House Repossession

Hi folks, I have a bit of a situation and I need some help.

Basically my parents bought an apartment in the UK a couple of years ago and it hasn't worked out as planned. Due to certain problems they haven't been able to make the payments on the mortgage and the rent hasn't covered it either. They've run into trouble and now the lenders are looking to repossess the property. This of course is undesirable and they don't want this to happen.

Unfortunately the apartment won't sell at present and the lenders are closing in. What will a repossession order mean for my parents? Is there any way around this? I don't want legal advice, just a guide as to what will happen to my parents if this comes through.

My mum is driven demented with this and is nearly happy enough to let it be repossessed, but I'm doubtful if that's the best course of action.

Thanks in advance.

Alot depends on if they are in positive or negative equity ?

Well they owe ~30k on the house here in Ireland, a car loan of ~8k, a credit union loan of ~30k for the furnishing of the apartment in the uk and other things and that's about it I think. They've feck all savings to talk about really. So negative equity?

Is the amount owed on the mortgage for the UK property greater than the current resale value?
If so, they're in negative equity.

Oh, sorry-it's worth more than the what's owed on the mortgage.

I've been looking into www.instantangels.co.uk and www.freedomproperty.co.uk and I think they might be a quick solution and just leave them with a small amount to pay off?

thanks.

Don't know anything about those companies but be very careful when choosing a company to get they out of this hole quickly. If it looks like a no brainer/ideal solution then make sure that there are no catches!

They offer about 71-72% of the market value, which would leave my folks short by about £7k or so which is manageable. they seem to make their money by buying and renting back, but in this case we wouldn't be doing that, so once it's sold, it's gone out of our lives for good and they just have the small balance to pay, which is a damn sight better than owing 100k!

Anyone else got any opinions?

thanks for the advice!

Have they considered selling by action , I understand it's far more common in quick sale situations in the uk then here.

have i seen those 2 companies mentioned/covered on the bbc watchdog programme?

you had better be very very careful.

i could be wrong about watchdog but the names ring a bell...

Thanks for the head's up! I felt the websites looked a bit sketchy. I'll have to do more research on them. It seems they've been given a dig out from a friend and are negotiating with the bank so it might not be all doom and gloom, but they seriously need to get rid of this thing.

Thanks for the advice!

Just had a read of this article:

[broken link removed]

I don't think my folks would have the same problems as these people as they won't be renting the property back from the company. If they hand over a cheque and it clears the majority of the debt it will be a good thing and a valuable (although expensive!) lesson!

Thanks again!