In September last year, my partner and I went to Florida to look at property to invest in. We went with a international realty company who set us up to meet developers, mortgage advisor and a management company.The plan was to rent it out as soon as possible and in later years to sell.

We found the perfect property and signed a contract with the developer who was aware we were applying for a mortgage in america and said if there was any problem with this we could pull out.

We came up with the 30% (as this was needed to apply for the mortgage) straight away. But as the months went on, we were applying to so may different mortgage schemes with no luck. It was dragging out to long and we were already paying a mortgage on the 30% we decided we had to pull out and get our money back. We have contacted the realty company and the developers but they are very unhelpful, it seems we can only contact them through emails and they haven’t given us any idea if and when we will get our money back. it has been dragging out for such a long time we are begiining to worry.

So if anyone has any advice on what we should do? We are beside ourselves with worry as the developer has been no help what so ever.

Thank you for reading.
yes there was a contract. we have read it over and over and can’t make heads or tails. i don’t think it mentions anything about our deposit. We paid an initial deposit of 00 which we don’t expect to get back but we want the 30% back because it is quite a sum of money.

I’ve just had someone offer to buy my house that I don’t live in (I live abroad) and can’t rent out. they’ve offered £125K (I could probably get £128K if I haggled) the only thing is that since buying the house in 2003 I’ve spent £42K in mortgage payments and still owe £98K. I would therefore loose £12K. I’m coming back the UK in July but not likely to live in my house because my job will take me to another part of the UK. I live in rent free job related accommodation.
The gamble is whether I’m better off to sell or come out of the market and just save (mortgage payments are £8K a year) The house is advertised to be rented at the moment but there are no tenants about. I’ve just completely redecorated – new bathroom kitchen, carpets, etc.
What should I do? sell or keep?

Ive finally had enough, my heroin addicted and dealing tennants who owed me over £2500 in rent stole my speedboat out of the back garden and sold it. So last saturday i rounded up a few friends and went round the house i was renting them, let myself in, ( no one in ) chucked all their stuff out in the garden ( covered it up with a tarpolin) and changed the locks. Phoned him up and told him what the score was and he threatened to do me and fire bomb the house if all the stuff was not back in the house. Obviously i told him to fuck off and get his stuff off my property. Its now Tuesday and Ive heard nothing from him or her, they havnt even checked any of their stuff in the garden. Where do you recon i stand legaly and what do you recon is on their minds , is it the calm before the storm or are they just getting smacked outa their minds ??
I did serve them a section 21 letter which expired in mid august and they still didnt leave….
Top answers Jude n Angler, very much my way of thinking
and badas

We’d really like to sell both and buy our 1st home together. However, one has negative equity (approx 10k) due to recent recession and the other has approx 25k equity. We were both made redundant last year and consequently had some arrears on our mortgages but they were quite low and we’ve almost caught back up now. So… how would we stand if we were to sell one house but keep the one with neg equity and maybe rent it out? Would we be able to get a joint mortgage together if the house had a tenant? We don’t earn fantastic salaries but could certainly afford a house together. Any help, advise or pointers would be appreciated… Thanks

Nine years ago my partner and i bought a house together in joint names. He was unable to sell his house so he rented it out for 2 years till it sold. In the meantime, he asked his mother to lend him the shortfall but she gave it to him saying it would save him waiting until she died for his inheritance. To cut a long story short, she lived with us for 5 years until he died. Two years after that, i was taken ill and was unable to care for her (she was 96 and i’m disabled) so she went into care. i was told by social services that since i wasn’t a relative she was nothing to do with me and arrangements were made for her to go live with her granddaughter near London. i found out yesterday that she didn’t go.

This weekend, i received a letter from the local court saying that proceedings are underway and that i have to attend in 3 weeks as she wants her money back and an interest in the house plus rent. It’s been 3 1/2 years since he died.

Please can anyone tell me what to do?

Next July in 2010 i want to drive around Europe for a month. Im saving up thinking of getting a Seat Alhambra or a Ford Galaxy, something bigish but not to big and luggish and with a good bit of speed in them.
However, i cant decide if it would be cheaper for me to buy a second hand one, use it and sell it again when i get back OR just rent one from a company. I wondered if you guys could give me youyr opinion or atleast a link to something which might help me decide!

Im also quite worried about driving on the right side of the road in a right hand drive vehicle. Does this make a huge different to driving? Is it worth renting or buying a car from France just for to have it the right way round?

Any help is appreciated. ta

I’m trying to sell my house, but not having much luck. My sister is moving back to Northumberland and suggested that she rent it from me, however someone mentioned that you aren’t allowed to rent your property to a member of your family.

Is this ok to do? There is nothing in the agreement that mentions it or the purchase contract we signed – only details state about paying back discount should we sell the property within five years which we aren’t going to do.
When buying the property we asked the solicitor at the time of our future intentions to rent it out and they advised us that we only needed to provide the council with references of any possible future tennant – is this definitely correct?
Thank you in advance.

My lodger left without notice 6 months ago after saying he would pay the 3months back rent. Now after a total of 10 months I want to use the room and was going to return all his belongings,but I’ve now had a change of heart and think I’ll sell his gear to cover the cost of unpaid rent/storage.He’s made no contact or effort to collect his stuff having moved only moved 15 miles away.Can anyone tell me how i stand legally,no rent agreement was ever signed
Bless you Jo-Jo you are obviously a far nicer person than me,I’m driven by greed cos I want the money to go towards an air ticket that I could’ve easily afforded if he’d of kept up his half of the payments.He was a mate but we were never that close so more worried by legality than emotion

by passing them onto Private Landlords?

Many people who approach Councils for help when they become homeless are vulnerable – single mothers with children, people with health issues or money problems. They need the security of a Council or Housing Association Tenancy to make sure they do not end uip in the same position again,

However, most local Council are now using ther "private sector" (ie money-grabbing Landlords and Buy-To-Letters) to house their homelessness cases as they "do not have enough housing stock of their own". For one thing, most councils have housing stock left unoccupied which could be used

And for another thing, private tenancies are insecure. The Landlord demands a bond and rent in advance and can chuck you out whenever he likes. These vulnerable people will most likely just end up homeless again when they default on the (unaffordable) rent or the Landlord wants his house back to sell etc.

Why is this poor excuse for a Government not addressing this?
Johan and the Saint,

OK – story – my partner and I have worked and paid taxes all our lives but when I became ill with a pregnancy related illness and had to stop work, we fell behind with the mortgage and were threatened with repossession (our insurance didn’t cover us as my illness was pregnancy related) .

We were not "failing in our duty to help ourselves", we’d been helping ourselves for years, we just needed a hand through the hard time we were going through, and we’ve paid enough tax over the years to be able to ask for it!

Did they help? Did they BOLLOX!!

Luckily my mother in law gave us the money to clear our arrears because otherwise my baby’s first home would have been a grotty homeless shelter, and we are hardworking TAXPAYERS!!!