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Hi Guys,
Thanks in advance for any help - its my 1st post so here its goes (apologies if I miss anything out)
In a nutshell we bought a property in August 2007 which was our 1st house. I know that most of you will be rolling your eyes at the next section however because I suffered with credit difficulties during this period we opted for what seemed like a good mortgage offer from Rooftop Mortgages. Unfortunately we bought the property at the height of the market for £93k (£6k deposit) on a residential repayment mortgage over 30 years. For info the property is a 1st floor maisonette.
Naturally, we quickly outgrew this property and due to the unfortunate 'crash' in the housing market in 2008 the property had no re-sell value leaving us with limited options. We remained on the fixed rate period for 2 years and subsequently moved onto the variable rate under our mortgage conditions until 2010 whereby we vacated the property with a view to sell or rent depending on the advice from Rooftop Mortgages. This was a massive relief to us during this period as we went from paying £650 fixed pcm to £420 variable pcm which is what it is currently.
As you are probably aware in 2008 Rooftop Mortgages ceased trading therefore no further lending was acknowledged from the bank and we were left with very little or no help from Rooftop Mortgages, other than to continue living at the property.. Any time that we asked Rooftop for help of which their response generally required us to send an 'administration fee' of £125.00 which as you can imagine was totally pointless.
The property remained part vacant during the period of 2010-2011 whereby we made the conscious effort to sell with no joy. In 2012 the property was valued at £80,000 with the redemption figure on our mortgage being approximately £79,000 therefore leaving us in negative equity even if we had managed to sell. In our opinion, we did not feel that this was our best option and knowing that we didn't have 25% equity in the property value we knew a re-mortgage was also out of the question. Therefore, in 2012 we wrote to Rooftop (along with a £125 admin fee) asking for permission for the property to be let. Within a couple of weeks Rooftop provisionally agreed for us to let on a 6 monthly term basis and it has been let to this day albeit against Rooftops wishes.
During the last couple of months we have again had several conversations with Rooftop Mortgages who have expressed to us that they were not happy that the property was to be let long term as we had a residential mortgage and this is against their terms and conditions. In return we explained to them that we had no other option as we had recently had the property re-valued at £80k and the redemption figure on our mortgage was £77k which would rely on us selling the property at market value if were to break even.
Of late Rooftop have become very formal over this matter and have stated that we have 2 options - either move back into the property or redeem the mortgage. If this is not adhered to then we will face court action.
As you can appreciate a lot has happened since 2010 for example we have moved into a new house (with a better mortgage provider) and on the brunt of it we could not afford 2 mortgage payments if we're forced to evict our tenants. We have appealed this decision with Rooftop explaining our reasons and even wrote to the Financial Ombudsman who ruled in favour of Rooftop and therefore they are not willing to budge on their decision. Our plan eventually would be to either re-mortgage or sell the property however at this stage we cannot afford to do either.
We feel that the current situation is out of control and has the potential to financially ruin our lives should a court decision go in favour of Rooftop Mortgages. Currently we have the opportunity to appeal the Ombudsman's decision however this could take 6 months approximately of which I am told Rooftop are within their right to start legal proceedings if I go down this route.
We think that because Rooftop went out of business/ceased trading then this has left us with no other option but to become default landlords through no fault of our own and Rooftop have offered us no advise or help regarding our financial situation. We have explained to Rooftop that our intentions are to gain enough equity in the property to either sell or re-mortgage so that we can redeem with Rooftop but this may take a few more years before we have paid more off the mortgage and house prices increase. Additionally, I fear that if we are made stop letting the property then we will fall into arrears on an account which we never previously missed a payment on.
If someone could advise on what our next step should be that would be appreciated.
masroll:
Regards
Wayne
Thanks in advance for any help - its my 1st post so here its goes (apologies if I miss anything out)
In a nutshell we bought a property in August 2007 which was our 1st house. I know that most of you will be rolling your eyes at the next section however because I suffered with credit difficulties during this period we opted for what seemed like a good mortgage offer from Rooftop Mortgages. Unfortunately we bought the property at the height of the market for £93k (£6k deposit) on a residential repayment mortgage over 30 years. For info the property is a 1st floor maisonette.
Naturally, we quickly outgrew this property and due to the unfortunate 'crash' in the housing market in 2008 the property had no re-sell value leaving us with limited options. We remained on the fixed rate period for 2 years and subsequently moved onto the variable rate under our mortgage conditions until 2010 whereby we vacated the property with a view to sell or rent depending on the advice from Rooftop Mortgages. This was a massive relief to us during this period as we went from paying £650 fixed pcm to £420 variable pcm which is what it is currently.
As you are probably aware in 2008 Rooftop Mortgages ceased trading therefore no further lending was acknowledged from the bank and we were left with very little or no help from Rooftop Mortgages, other than to continue living at the property.. Any time that we asked Rooftop for help of which their response generally required us to send an 'administration fee' of £125.00 which as you can imagine was totally pointless.
The property remained part vacant during the period of 2010-2011 whereby we made the conscious effort to sell with no joy. In 2012 the property was valued at £80,000 with the redemption figure on our mortgage being approximately £79,000 therefore leaving us in negative equity even if we had managed to sell. In our opinion, we did not feel that this was our best option and knowing that we didn't have 25% equity in the property value we knew a re-mortgage was also out of the question. Therefore, in 2012 we wrote to Rooftop (along with a £125 admin fee) asking for permission for the property to be let. Within a couple of weeks Rooftop provisionally agreed for us to let on a 6 monthly term basis and it has been let to this day albeit against Rooftops wishes.
During the last couple of months we have again had several conversations with Rooftop Mortgages who have expressed to us that they were not happy that the property was to be let long term as we had a residential mortgage and this is against their terms and conditions. In return we explained to them that we had no other option as we had recently had the property re-valued at £80k and the redemption figure on our mortgage was £77k which would rely on us selling the property at market value if were to break even.
Of late Rooftop have become very formal over this matter and have stated that we have 2 options - either move back into the property or redeem the mortgage. If this is not adhered to then we will face court action.
As you can appreciate a lot has happened since 2010 for example we have moved into a new house (with a better mortgage provider) and on the brunt of it we could not afford 2 mortgage payments if we're forced to evict our tenants. We have appealed this decision with Rooftop explaining our reasons and even wrote to the Financial Ombudsman who ruled in favour of Rooftop and therefore they are not willing to budge on their decision. Our plan eventually would be to either re-mortgage or sell the property however at this stage we cannot afford to do either.
We feel that the current situation is out of control and has the potential to financially ruin our lives should a court decision go in favour of Rooftop Mortgages. Currently we have the opportunity to appeal the Ombudsman's decision however this could take 6 months approximately of which I am told Rooftop are within their right to start legal proceedings if I go down this route.
We think that because Rooftop went out of business/ceased trading then this has left us with no other option but to become default landlords through no fault of our own and Rooftop have offered us no advise or help regarding our financial situation. We have explained to Rooftop that our intentions are to gain enough equity in the property to either sell or re-mortgage so that we can redeem with Rooftop but this may take a few more years before we have paid more off the mortgage and house prices increase. Additionally, I fear that if we are made stop letting the property then we will fall into arrears on an account which we never previously missed a payment on.
If someone could advise on what our next step should be that would be appreciated.
masroll:Regards
Wayne
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