01 Jan 2012 3:02 PM:

The mortgage was affordable eight years ago when we took it out, though with the wonderful benefit of hindsight, we shouldn't have taken it.

We do have a fair bit of land to irrigate but I think most of the cost is down to rental guests just splashing it all out of the pool and refilling. Hopefully, if we are on site from now on, they may be more careful. The same with the electricity.

I think my husband was more misguided than anything. He has always thought that something would turn up and his earnings would increase and it would all get better. He's had his head in the sand and made bad decisions. Aside from this, I couldn't have wished for a better husband, though I can understand why that would be difficult  for others to understand, given how things are.

I am very angry and very upset, but until the last few years we've had a lovely life and I don't think I could walk away just because it has become difficult. At the moment, I just can't allow myself to be angry, I need all my energy to move on and deal with the situation we are in.

The decion to hand the keys back is an easy one to consider but a very difficult one to make. There is a lot of equity in the property and it is hard to walk away from that. If we could realise even half of it, it would make a huge difference to our lives. As I can't trust my husband's judgement any more, it is falling to me alone to decide what to do. I'm going over and over it all but I'm just not confident of getting it right.

 

Thread: Repossession

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01 Jan 2012 1:57 PM:

Thank you all.

We do rent the house out for holidaymakers and are living in a small apartment that comes with it. It is only by doing this that we have been able to cope with the bills at all. For the last 2 years we moved out entirely during the summer, so that we had extra bedrooms for my children coming back during university holidays, but we are planning to remain in the apartment next summer in order to save money and try to get straight.

A long term rental wouldn't cover the mortgage. The mortgage is 2300 per month, so yes, more than rentals. The bills are also colossal. We've just had a 2 month water bill for €800 and our IBI is over 3000.

The uk debts are 3 years old. All correspondance, we assume, has been going to my husband's previous address in the UK. Having just applied for credit reports, I guess the creditors will soon have our Spanish address.

With the rentals on the house we can cover the expenses along with my husband's salary. We will need to use the last of our savings till the first rental in April, but then we should be able to manage and with me in control of the finances, hopefully even put some aside for next year. That is if the banks will make the offer on the mortgage.

We have considered bankruptcy, but I have been away from the UK too long to do it there and I think my husband may have too. (I've had conflicting advice on that, so I'm not sure if you have to do it before 3 months away or 3 years).

I don't know what the situation is here in Spain. HOWEVER, my husband works in finance and believes that if he goes bankrupt he will lose his job here, and would have no hope of ever getting employment in the UK again so that has to remain a very last resort. He is in his 50's so not a lot of options employment wise.

Maddie, so pleased your friends are doing well. Encouraging to hear.

Thread: Repossession

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01 Jan 2012 11:05 AM:

Firstly I would have taken an IVA for the UK debts. We would only have had two years of payments left on that.

Secondly, I should have insisted we contact the bank as soon as he was made redundant and insisted that we dropped the house price to rock bottom, at that point.

Then I should have been checking the balance of our accounts instead of asking my husband if the money is still there. I should have kept quiet about the cash I had saved for a rainy day instead of putting in the safe where my husband could dip into it. I should not have believed him when he said he was earning enough and there was sufficient money coming in.

This has all blown up now because I insisted to my husband that we seriously consider a dacion while we still had some money left, to get us back to the uk and rent somewhere. I didn't know it was already too late and the money had gone. We are now trapped.

I would have cut back on everything except essentials and made sure that my son was getting the allowance that we had promised him and that we were dealing with the UK debt.

Basically, we should have taken action sooner, before we got into this state.We would still have been broke but the situation could have been so much more manageable.

 

Thread: Repossession

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01 Jan 2012 9:39 AM:

Well I never imagined I had anything to protect myself from! I've been married for over 25 years and thought I could trust my husband.

From thinking we had 25,000 in the bank, I now find myself penniless, heavily in debt and married to a stranger. What a fool!

I'm currently waiting for an Experian report. Unfortunately they told me I could apply online using my previous UK address. Days later, they asked for a copy of my passport. Days after that, they wanted a signed letter to confirm my address and finally, on Friday, said I need to apply by post.

 

Thread: Repossession

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01 Jan 2012 12:09 AM:

No, hanks for the suggestion, but that's our only hope for the future.

Actually, I don't think mine will be too good anyway. When we moved here, our child benefit contributions were paid to my OH as he was working in the uk. I didn't realise at the time that my "Home responibilities protection" would stop, when we did this. As far as I can see, this means I will have a shortfall.

I've always worried about my pension, even when I thought I was financially secure. I am terrified of becoming a financial burden on my kids. It's difficult enough for young people to pay off student loans and get themselves debt free, without having to worry about supporting parents.

One of the wort things about this for me, is tht I can't help my kids out. One son is in his final year at uni. His loan is calculated on my husbands salary. We were happy to support him while we could, but he is now suffering from spirraling debt because my husband stopped making contributions to him last summer. At this point he needs to be concentrating on his degree not worrying about finances.

My husband paid into a private scheme until he was made redundant. He's now autonomo. I can't bear to think of the future at this point, but it is frightening enough without taking from the pension pot.

When my husband was employed in the UK, we had very good life insurance. I now panic if he is a few minutes late in arriving home. I just  can't think about what life would be like if he has an accident, gets ill or can't work for any reason. It was my idea to move to spain and it is something I waill always regret. At least in the UK, if the unthinkable happens, there are benefits. Here there is nothing.

 

 

 

Thread: Repossession

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