Terminally ill hospital worker trapped in her home by sky-high mortgage
CHRISTINE KINSELLA drew up a bucket list of dream holidays when she was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease.
But instead, the hospital worker will spend her final years working to pay off her mortgage, which she says is stuck on a “stupidly” high interest rate.
Christine’s mortgage problems began a decade ago when her lender, Northern Rock, went bust.
It led to her and thousands of others being trapped on a sky-high mortgage tariff.
She has repeatedly tried to move to a more competitive rate.
But the best her new lender — Landmark Mortgages — says it can do is a variable “loyalty rate” of 4.54 per cent, down from 4.79 per cent.
The average two-year fixed rate this month is 2.51 per cent, according to comparison site.
She cannot switch to another lender without borrowing more or extending the term of her mortgage, which she has never wanted and which now is not possible because of her illness.
She said: “When Northern Rock went bust I contacted numerous lenders but had no joy.
"They all wanted me to extend the mortgage loan until I was 70-plus and borrow more money.
Other than that, no one was interested as they couldn’t make any money out of me.
“I tried regularly to move but was told, ‘no’.
"I just wanted to reduce the interest rate and borrow enough to clear the mortgage.”
Medical secretary Christine, 60, said her bid to escape the high rate became more pressing a year ago when she found she had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the lung condition that killed TV presenter Keith Chegwin.
She said: “The life expectancy of this disease on diagnosis is three to five years.
“I haven’t deteriorated too greatly in the last 12 months and I’m on a new medication, so I hope that I have more than five years.
“But the thought of working full-time is just not fair, as I know I will deteriorate and be unable to work eventually.
“I would like to reduce my hours but I have to feed this voracious mortgage.
"I just hope I live long enough to pay it off.”
Christine is due to pay off the remaining debt of £24,500 on her house — a three-bed semi in Stoke on Trent — in four and a half years, at the age of 65.
But she could clear it faster if the rate was lower.
She recently wrote to Landmark asking why her tariff was so high and what could be done, but it said there was no chance of a reduction.
Her next move will be to go to the.
Christine added: “My friend’s son borrowed £70,000 on his mortgage, which is what I originally borrowed, and is only paying back £230 a month, I’ve got to pay £565 because of this rate.
"If the interest rate went down, it might mean I only have to work for two more years instead of four.”
And that extra cash would make an enormous difference to her life.
She said: “Since my husband and I split up, I’ve been on my own.
"For many years I was bringing up my children on my own and paid everything myself.
“They are all adults now.
"I have been on my own for a long time so I’ve never had holidays.
“I’ve never been able to afford them because I always had the mortgage and bills to pay on my own.
"When your days are numbered, you have your bucket list.
";But unfortunately, I can’t do the things I’d like to do.
“As a young married couple we went to South Africa and I would love to go there again on holiday.
"I’d also love to go to Santorini in Greece.
“If I had chosen a different lender, they would have reduced their mortgage interest rate.”
Christine is among 150,000 “mortgage prisoners” trapped in expensive deals they cannot switch from.
A report by the last week warned that 30,000 customers, most of whom took out their deal before the 2008 financial crisis, are unable to get to a cheaper mortgage despite being up to date with payments.
This is because of new rules that insist on strict affordability checks on anyone applying for a mortgage, even if they already have one and are just trying to get a cheaper fix.
If they fail the checks, they have to stay on a standard variable tariff which, ludicrously, will be much more expensive than a fixed deal.
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The report also warned a further 120,000 people cannot get a cheaper fix than the one they are currently on because they have a mortgage which has been sold to a firm that is not authorised to offer new mortgage deals.
But Christine’s situation highlights a further problem.
Some debts, which seem significant sums for the individual homeowner, are too small for other lenders to take an interest in.
Mortgage expert David Hollingworth confirmed that many mortgage providers have a minimum loan amount, which is typically around £25,000.
But he added that some would consider smaller loans switched on a like-for-like basis.