Help me to die poor!!

In message , Hank wrote

The company purchasing the equity in your property would probably want to see the planning permission and/or the necessary building approvals.

Yep their tough luck, which is why they will only lend you a small percentage of the property value in order to avoid them getting unlucky.

Hank, I know that you have only told us a limited amount about why you are in the situation you are in, but I really don't think this is the solution to your problems.

tim

Thanks, yes; having learned a bit about these schemes now, they do seem to be aimed at the very gullible, the very apathetic or the very desparate. I am none of these, but am in danger of becoming the last, if I don't sort something out soon, or interest rates don't start coming down soon...

Hank

There's no way interest rates will be coming down soon. They have quite way to go up first.

In message , Hank writes

Sorry Hank, on looking at your age I think you are too young for a reversion, they usually have a minimum age of 60 or 65 and are onle of good value if your are 70+, IMO.

OK - thanks. It looks as though I need to think of another way to wipe out a major part of my debt before interest rates go up any more.

Hank

I was hoping perhaps one more rise in May and that's all. No?

Hank

No.

Hank bear in mind that this is only an opinion. Admittedly it isn`t one that I`d argue with, but be aware that anyone who could tell the way that markets etc will move in the future with absolute certainty won`t be here, they`ll be busy buying the rest of the world :-)

You won't be able to do much financially with the property without planning permission.

I have been told that due to the 'established use' rules, I could get a Certificate of Lawful use from the council without any difficulty, if necessary.

If they did turn me down and ordered me to convert it back into a

Hank

Why don't you do that then?

Wouldn't you be better off getting a mortgage that doesn't tie you in to relieve your immediate problems so you have a longer time to change things with the tenants/house/flats to your advantage rather than dealing with it on the present basis?

Surely rates cannot go up much further, as that would risk crashing the housing market, and the government will never let that happen? That is the "word on the street" anyway.

Wholesale energy prices have tumbled. This was one key factor which caused the 'shock' rate rise.

So you could be taking a big risk by not being in shares & property...

The housing market will or will not crash, and this will have its own reasons. Whatever the government wants is not one of those reasons.

Whose street? Yours? Consider moving!

There are lots of things the government is powerless to control. It is not entirely out of the question that the downtrodden masses are going to refuse to accept pay rises at the "official" inflation rate for any length of time, and this means there is a danger that we will see a repeat of 70s madness of strikes fuelling inflation, fuelling interest rate rises, fuelling repossessions on a vast scale (now that the masses have mortgages), fuelling more strikes, etc.

I'm not saying it will happen, but I'm not saying it won't...

In message , Tom Robinson writes

Not on my street. Neither the Govt or the BoE are particularly bothered about house prices per se, only the effect increased equity has on the money supply. A drop in house prices would suit them admirably because then they wouldnt need to increase interest rates because new cheap personal credit would be restricted without an interest rate hike.

The word on the banking and Gilt Fixed Interest Street is another 25 basis points within a month or three and possibly another 25 if things dont seem to be turning by end of year (ish).

I reckon the govt very much like high house prices, and would try to prevent them falling. What with stamp duty receipts, IHT receipts, forcing people to sell their houses to pay nursing home fees, not to mention the "feelgood" factor that stupid people get when their house price goes up (even when they have no intention of selling up/borrowing against it) which makes them forgot about high taxes or the mess their pension is in....

Shirly there's not much chance of all that, while "Britain is booming" and "we live in a low inflation economic miracle"? :)

Latest news is that pay settlements are steady at around 3.5% (which is below RPI)...

Thanks, Peter. A couple of things have made me hesitate:

(1) Applying for this Certificate of Lawful Use could land me in a more awkward situation than I'm already in, for all I know. For example, if the council order me to do a lot of expensive upgrading of the conversion to comply with today's building regulations. Or they might find some reason not to grant the certificate, and order me to convert the house back to a 3-bed semi. That would cost money and reduce the renting potential.

(2): Someone suggested that it may be easy to get the said certificate, but once it has been obtained, it is much more difficult to get planning permission to convert the place back to a 3-bed house. If that is the case, I would be cutting off my options by applying for the certificate. I am speculating, but I think this *might* actually make the place harder to sell if I needed to sell the whole building quickly, as one sale.

Yes.. this is the conclusion I have come to, too (based on my very limited knowledge of what's feasable). Do you think it would be easy to get a mortgage on the property Ihave described? As mentioned, I have about £145,000 equity in the property, and I need a second mortgage of about £85,000: enough to pay off my first mortgage and my credit card debts. It would also probably need to be a non-status mortgage, as I am self-employed and don't have accounts to show yet; only bank statements. And it would need to be an interest-only mortgage; that's the only way it would be useful in reducing my monthly outgoings. Would this be feasable? If so, what is the best way to seek out such a lender?

Thanks again,

Hank