Monday, 20 October 2003 - 10:22 PM BST

Still no 20, though..

Tuesday, 21 October 2003 - 8:23 AM BST

I spent 30 minutes driving at 2mph round the car park, looking!

Tuesday, 21 October 2003 - 11:56 AM BST

I'm catching up - I'm on the lookout for 14 now! 13 was a bugger. I seen a 20 at the weekend :p

Tuesday, 21 October 2003 - 3:23 PM BST

I've seen six 20s now, but not one damned 21. My mate started CNPS just a fortnight ago and has caught up with me already. Snot fair.

Tuesday, 21 October 2003 - 11:27 PM BST

Your mate is a liar and a cheat I say! I don't believe him/her, and I demand photographic evidence for all further claims to numbers
Bloody people who are better at stuff than I am, I hate them

Tuesday, 21 October 2003 - 11:41 PM BST

Yay, a numbers post - I'm a maths so I get these ones :-)

I'm sure you already know this but if you pay the CCJ within 28 days, it's removed from your credit file rather than just marked as satisfied, so the loanshark mailshots should stop and your credit rating won't be affected if you pay up in that timescale.

Are you sure about getting your DH off the mortgage at the moment, Vanessa? As it stands, you're both equally liable for the full mortgage payment. I'm pretty sure, or at least I hope, that the #190K settlement was just a joke :-( What if rates go up (as they're expected to!) over the next couple of years - I'm a mortgage adviser and the increase in fixed rates over the past few weeks certainly indicates this. What if house values go right down as a result of any rate increases? Will your DH have got out at an opportune time and left you with a whole load of crap to deal with? Have you had proper legal advice - I'm sure you must have a good mate lawyer squirreled away somewhere. Perhaps it would be in YOUR interests for her to force you to put the flat up for sale and for her to make the mortgage payments (or at least half of them) in the meantime, I really don't know.

As it stands, if your ex wants to protect her credit rating (I don't know how important this is to her), then your lender is well within their rights to request the full mortgage payment from her.

I loved the piccie by the way, I remember the view - I could take a similar one of the trees, cycle path, bits of broken glass, etc from the front of my house and mine's really skanky but it's my home, my four walls, my close the door on all the @#%$! going on outside and I love it. That's what I see in your photo too.

Jo

Tuesday, 21 October 2003 - 11:43 PM BST

You do know that all 21's have to be accompanied by jpegs of the 21 numberplate next to the day's newspaper and an open passport of the spotter, don't you?

Wednesday, 22 October 2003 - 12:05 AM BST

Yes, I'd heard on the radio that rates are going up and house prices down, so it's potentially the worst time for me to buy her out. :-(

I'm getting guilted out by friends who think I should hurry it up and buy regardless of that, so that she doesn't have to continue paying the mortgage. They don't seem to see that her dilemma is bad, but short term, whereas mine is not so immediately bad (I have a place to stay, after all), but involves more long term difficulties if I get stuck as a wage slave trying to work 50 years to pay off a bad debt in a place that reminds me of bad times.

The price in the end is going to be nearer #70K, I think, but it'll cost me to verify this, as the place looks nice, but has huge structural defects, so I'll have to pay a surveyor to record those.

It would help if she were able to speak to me sensibly about it all, but I only get one sentence per week, and this week's sentence was "no".

Already took some legal advice from my friendly neighbourhood law expert about the mortgage repayments until I buy it, and you're right. However, I've got absolutely no wish ti screw anyone over, or leave them with no way of getting a new flat.

Will be seeing a solicitor in the next week about it all, so if she can't bring herself to communicate, that's that, the sale will be underway.

Thanks for the advice, anyway, Jo - know what you mean about the street! Wish it wasn't also a street full of pikey sodding car thieves......

Wednesday, 22 October 2003 - 12:28 AM BST

It's a bugger about the car theives, isn't it? I remember just having Ellie and going shopping and the car got nicked from the carpark. I pushed the trolley into the carpark with a screaming hungry month-old baby and some feckers had taken my beloved montego. I just screamed 'bastards' at the top of my voice and collapsed into a sobbing heap - someone from the shop tried to make me feel better by saying they'd store my shopping so that my freezer stuff didn't melt, I nearly took his head off! The bastards just don't realise how much hassle their little boy-racer joyrides cost.


It sounds like you're in a pretty shitty position, if the flat has structural problems, there's a potential for future downvaluation and interest rate increases, that #70K payoff looks like an easy and profitable way out. I wouldn't rush into anything - I'd do as you are doing and take all the professional advice you can get, no matter how long it takes - do it properly rather than quickly. It's not a case of wanting to screw someone over - it's just what's fair. As you say, the last thing you need is to be stuck with a killer mortgage, in a negative enquity situation, in a flat with structural defects and face the thought of a nutter for a lodger for the next God knows how many years. What would she be doing in your situation, what would she be prepared to offer you, etc.

Hope you get a break soon - the car must have surely been the last straw.

Jo

Wednesday, 22 October 2003 - 7:37 AM BST

Hope you get a break soon - the car must have surely been the last straw.

Jo

Aaaargh! You cursed me! My hot water system just broke! Lol!

Seriously, that's good advice - thanks.

Wednesday, 22 October 2003 - 2:37 PM BST

You know I'd do it too.