Recently, we received a call from ‘Betty’ (not her real name), who was wanting to arrange a meeting with our adviser ‘as soon as possible!’ Betty was quite agitated on the phone, so we arranged the meeting for that afternoon, at her home in Regional Queensland.
We asked Betty for a little detail about her-self; her home and the purpose that she needed the loan for. Betty was a widowed pensioner who had spent all of her savings on trying to help out her daughter, who had been suddenly widowed by the death of her husband in England. Betty had helped her daughter sort out her husband’s estate and for her and her grand-son to relocate to Queensland, to be near to Betty.
Unfortunately, whilst all this was happening (approximately 3 years ago), Betty let her Council Rates get in arrears and has not been able to catch up with her payments! As Betty told us, she can keep up with her week to week expenses, HOWEVER all her focus and money was being directed to helping her Daughter and Grand-son to relocate to Australia,
Before finishing her phone call, we told Betty not to worry as we were sure we could arrange a Reverse Mortgage loan to help her out. When we arrived at Betty’s home that afternoon, she told us she felt like ‘a great weight had been lifted off her chest’ since speaking with us on the phone that morning.
As it turned out, things were a little more serious than we first imagined, as betty had received a letter from her local Council, advising that unless the full amount of the rates arrears (more than $7,000.00) was paid within a couple of weeks, The Council were going to Auction her house to recover the debt! No wonder she was concerned and anxious!
We applied for the loan to clear the rates debt, plus a credit card and small loan ‘her bank’’ had arranged to help her out. Betty had asked at her bank about any possible way to pay the rates arrears, but her Bank told her there was no way that any bank could help her! – So much for customer service!
We also arranged with Betty for us to ring the Council and advise them that the arrears were to be paid out of the loan. We did that and arranged for the rates arrears to be paid direct to the Council.
So Betty is now able to keep her home and has no rates arrears hanging over her head; as well as NO on-going monthly loan repayments or credit card repayments to worry about!
Betty is about $80.00 per fortnight better off and she no longer has to worry about losing her home. We arranged for reserve funds in her loan to be available to pay her future rates payments and any other major expenses.
If you know any-one in similar circumstances to Betty, please suggest they give us a call. Or if you just like the good news aspect of our storey, why not share it on face-book or twitter.
It’s not every day you read a good news storey with such a happy ending!