‘I’m stuck living with my ex-wife as our mortgage has soared to £1,700 a month’
A father-of-two said he has been plunged into almost £25,000-worth of debt after his mortgage payments soared by £1500 in just one year.
Mark Clare, 59, had been anxiously monitoring interest rates in the run-up to renewing his fixed-rate mortgage worth £225,000 in August 2022.
Halifax initially told him his existing £275-per-month deal would rise to between £500 and £600 – a fee Mr Clare said “would be just about manageable”.
But following a series of paperwork delays, he was stunned to find out his monthly payments would be closer to £1000.
“I’m self-employed and I needed HMRC to send across some employment data to fill out the forms,” he told i.
“By the time I got the correct information, the rate was £1000.
“I told Halifax I couldn’t afford this so I ended up in arrears.
“And then, because I was in arrears, I was told I was no longer eligible for a fixed-rate mortgage.”
Due to being unable to secure a new fixed-rate mortgage, Mr Clare, who lives with his ex-wife and two children in Orpington, Kent, was subsequently put onto his lender’s standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage, which has risen to a whopping £1700 per month.
He said he has struggled to keep up the payments but cannot afford to move out.
The steep increase in payments has resulted in him amassing £23,000 in arrears.
“A few months ago, Halifax wrote to me and said they had changed their policy and I could go back to a fixed-rate deal,” Mr Clare said.
“But this was worth £1000 – an amount I’d already told them I couldn’t afford.
“This is having a toll on everyone in the house. We’d like to sell it and move out, but how can we when there are so many other challenges?
“It feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel and no one seems to be able to offer any help.”
A spokesperson for Halifax said: “We will always help customers who contact us to say they are struggling, and we’ll continue to keep talking with Mr Clare.
“We are reviewing the case in full as it is a particularly complex situation.”
