Help needed with hardship letter for early encashment

Hi all
Im a first time poster so I hope this is the right group. I currently have two Ark Life polices (Euro Tracker and Accumulator) due to mature in February 2017.

However I need the money now and cannot wait until then. The situation is as follows. My husband partially owns a house in negative equity which we currently live in (essentially renting it). The other party has run off to the UK, married and owns a house there and has nothing to do with it only in name. We currently have one child and one on the way and at the moment if anything were to happen him I would essentially only have half a house as we don't own it outright and cannot unless I take on the negative equity which I won't do as I don't even want to live where it is.

So our plan is to buy another house between us and rent out this one until he can finally offload it ( currently approx 80,000 negative equity). (We have already explored various options of taking on the current house etc but none of these really work as I don't want to take on this loan and allow the other party get away completely scot free!)

I have a reasonable amount of savings (2/3 of the deposit we need) however with the new 20% rules I just don't have enough so need to cash in at least one of these funds if not both. I spoke with Ark life on this and they said I would need to present a hardship case to have any chance of getting early access to my money. A house has come on the market that we are really interested in and are currently bidding for so I would like to go ahead and do this.

What I need advice on:
1. With the situation outlined as above what is the best way to present my case for successful early encashment? I have no idea how difficult this or what I need to demonstrate. I am worried that they will not see our need for a house as great enough as lots of couples are living in rental accommodation.
2. Would I be best to get the help of a solicitor in doing this?
3. Would I have a better chance of just cashing in one or should I just go for broke and ask for both?

Any help would be appreciated.

Georgie

Georgie said:

. A house has come on the market that we are really interested in and are currently bidding for so I would like to go ahead and do this.

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Why are you doing this if you don't have the money. Are you living in the house your husband half owns. I'd imagine you'd be better off staying there until you can offload it rather than getting involved in being a landlord and all that entails.

Hi Bronte

Yes we are living there currently and I wish it was as simple as above.
A number of reasons
- in the current house if anything happens my husband I essentially have no where to live, its not "our house" as he only owns half of it.
- while we live there we end up updating it and trying to make it a home which means we are investing in a house that we don't want to stay in and that eats into your savings, DIY is expensive.
- we are currently living in an area that we don't want to live it
- the mortgage is currently high on the current house - it would be much cheaper on another house and we could use the rent to offset the mortgage
- I don't mind being a landlord as it would be short term until we can sell the house with either less of a loss or break even.

Emotionally this situation has been quiet draining, its caused a lot of stress for my husband and left us in limbo. We have also now got to be thinking about schools for kids etc and that is a problem when your long term plan is to be living somewhere else.

Technically I have the money - I just need to get some if it out of the investment it is in. (I have 2/3 of the deposit saved in addition to the investments). I have no idea whether they will say yes or no so we are bidding and banking they will say yes, after all it is my money and im happy to take a hit on the interest and fee for early encashment.

Again -any advice on how to best approach them about getting early encashment would be appreciated.

I presume you have checked that you will both qualify for the new mortgage with the existing one your husband has as you say the mortgage on it is high?

If so then I would just lay out the facts as you have above to the encashment, is the bank the funds are with the same one that is giving you the new mortgage? If so that may help you.

Georgie said:

- I don't mind being a landlord as it would be short term until we can sell the house with either less of a loss or break even.

.

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I'd be worried about your thinking here. You might have to go to court to sell. It's very messy right now. I can't see a bank giving you a mortgage with the a) negative equity and b) the disappeared co owner.

As far as know you'd have to demonstrate you can pay both mortgage and they won't count the rent.

Hi both
Good questions. Other than the fact that I am a little short on the deposit we would qualify for a mortgage. I have been into the banks already and had that discussion but as we both have good, permanent jobs, have demonstrated ability to save and good credit rating that was not really an issue.

The banks with the funds is not the same one however that is one option we could try, I would prefer to see if I could cash out early first and if that didnt work my next options would be to a)talk to the same bank or b) see if they would accept them as some form of collatoral.

Bronte - We can demonstrate ability to pay both so that is ok, obviously I'd prefer not to be in that situation however the house is in an area with good rental potential. Any house that has gone for rent in our estate has been taken within a month and there are only 6 houses currently available in the surrounding area that are available. So im pretty confident there. Re selling the other owner would be more than happy to sell and get rid of it.

Have you applied for an exception case for the 20% deposit?

If you're worried about your husband dying, insure his life, life cover isn't expensive.

It sounds like your investment is in a capital guaranteed product. Do you know what penalties, if any, will apply if you get the money?

Your current situation doesn't qualify as a hardship case, you have somewhere to live, good jobs, savings. You just want a deposit for a house.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)