Heres the problem, we are desperate to leave here, but the houses arent selling. Some near us have been for sale for years. We have to sell up to get out of this loop we are stuck in. We dont want to be here another day never mind a year.
Someone told us of an English guy that just gave his house back to the mortgage company and left, as he had enough of being stuck here because of his house.
Is this possible in an emergency? Im thinking we might need to put a time limit on how long we are willing to stay and can afford to pay the mortgage.
Im worried it will affect our credit hsitory though, the banks in the Uk will take our credit here, but if we had to do anything this drastic it would be after we have moved back, so I dont know if they would even be interested after our credit has restarted back there.
Theres enough equity in the house for the mortgage to still make plenty on it after fees etc.
We are just getting pretty desperate :'(
Thanks

aww that's tough....where are you? is it worth dropping it even more just to get rid? one way to justify that is the longer you have it on the market the more you are paying out on your mortgage.....however you must raise enough cash from the house sale to clear your mortgage and then sounds like anything over will be a bonus! good luck.

What state are you in out of interest?
I read your e-mail and I feel a little dread as we are starting to seriously consider leaving and I'm trying to pace myself so I don't feel as desperate as you sound - I'm sorry you are so unhappy. Are you USC? Sorry for all of the questions - I'm a newbie and need to do some reading and see where everyone is/what their situations are.
Isn't giving your house back to the mortgage company the same as foreclosing - only voluntarily? I think it would most likely cause a problem to your credit, but I am no expert.

No, its not, the only thing that will affect your credit adversely re mortgages is defaulting.

Do they not have the equivalent of auctioning in the US? You can always reserve at what you need if they do.

Sorry to hi-jack someone elses thread but just wondering, does defaulting on your property taxes adversely affect your credit?

p.s. Auction sounds like a great idea to me.

Heard of a guy at the weekend in NJ...who remortgaged up to the hilt then buggered off back to India where he is living the life of a king on the money.

In NJ where the OP lives...property taxes have to be included in the mortgage payments. If you fail to pay property taxes the local council has first dibs on the property...as they have just done with one of our neighbours Whitney Houston.

Shut up! no way.... bloody hell. Our taxes are wrapped up in the mortgage here too in FL. Jerseygirl are you wanting to move back to the UK at all?

We hope to live between both countries.

Does this not make the whole thing overly complex?

I remember doing a lot of searching on Rose and Womble, etc etc a year or so back and it clearly adds the cost of property taxes onto your predicted monthly mortgage payment automatically, but how does it work in practice. Does your lender forward you taxes to the local authority or?

'Defaulting' on pretty much anything I can think of will adversely affect your credit rating.

Yes your mortgage lender pays your council taxes. Your monthly mortgage payment includes council taxes. This is to ensure the council gets their money...ie you can't get away with just paying your mortgage to keep your home you have to pay the council too. Like I said before if you default the council have first rights to your property...well they do in NJ.

Sounds like you could get a bit wet.

Ours was...but its really down to the amount you borrow in FL...we were not told that so paid off the house...now my tax money is making interest in my bank account not the loan companies....I hate escrow accounts...in FL they can make your loan payment huge...they wanted to hold $2k of my money in their account ...even with a low home loan we could never catch up on the escrow payments...our loan was going up $150 a month every year...even when there was still a grand in the account after pay outs...I was always throwing money at them...