Not sure if this is the correct area, please move if not....
Hi all,
Last year, I advised my mortgage provider (N**M) that I soon would be having trouble meeting our full mortgage repayments.
long story as to why, but essentially my wife's mum was struck down out of the blue by a very serious brain tumour, and within weeks went from being a normal, healthy person to bedridden, half paralysed, and requiring 24 hour care. We couldn't afford to pay for the care, so my wife took an (agreed) unpaid leave of absence to care for her; we maintained full mortgage payments by topping up the shortfall from our savings, as I was still working full-time.
The decline, unfortunately, was rapid, and she died within 4 months; my wife was in a terrible depression, and was signed off by her doctor from work with stress and depression. It was so bad I took time off work to look after our children (both under 3), which didn't help the money situation. When my wife returned to work, we decided I should leave mine to look after the children, as we could not afford full-time childcare (my mum-in-law had been our child-carer), and were not eligible for any child / working tax credits.
So you can see it was a bit of an extraordinary situation. I advised N**M in October last year that November would be the month I could make a full payment (and that was a struggle). Three weeks later, I was still waiting to hear, despite stressing how urgent it was. I wrote again, and this time was sent a letter asking me to complete a financial planner; this I did, explained the background, and made an offer of 50% payments until I started work again, we sold the house of my mum-in-law (we own a third of it, no mortgage) or would consider anything they proposed - payment holidays, extended term etc.
They finally replied at the end of November, about 3 days before December's payment was due, which I couldn't fully pay of course; they rejected my offer, but didn't give a reason why, or offer anything themselves.
Since then it has been incredible frustrating; every letter/ offer I send (about 12 so far) is ignored, or the reply doesn't mention any specifics I asked for, and no counter-offer is ever made; I have made payments of 50% , 60% and 60% so far, the absolute most we could afford. They just seem to want to ignore me long enough to then go for repossession it seems.
Has anyone else experienced this? what did you do?
I have kept a full paper trail of all my dealings with them, all offers, requests etc, and can genuinely offer no more at the moment (I have even negotiated my credit cards into a temporary payment arrangement, which they all agreed to). I assume its best to just keep paying what I can?
By the end of Feb that will be 3 month of reduced payments without an agreement in place (we'll owe about £1500) , and I am starting to get concerned the next step will be court. Surely any right-thinking judge would see all the efforts I have made (plus the fact we can completely clear the arrears and resume full payments after the sale of my mum-in-laws house) and not agree to any claim?
as I said, bit frustrated at the moment, as it seems they are just unwilling to listen, or offer any alternative?
Also I noticed a letter today had changed from telling me to contact their 'financial hardship' team to contact their 'secured debt management team'. Does this sound like an escalation? anyone had dealings with either?
thanks for reading this far (!), and if there are any pointers, words of advice or experience you can share I would appreciate it.
Ta
Hi all,
Last year, I advised my mortgage provider (N**M) that I soon would be having trouble meeting our full mortgage repayments.
long story as to why, but essentially my wife's mum was struck down out of the blue by a very serious brain tumour, and within weeks went from being a normal, healthy person to bedridden, half paralysed, and requiring 24 hour care. We couldn't afford to pay for the care, so my wife took an (agreed) unpaid leave of absence to care for her; we maintained full mortgage payments by topping up the shortfall from our savings, as I was still working full-time.
The decline, unfortunately, was rapid, and she died within 4 months; my wife was in a terrible depression, and was signed off by her doctor from work with stress and depression. It was so bad I took time off work to look after our children (both under 3), which didn't help the money situation. When my wife returned to work, we decided I should leave mine to look after the children, as we could not afford full-time childcare (my mum-in-law had been our child-carer), and were not eligible for any child / working tax credits.
So you can see it was a bit of an extraordinary situation. I advised N**M in October last year that November would be the month I could make a full payment (and that was a struggle). Three weeks later, I was still waiting to hear, despite stressing how urgent it was. I wrote again, and this time was sent a letter asking me to complete a financial planner; this I did, explained the background, and made an offer of 50% payments until I started work again, we sold the house of my mum-in-law (we own a third of it, no mortgage) or would consider anything they proposed - payment holidays, extended term etc.
They finally replied at the end of November, about 3 days before December's payment was due, which I couldn't fully pay of course; they rejected my offer, but didn't give a reason why, or offer anything themselves.
Since then it has been incredible frustrating; every letter/ offer I send (about 12 so far) is ignored, or the reply doesn't mention any specifics I asked for, and no counter-offer is ever made; I have made payments of 50% , 60% and 60% so far, the absolute most we could afford. They just seem to want to ignore me long enough to then go for repossession it seems.
Has anyone else experienced this? what did you do?
I have kept a full paper trail of all my dealings with them, all offers, requests etc, and can genuinely offer no more at the moment (I have even negotiated my credit cards into a temporary payment arrangement, which they all agreed to). I assume its best to just keep paying what I can?
By the end of Feb that will be 3 month of reduced payments without an agreement in place (we'll owe about £1500) , and I am starting to get concerned the next step will be court. Surely any right-thinking judge would see all the efforts I have made (plus the fact we can completely clear the arrears and resume full payments after the sale of my mum-in-laws house) and not agree to any claim?
as I said, bit frustrated at the moment, as it seems they are just unwilling to listen, or offer any alternative?
Also I noticed a letter today had changed from telling me to contact their 'financial hardship' team to contact their 'secured debt management team'. Does this sound like an escalation? anyone had dealings with either?
thanks for reading this far (!), and if there are any pointers, words of advice or experience you can share I would appreciate it.
Ta