This is a long one so bare with me!

About 3 years ago now my partner and I bought a flat. We were first time buyers and had no savings but were desperate to get on the property ladder so we decided to get a ‘Together Mortgage’ with Northern Rock. This meant we got a mortgage and an unsecured loan at the same rate of interest so we were able to pay a deposit and also clear some of our credit card debts.

We were happy with the deal at the time and quite confident that house prices would continue to rise (which they did for a while) so that when we came to sell, we would be able to pay off the mortgage and the loan and hopefully have some equity as well.

Unfortunately, my partner had a bit of a problem with personal debt and despite having paid off his credit cards with the unsecured loan when we bought the flat; he continued to use them until he got into a situation where he was struggling to meet the minimum payments each month. As you can imagine this caused a great deal of stress.

We decided the best option was for him to contact a financial management company and enter into a payment plan. It’s not an IVA. They explained that he would not be able to obtain any credit whilst he was in the plan which was fair enough, and they negotiated with his creditors so his interest rates were frozen enabling him to pay back the debts much quicker. He’ll be debt free in 18 months. What they failed to mention to us though, was that this agreement means that he has defaults on his credit file. We didn’t know this until he’s been in the payment plan for over a year.

This was at Christmas when we attempted to get another mortgage. Our fixed rate deal with Northern Rock was coming to an end and they wanted ridiculous amounts of money for us to go onto another fixed rate deal.

However, as we had a 115% mortgage and my partner has a bad credit rating, we tried everything, even putting the mortgage in my name, but we couldn’t get another mortgage.

So we stayed with Northern rock on their variable rate mortgage and although we are paying an extra £150 per month, touch wood, it hasn’t gone up this year.

My question is though, how on earth do we get out of this situation? We are nearly 25 now and I don’t want to be stuck in a one bedroom flat forever. I want us to move forward in our lives but I don’t see how we can with our huge mortgage and my partners bad credit rating?

Sell and Rent Back

i have been living with my boyfriend for 3 years in my rental apartment. he owns his own luxury apartment across the road, but refuses to live there! he doesn’t even rent it out, it is just collecting dust while we live and pay rent in a tiny little flat.
i took him to a session of relationship counselling so we could work out our living situation with the help of a neutral mediator.
my boyfriend point blank refuses for us to move into his apartment (it apparently depresses him, and he sees it only as a “nest egg”, not a place to live). despite me offering to renovate, and promising that i will never try to claim half of it (as a de facto), he still refuses for us to move into it. the counselling session- we reached a conclusion- he HAS to rent it out, and we move to a bigger rental apartment.
this is ok i guess, but i would rather the security of a place that is OWNED, not rented.
what should i do?

Rent Back Fast

We rented the same place for almost 3 years, and during the split, some of the rent went behind. Now I am keeping the apartment and he wants to ditch the back rent and wants me to pay him for 1/2 the security deposit. Is this legal??

Quick Property Sale

I am buying the 1-bed flat that I have been renting for the last 3 1/2 years and confused about if I need to get a Home Buyers Survey.
Obviously, we will have the mortgage lenders survey, but as I understand they do not really check anything other than the house is valued correctly for what they are lending?

However, just what woudl the Home Buyers Survey cover?

As we have lived at the flat I know there are no real issues (slight damp, hairline crack in a wall) and I doubt we will stop buying the property unless anything major is found - which I assume would only be uncovered in a full survey?

Also, I thought that any major issues would be covered under the entire block of flats - rather than my individual flat.

Any advice - much appreciated.

Real Estate Professionals