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Hi, My Nephew is having problems managing his finances following a relationship breakup several years ago which left him paying off interest on a £150k mortgage on a London flat (approx value £300k) on his own. He is struggling to make ends meet and is continually getting overdrawn and having to be bailed out by his family. Halifax mortgage interest rate is not great and is the major stumbling block to him finding some financial independence but attempts to re-mortgage have been thwarted by his credit history which is not been brilliant but has been improving over the last 12 months and the fact that his ex partner is still included on the deeds and the mortgage. She has agreed to be taken off the mortgage & deeds (at a price) but a) Halifax have been stalling for 10 months over a decision whether to allow him to move on to a more competitive mortgage rate with them b) mortgage brokers we have approached for assistance in remortgaging have declined to help because of my nephews poor mental state. He has been suffering with physical impairments for a number of years that give him constant pain despite several operations and has been suffering from depression for a number of years as a result of the physical and mental strain he has been under. He has a decent job and has been meeting the mortgage re-payments each month but once other bills are taken care of he is left without anything and often has to go overdrawn which makes his depression even worse and is probably not helping his credit score and chances of re-mortgaging.
There doesn't appear to be anything we can do about forcing Halifax to come up with a decision, they seem quite happy for him to continue paying a high interest rate and not allowing him to move to a cheaper more affordable deal, I think he's is what is referred to as a mortgage prisoner and we don't know how to help get him out of the trap. We would engage a mortgage broker to help find him a deal but as mentioned they seem reluctant to help him directly because of his mental state.
I have suggested to family that if we get him to give us Lasting Power of Attorney we could take care of his financial affairs and work directly with the Mortgage Brokers ourselves relieving him of the burden of doing it and help him on to a new mortgage deal. Problem is he lives in London on his own and is remote from his northern based family. His mental condition means he finds it almost impossible to deal with the situation although he has acknowledged that he is in difficulty but it is proving very difficult to help him as he can't/won't talk about it.
The only other suggestion we have is to try and club together to pay off the outstanding £150k and then try to re-mortgage, this isn't an option we want to follow as we are all pensioners and don't have that sort of money lying around but as there is equity in the flat the risk should be low as long as we can re-mortgage later and get paid back.
His mother thinks no one will give a mortgage to someone acting as Attorney so it would be a waste of time. Does anyone on the forum know if this is true ... as an Attorney would we still be unable to help him re-mortgage ?
There doesn't appear to be anything we can do about forcing Halifax to come up with a decision, they seem quite happy for him to continue paying a high interest rate and not allowing him to move to a cheaper more affordable deal, I think he's is what is referred to as a mortgage prisoner and we don't know how to help get him out of the trap. We would engage a mortgage broker to help find him a deal but as mentioned they seem reluctant to help him directly because of his mental state.
I have suggested to family that if we get him to give us Lasting Power of Attorney we could take care of his financial affairs and work directly with the Mortgage Brokers ourselves relieving him of the burden of doing it and help him on to a new mortgage deal. Problem is he lives in London on his own and is remote from his northern based family. His mental condition means he finds it almost impossible to deal with the situation although he has acknowledged that he is in difficulty but it is proving very difficult to help him as he can't/won't talk about it.
The only other suggestion we have is to try and club together to pay off the outstanding £150k and then try to re-mortgage, this isn't an option we want to follow as we are all pensioners and don't have that sort of money lying around but as there is equity in the flat the risk should be low as long as we can re-mortgage later and get paid back.
His mother thinks no one will give a mortgage to someone acting as Attorney so it would be a waste of time. Does anyone on the forum know if this is true ... as an Attorney would we still be unable to help him re-mortgage ?
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