If reposession proceedigs start, can you still sell your house yourself???

[FAQ]

ermm that's it really......

We have to sell this house, HSBC has f*cked us around again and basically lied to exH on the phone about letting us switch to an interest only mortgage (I do believe him as when we were together he made several phone calls to HSBC - who all his financial stuff is with - and put it on loudspeaker so I could hear what they were saying........then a week or so later we'd get a letter in the post telling us something completely different).

The only way I can afford to move is if I stop contributing towards the mortgage payments (it's not in my name - so me not paying anything won't affect my credit in any shape or form) - this means that they won't be getting anything.......so naturally repossesion is going to start. exH is prepared to take all of that on, but ideally we'd like to try and sell this house (thankfully houses on this street still moving fairly quickly and at reasonable prices) before it gets to that stage.

What I'd like to know (to give me an idea of what we could/could not end up with after the sale) is once the bank starts the respossesion process is it still possible for us to sell before the process is completed???

So nice to have an army of friends.

Just read that you are on IS. In that case, you should find that you qualify for maximum HB, so should be able to skip the entitled to stage

Sorry, another thought is that if you get more than £6000 in savings (proceeds from the house minus paying off your debts and essential expenses ) then they will deduct £1 of benefit for every £250 of savings over £6000.

just had a look at the LHA website - according to that website my LHA is £132 a week (so about £530 a month)

So........if I rented a 3 bedroom place (as that's what they say I need -and what I'd be looking for anyhow) and it cost £600 a month how much would they pay?

Also what if I were to rent a 4 bedroom place, and it was say £650 a month.......

robbing bastards!

So, your allowable rent would be £530 per month. The IS is the minimum you can be expected to live on, so they wouldn't regard you as having an excess income (other than any capital from house sale, which you might need to consider spending wisely, depending on the amount. Bear in mind, for eg. £7250 of capital is a £6 per week deduction, so tiny).

So, if you rented a £600 house, they would pay £530 and you would be expected to pay £70 out of your income.

The four bed place, you would have to pay £120 per month.

You might find it easier to go through entitled to, so that you get a clear breakdown of what you can expect.

ok that's fine - any profit that is made (and I doubt it's going to be huge especially when legal fees/early repayment+arrears etc is taken into account) will be going to pay off my CC's and Catalogue account (which I have budgetted into my current outgoings).

Don't ask me how I'm managing to pay the £400 towards the mortgage out of what I'm currently entitled (I'm sometimes not sure lol), but I am,

Ok, so from what I can remember the mortgage payments stopped around the June/July and the case was in court I think in the October. The judge gave until the January for him to be out of the house.

The house went on the market and the house was sold the following February/March time and the ex partner was still living in the house when it was sold.

As the divorce judge had stated my relative could have access to the house to collect her few personel possesions. I can rember that she went down to collect them in the end with a police escort and that was in the April time as he was vacating the house.

So in all getting on for 10 months after the last payment where made.

This though was long before we where in the crisis we are in now and banks etc may well not be so very patient.

What I can say is if your name is not on the mortgage - or house deeds you are not going to get any notification of the situation of going to court, evection dates etc.

As my relative owned half the house and although she was living in a flat elsewhere she got letters in duplicate from the bank (when she gave the bank her new address)so knew what was happening - or not as things never seemed to progress.

If the letters from the bank come to your home address - addressed to him then it is very important that you do post them on to him, I would even send them with a record through the post office and keep the receit - not very trusting me (remeber he promised about buying the uniforms) you do not want him going to court and start stating that you withheld his post/mail.

Hope you can get somewhere sorted.

thanks ivy - I'll be able to save a minimum of £1200 by the end of this year. Hopefully a little more as I've got 2 table top sales (indoor carboots ) lined up before then.

Actually mumblechum there is no hard and fast rule that you have to be able to pay off the arrears in a year.

The very minimum period of time which can be allowed is the remaining term of the mortgage.

So if you have (say) 18 years left from a 25 year mortgage, the starting point for the judge at a possession hearing is to consider whether you can pay the current mortgage payment every month PLUS the arrears divided over 18 years.

obviously mortgage lenders like their money back sooner and they often tell borrowers WRONGLY that they will have to pay back within a year or two.

As regards selling a property, once possession proceedings have started, it depends how far you have got.

On the day when it comes to court, if the borrower is still saying 'we plan to sell', or there has been an offer but nothing more, this will cut no ice.

but if there is a purchaser who has signed a contract, the court will almost certainly extend time for that sale to go through.

eg the court might make a repossession order but say that it won't come into effect for 6 weeks or 3 months or whatever. The borrower can then see the sale through.

Also the mortgage company MUST send a letter to the house addressed 'to the occupier' giving 21 days' warning of the court date. Otherwise it is true as ivykaty has said that you would not get letters warning you about the repossession.

pretty sure he'd keep me uptodate on the repossession - he knows I'd shit on him from a great height if he doesn't

My MIL does buy houses like this for cash but not for the full value (and she's not in your area) - I think you'll be unlikely to do it yourself unless you find a 'no chain' sale.My MIL pays cash for houses then rents them back to the occupants - even on the day before repo if necessary. even with the fact that my MIL only pays 85-90% of the 'estate agent' price you will be in control and it may be a good route to look down (look for "we buy any house for cash" adverts in the local papers)

tbh I'm not really too bothered either way - as long as I have at least 3/4 months to save up for rent and deposit and find somewhere.

If we sell quickly and at a reasonable price then I'll be able to use my "cut" of any profits left over to pay off my CC and a few other small debts.

If it takes months and ends up being repossessed I'll have saved enough to do rent and deposit and pay off the debts without the extra.

(and it's not my mortgage so no nasty letters/court appearances for me)

he did consider the rent back your house thing, but the equity we have isn't that huge, so there's a risk that he'll end up still owing the bank money......

Plus if this house isn't going to belong to either of us I'd rather make a clean "break" and start over in a rented place with the DS's.

Not sure I could continue living here happily knowing that the house that was bought with the DS's future in mind was never going to be of any help to them (if that makes sense)

FAQ, if your name is not on the house - then how are you going to get your cut? Will he just hand it over? Just getting a little worried for you that you dont bank on this money coming your way (but not sure of all the facts so please do tell me to butt out)

oh I'm not banking on it coming my way - even if it's sold quickly there's not going to be much to talk of once mortgage, arrears and early repayment, legal fees, estate agent fees etc are taken out.

However, he does know that if he doesn't split the proceeds of the house with me I'm going to take him to the cleaners when we do the divorce bit, I have myself a solicitor with a reputation as being a "man eater" (she comes highly recommended as someone who covers a lot of the cases from the womens refuge) and I get legal aid - he doesn't .

And even if none of the above happens and he decides that I'm not getting any and I don't take him to the cleaners the amount of money I'll be able to save before I have to move versus the amount that I'll actually need means that I'll be able to clear some of my own smaller debts regardless of getting the extra cash (if there's anything left).

oh and part of the reason he knows I'll take him to the cleaners with the divorce if he doesn't split the money is that my granddad left money to us in his will, it was to be split equally between his children, grandchildren and their partners, and his great-grandchildren........no-one was actually named in the will - it was worded so that if there were any extra great-grandchildren, my DB got married or something after it had been written then it included anyone extra.....

exH and I split before the money from the will was distributed - and he still got his share, despite us not being together anymore - he knows that he could easily have ended up with none of it, but my parents (executors of the will) decided to be nice and let him have it anyhow........

Sorry to say if not much money envolved it can be"lost" or spent very easily, no point in taking someone to the cleaners only to find they aint got a bean left, not worth the agro and heartful stress.

Best to just get on with your own plans and your rebuilding your own life with your wonderful dc.

well there's also the matter of the CSA......I've told them he has them for 52+ nights a year........when actually it probably works out at much less than that (more like approx 36) so a phone call to them to let them know that the number of nights he has them is much less than what I originally said..............

I would make sure he has his dc two nights every other weekend and sticks to it. Why on earth is he not having them? You need a break and some proper time for you and the dc need to see their dad and build on the relatioship they have with him.

he works Friday nights/evenings usually - so I agreed as a compromise (as the first time he had them for 2 nights in a row was in August - we split up in march!!!) that he would continue to have them fortnightly, one weekend he would have them for one night, then the following time for 2 nights.

He was due to have them this weekend but due to "car trouble" (can't be arsed running through the whole sorry story again) he couldn't collect them. So he's having them next weekend, and the weekend after (thankgod - DS1 is really hard work at the moment and it's wearing me to the ground).

Mind you this is the first time (and he's been seeing them every fortnight since he moved out - although to start with it wasn't overnight as he was in shared accommodation) that's he not had them when he was due to............

He's a twat, a major wanker, but he does love his DS's and does seem them regularly, they adore him......so I'm doing my best to keep things as amicable as possible between us for their sake.

If I get something from the house that's great, if not, oh well never mind - I'll have paid off some of my debts, and will qualify for HB so things will be easier financially for me.

(although just noticed a house a few doors down from me has just gone on the market - shall watch with interest as to how quickly it goes, I know the owners pretty well so may be able to get an idea whether it goes for close to asking price - which is much higher than I expected it to be if this goes for anything close I'll be standing outside his door demanding my share ).

What is wrong with Sunday night Monday morning school run?

because he lives in the next town and traffic is appalling (and this isn't him making excuses - I have a friend at the school gates who recently moved to a village between this town and the one where exH lives and she has to leave ridiculously early to get to school on time, and he lives right near the town centre) and I don't want a cranky toddler at home all day Monday because he's been got up 1-2hrs than he's used to