Maz

iTrader: (34)

Caught this programme on BBC1 last night. It centred around three families who were facing dire consequences because they were having difficulty paying the mortgage.
We all hear about it, see it on the news and in the papers. However it wasn't until yesterday I was fully able to see the anguish, despair and sheer helplessness repossession causes. The lady who burst in to tears at reading the eviction note, the poor bloke frantically amassing the families' possessions in the garden before the bailiffs seized the house. Or the most touching moment, the two children who gathered all their toys and asked their dad to sell them at a car boot sale, so they could get a little money to help their parents pay the mortgage. This is the real face of the recession.

Deep Singh

I only saw a few moments of it. Had they been irresponsible with their money or was it just bad luck?

Maz

iTrader: (34)

One of the families was on a fixed term for a few years but the repayment doubled when it reverted to variable rate. This was at a time when his business, selling second hand cars was on it's ****. The second family could only get a high interest mortgage as no one else would give them one. The bloke was self employed and work was practically non existent. The third family were according to them grossly miss-sold mortgages. In their own words they had acquired about 17k in cash yet owed 140k!

FlightMan

Tragic

dpb

No - i cant conjure up even a fleeting shred of sympathy , sorry

RB5201

Cant beleive some people post up this sort of comment, ****.

hodgy0_2

yep -- I always feel sorry for the kids in this situation, they always seem to get the ****ty end of the stick

and for the people with no sympathy -- understandable in many ways

but we were all sold the dream, any Leeds supporters in the house, they will surely understand

AJF

iTrader: (1)

why i deal with these people every day
and most over borrow then think its someone elses fault

Adrian

NXG

Is that the new toytown estate in the West? Thought they were a bit overpriced when I went for a gander when they were building them, but 70k??

They still haven't finished the roads and they're getting repo'd already?

NXG

You're not wrong there, it's a slum waiting to happen... Easy pickings for the NN3 and NN4 chavs too with all those rat-runs...

hodgy0_2

stick 6 noughts at the end of those figures and we have the banking crisis in a nutshell

but its always the little people who get shat on

its the old adage of an overturned car in Oxford is student high jinks -- in Brixton its a riot

dpb

I do obviously have some sympathy for the offspring - its clearly not their fault father/mater are too , lets say naive , to see what could go wrong

SunnySideUp

I did feel sympathy for them ..... up until they lit their 40th *** of the day - I did the sums and their smoking habit costs them around £350 a month!!! Probably would have saved the home for their children!

Sorry, if your house is being taken away you do not light up another cigarette!!!

Twisted priorities IMO

Lee247

Lets hope you never get into their situation then. And don't say it will never happen to you as you have no idea what will happen in life to change your circumstances.

It is not always down to overspending, excess borrowing etc.

dpb

i can imagine it as a possibilty if i fell ill - but were talking about people who have borrowed with dam great blinkers on when they maybe should have beeen renting

Lee247

Dunc, am not getting at you as such, we have been friends for a long time. I just find the attitude of some people, a little hard to swallow. This holier than thou one. God help them if they ever get into that situation and it is possible. It is not always so black and white. I would imagine they would not be so big to crow then and would be wanting help from whoever would give it.

I sympathise with anyone in this situation, no matter how they got there

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

I didn't see this programme so couldn't comment, but I think yes at times people can make a rod for their own backs through bad choices etc. but in circumstances like these I could never be almost glad people were losing their homes.

Aside from individual cases like these, I have no doubt there will be people in the same boat, who haven't necessarily been stupid. My Mam for example really started to struggle not that long ago, as she and my Dad divorced after over 20 years of marriage. She bought him out of our house, so we could stay at home, and tbh, it was probably the cheapest option, but with mortgage prices on the rise, almost constantly at the time, it was really close to being unmanageable. Ok, she could have gone back to renting, but she'd worked bloody hard for years, and why is it fair she should lose her home? Rates can make a massive difference to affordability from what I've seen, so it's not all a matter of borrowing beyond your means, completely.

Everybodys circumstances are different, and makes it hard to make blanket comments imo, but unless someone has been truely reckless, I wouldn't wish people to lose their homes. Lets not forget, those who lend, and lend and lend, have some responsibility too.

David Lock

Well said.

What's always forgotten is that these people are not the clever type SN members but often a bit stoopid (not always) who didn't have the savvy to plan ahead and were easy meat for the f,ucking smart **** banks and commission earning brokers.

For a genuine family to be slung out of your home must be about the worst thing that could happen

dl

lozgti

There are the truly unlucky people and those that have been genuinely bad.

An awful lot of people were more than happy to take out huge mortgages on initial low rates thinking they would always be saved by ever increasing value of homes that they could simply remortgage again if they needed.

That lending isn't there anymore and there is no where to turn.

This economy has lived on people thinking the day would never come and now it is.IMO the banks/lenders/estate agents/government have created something awful and very worrying.Who is going to lend £150,000 to a family who a) can't afford to repay it (never worried the banks before) b) Have an asset probably worth half that.I am so angry with the government who presided over this madness(and although they would never get in,Vince Cable would have stopped it all happening,somehow)

I reckon this could be one of the worst 'busts' ever with this hugely indebted country with thousands of reposessions to come.It scares me and in theory I have a good job (and a house probably worth £50k less than when we bought,so no equity in it)

The Zohan

what they said

stilover

Although their situation is tragic. At the end of the day, no one forced them to buy a new home, take out a stupidly high mortgage.

Yes it's not nice for the kids, but I bet all the parents are thinking "If only we hadn't moved".

Over the last few years, people have been in the mind set of house prices always rising and cheap borrowing never ending.

House prices are now falling, and borrowing is getting more expensive. Overstretch yourself on the mistaken promise that it'll be worth more in several years, and you'll find yourself having your home repossessed.

Sad but true.

mrtheedge2u2

I swear to god.... If I was in a lot of positions people are in with regard to the recession, jobs etc I would be devastated, of course, but I know I will do the following......

1) I get made unemployed and can not find suitable work
2) I quit my rented apartment (only one months notice needed)
3) I book a flight and go back to Mexico and sit on a beach for a long time.

I pay 1214 euro a month for my apartment, no commitments here, and have some savings so I would be ok going to Mexico.

Whilst a lot of people are stuck in a bad situation... some have the possibility of turning this into an adventure that they always wanted to do.

hodgy0_2

this all true

and I swing between real doom and gloom and then thinking that the world still goes around and the need/desire to make money is too strong in most people

that it wont be too long before we see 125% mortgages again -- people have very short memories

andys

Anyone else think it was a bit worrying that the self employed guy was a mortgage adviser?

StickyMicky

when me and the missus were talking about buying our first place last year, i made a point of saying that we should always make sure we can pay the mortgage even if it doubles, just to cover our backs, if it doubles and then goes higher and we then can not pay, then put it down to shear bad luck and take it on the chin.

thing is, once you start factoring in mortgage costs at double what you currently pay, it realistically means you can afford nothing at all except a small shoebox.

so we stayed put and have decided to stay here until she is on her "top band" teachers pay in a few years time.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

I think it was a bit half and half with the people on there. I think all of them had themselves to blame to a certain degree, and had they been a bit more prudent and thought about their futures wouldnt have ended up in as much trouble.

1) the people who bought their council house for £40K and 'released their equity' up to £150K only have themselves to blame - if you had a £40K mortgage, even with a modest salary you could pay it off within a few years of hard saving, then when you wanted all the toys like they had ( big screen TV, bloke had a nice motocross bike leaning against the wall etc... ) they could have saved and bought them for cash, or even borrowed on the credit card knowing they were mortgage free, so would have a lot of expendable income.

2) The self employed bloke just seemed happy to sit on his backside and wait for the bailiffs while moaning he wasnt getting any work - so why didnt he, and his other half, go out and get any work they could, even minimum wage work in a factory or stacking shelves, cleaning etc... - would have thought it would be preferable to losing the house.

If it were me, I would rather go out and get two low paid jobs and work 7 days a week than lose the house or declare myself bankrupt and have to rent somewhere.

Saying that, I've had a decent income for the last couple of years, but rather than going out and buying a brand new car and having 3 holidays a year, I've built up some savings, so if the worst happens then the mortgage will be paid.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

#28 - agree with that in some parts, but the better way is to get a long term fixed rate, then you know exactly what your payments will be, and that they arent going to change.

If you work out how much you can borrow based on assuming something happens and only one of you can work, if you can still afford the mortgage and basic bills, then you are very unlikely to ever get into trouble