurodebt, maybe to CCCS if they will have us. Are there any others that are any good??

[Guest ian cognito]

I don't know that advice was off the site, I just put CCCS in a search so maybe that will bring up others. Eorodebt would be just as bad as the banks if they have tied you into a contract. Have you tried contacting your creditors directly?, make up a schedule of your incomings and outgoing s and send them a letter asking if they owuld be willing to take lower payments, I've had luck with this in the past but not all agreed. The citizens advice will halp you do this if your unsure how to.

[stevenwhiteley]

Thanks for the advice.

 

Does anyone else have any other advise or in a similar situation?

[LondonPam]

Hi Steven. If you go to Debt Help UK : Free debt advice and solutions, with debt consolidation | UK debt consolidation service with free help and advice and post your details on there they may be able to help. There are a couple of insolvency practitioners that post on that site and they will be able to explain exactly what your options are. Good luck.

[GC66]

Hi Steven I was in a similar situation a few years ago have always found National Deptline helpful

[stevenwhiteley]

Thanks for the advice. I will have a look at the Debt Help UK site.

 

Our situation has just got worse. My partner has been on sick leave for 2 weeks suffering with depression due to our situation. She was due to go back today but she couldnt face it and in the end she resigned from her job.

 

She says that she cannot face going back to work and as a concequence we have now lost £650 per month and are not going to be able to pay a lot of our bills/eurodebt/mortgage etc....

 

This has just happened today and to be honest I do not know where to start. I know I need to advise all parties and see what they say.

 

Can anyone give me any wisdom/advise???

 

Thanks

[stevenwhiteley]

Is my only option bankruptcy? Would we definately lose our house? Does anyone know who I should speak to first, the people I owe and now cannot pay or some kind of debt advise line. Any recommendations/past experiences of good people/companies/helplines to deal with?

 

I want to do this the right way for me and my family. Dont want to make things any worse than im sure its going to be.

[sequenci]

Is my only option bankruptcy? Would we definately lose our house? Does anyone know who I should speak to first, the people I owe and now cannot pay or some kind of debt advise line. Any recommendations/past experiences of good people/companies/helplines to deal with?

 

I want to do this the right way for me and my family. Dont want to make things any worse than im sure its going to be.

 

it's not definate that you would lose your house. the reason being is that you currently have a situation of negative equity. however the official reciever has 3 years to dispose of it and if the value goes up then they may order the sale.

 

are the debts in joint names by the way? if this is so then both of you would have to go bankrupt due to the fact that you are both jointly and severably liable for the debts. this means if you go bankrupt your partner would be liable for the whole amount.

 

bankruptcy info:

http://www.bdl.org.uk/images/01_ew_bankruptcy.pdf

 

IVA info:

http://www.bdl.org.uk/images/bdl03_ew_IVAs.doc

 

it is certainly worth speaking to an informal debt advice charity such as national debtline or the cccs

[stevenwhiteley]

Thanks for the information.

 

Our Creditors with Eurodebt is a mixture from both me and my partner so is in joint names.

 

The mortgage is in my name and the secured loan is in joint names.

 

Im guessing by your answer that we have no other option but bankruptcy? Do we have to apply seperately or can we apply as a couple. We are not married but live together as a married couple. Also if we can apply joint do we have to pay double fees or just one?

 

Thanks for all your advise everyone.

[sequenci]

you would nearly to have a go at filling in an income/expenditure form to see if you have a surplus income or not. if you do there will be other options you could consider.

 

bankruptcy is usually a last resort, you would both need to make your own applications. before you do ANYTHING call cccs or ndl.

[LondonPam]

As the previous poster says..you really must get in touch with CCCS or NDL (or similar organisations). Bankruptcy should be a last resort as it will affect you for quite some time. As I mentioned before there are insolvency pracitioners posting on Debt Help UK : Free debt advice and solutions, with debt consolidation | UK debt consolidation service with free help and advice that can also advice you. You need specialist advice.

[stevenwhiteley]

Hi all

 

Following on from the above, basically the advise given to us was to sell our house to pay back our mortgage/Secured loan and whatever left is converted to unsecured debt. Also to move into rented accomodation.

 

I contacted my mortgage company who have agreed to reduced payments for a 3 month period to be reviewed thereafter. Hopefully by then we will have sold the house.

 

I also contacted my secured loan company (First Plus) and they were not so helpful. They sent out an income & Expenditure form which showed currently that we are approx £400 per month down and this does not include the amount we pay First Plus (Approx £300), this also does not include our arrangement with the mortgage (It includes the full amount)because this has only been arranged since getting an answer from First Plus. They basically seemed to turn a blind eye to these figures saying that when the loan was taken out it was based on my income only and not my partner's which we now dont have and because of this they cannot help.

 

At the time they based lending us money on the fact that after our mortgage we had enough to pay them (this did not include unsecured debt/bills/living etc). They also deemed that they could lend us £30k even though we had just got a 95% mortgage less than a year earlier therefore making our lending on our property approx £25k above its market value.

 

At the time we were very desperate and this seemed the only answer so we took it. Looking back now it has plunged us deeper into despair.

 

My payment was due yesterday, I advised them that they would not be receiving it as I had cancelled the DD. I offered to pay them £50 per month until we sell the house and then we could arrange another amount with them for the leftover then unsecured debt. They refused this and said that I would receive numerous phone calls asking for the amount in full.

 

I asked that they route all calls to my mobile as my partner is not well and doesnt need the extra stress, hopefully this will happen. I will again offer them £50 and see if they accept it.

 

What else should I do. Should I send them a letter with a postal order for £50 (Dont have cheque book) so that I am showing willing and paying them something or should I wait until they contact me?

 

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Nightmare4banks]

stevewhitley,in reply to your post:

 

You say that you have a mortgage and a secured loan - please answer the following questions

 

1.When was the mortgage granted?Please be specific i.e.month & year

2.When was the secured loan granted?Again,please be specific i.e. month & year.

 

The answers to these questions should hopefully enable me to assist you further.

[Gingerheid]

Also,

 

- Do you have any other unsecured debts in addition to the two you mentioned?

- Are your monthly mortgage payments vastly in excess of what the rent would be.

- When the first mortgage is settled do your payments go down by enough to take you out your current situation? Is the first mortgage interest only?

- Are you desperate to keep the house at all costs?

 

I'm not sure if I saw the answer to the question about bankruptcy and losing th house anywhere.

 

The answer would be that if your debt are all secured a bankruptcy really wouldn't make much difference. It's unlikely to cause you to lose the house unless it accrued sufficient value in the next three years (possible the way things are going I expect.).

 

However bankruptcy wouldn't release you from the obligation to continue making the monthly payments on the secured loans if you wanted to stay in the house. It is in fact the mortgagees that would be much more likely to take the house rather than the OR.

 

Although in bankrutpcy the OR does not have the right to take the house until at least a year from the date of the bankruptcy order if it is your 'Family Home', this does not affect the mortgagees continuing right to enforce their security.

 

Bankruptcy, at the present moment, may only your answer if you are additionally making payments on other unsecured debts you haven't mentioned, which if you didn't have to pay you would be able to meet the two mortgagees.

 

However, if the OR felt that you were making vastly excessive mortgage payments that were stopping you paying into the bankruptcy the way you could if you were in rented property, he could tell you to move.

 

Bankruptcy may be relevant to your situation if, having chosen to sell the house and move into rented property in an ordered manner at a time relatively of your own choosing (ie before you get booted so still fastish), it was your best option with regards to the anticipated (and now unsecured) shortfall.

 

If you have the facility to record telephone calls (maybe something in conjunction with Skype if you have broadband?) phone them, ask their permission to record the call, and see if you can get them to repeat the threat to constantly call you to demand the outstanding amount. It could be worth something in blackmail potent...erm, I meant to say as a negotiating tool, at a later date. Also send a harrassment by telephone letter - I believe there's one on this site that someone will be able to point you to.

 

Also, you could try the angle that it is not your income that has changed and it is overly simplistic for them to refuse assistance on that basis, it is the expenses you are unavoidably responsible for that have increased. Though if they're just trying to be a-holes it won't make much difference.

 

I would also pay what you can, it is something you ought to do. But in addition, while I sadly don't think £50 a month on a 29000 debt would be enough to avoid a respossession order, it always leaves open the possibility at a later date to help influence a district judge more towards your side if you need a small favour that he is able to give if he feels you are reasonable.

[Nightmare4banks]

stevewhiteley,I think that I would be able to help you without the information that requested in my last post.

 

In general:

 

1.Any mortgage arrears can be paid back over the term of the mortgage -

 

say for example you had arrears of £1800 and you had 23 years and 6 months remaining on the mortgage you would be able to repay these arrears over the full original mortgage term.

 

2.The precedent case is - Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society v Norgan - which I have also posted elsewhere on this forum.

 

Anyway here is the link again:

 

Cheltenham & Gloucester v Norgan

 

3.Personally,I have suceeded in using this ruling which was incidently a Court of Appeal ruling therefore all other less superior courts MUST adhere to it.

 

4.Since this ruling there having been other high profile rulings that are more favourable to lenders however the Norgan case is adhered to but with certain other terms favourable in part to a lender - this is called a suspended possession order.All this means the judge having seen the details of the mortgage account would say order that the mortgage payer stick to the monthly repayments but repay the arrerars over the full term of the mortgage - however,in order to put the mortgage company at ease the order would be subject to a review in 3 or 6 months time.Probably if the mortgage payer stuck to the arrangement,he/she/they would be okay.

 

5.If you cannot afford the full instalment you would probably be ordered to do what you are already doing but say with the view of selling the property in a certain time scale.Normally,this would depend on the the loan amount,value of the property and the market conditions.

 

6.If you get any late payment fees added on your account - challenge them - I have and won in seeing that the mortgage company DID NOT get a money judgement.Also,challenge any redemption penalties or as they are known ERCs.

 

7.Another useful thing to know is that if your mortgage arrears are less than 2 months in total you would not get repossesed because it is against the law/rules.So,in practice to you could have less than 2 months arrears until you could afford to repay them - again I am talking from personal experience.

 

I do have 2 questions for you now -

 

Are you paying your mortgage and secured loan back as Capital & Interest?or Interest only?

 

Because if you are paying Interest & Capital,for a small fee you should be able change the mortgage and loan products to interest only until your finances improve.

The original amounts owed do not change but your monthly instalments would be less.

Now regarding harassment calls:

 

1.there is a sample letter on this forum to send to companies that bombard you with calls to compel them to stop calling and if they do not abide by your request they have committed a criminal offence.

 

In my case,it got so bad I am now in the process of changing my number and keeping my mobile ALWAYS switched off.However,I always respond in writing.

 

Personally,I have not had any experience of debt management companies but the CCCS are known to be very helpful as I spoke to them myself in the past but deal with the creditors directly.Plus this seems to be to be the experiences of many people on this forum.

 

Always remember to make your debts in the order of the most important - as follows:

 

1.Council Tax.

2.Income Tax /National InsuranceVAT if self-employed

3.Secured Loans on property i.e. mortgage and/or loan

4.Secured loan/HP on a car/van etc

5.Unsecured debts i.e.loans,credit cards

 

If you have any unsecured debts try and reduce your repayments so that you can keep up with your mortgage and secured loan.

 

Anyway,I hope you find this information useful.

 

If you have any questions,just ask.

 

Feel free to PM me if you wish.

 

Keep us posted.

 

All the best!

[binkhus]

also look at the OFTS guidlines for debt recovery.

they are not allowd to ask for the full amount, ask for payments over an unreasonable amount of time or ask you to pay more than you comfortably can do. this is not law but guidelines companys are supposed to follow when recovering a debt. it may help?