Anjuna

Crikey! Thought I was a rareity! Where did you skip off to may I ask?! Congrats in any case!

We bought the London house in 2001 off our landlord who was desperate to sell at the time. We were given a hand up onto the property market without which we would never have been able to buy - even then prices were crazy. We did not own outright, we had a mortgage. When I say we had no legal charges, I meant from the other debts we had accumulated which we defaulted on eventually. I thought they would have slapped charges onto our London property as this is the quickest way for creditors to recover losses. Luckily I came back in time (8 months after I left) to sell this property before the creditors had got a chance to put legal charges. This was the next step they were going to take as I read in their letters, but they threaten and don't acttion mostly. We moved to Hastings in 2005 and didn't sell the London house but rented it out. We MEW'ed (I think the term is!) on the London house to raise the deposit for the Hastings house. So far so good. Well, what actually got us into (UK) trouble (debt) was buying a plot of land in Goa, India. We took out a secured loan on the Hastings house (2nd mortgage) to buy a plot of land in Goa, on which we built 5 villas. We could not take the money out of India legally - Indian Govt dies not allow - so we had all the money in India and hideously in debt in the UK, with no means of paying it off. We decided to move because we had money and assets in India and nothing to stay for in the UK. We still had the London house at this time, having given the Hastings house back to the bank as a reposession in NE. - The second loan is what did it. Yes bizarrely we still have a UK bank account which we did use to recieve rent and pay the mortgage on London house. This was with a different bank to the one which held the mortgage on the Hastings property we gave back. They do not talk to each other. Once you have passed a credit check, there is little reason for banks to re-check - unless you default. Which we never did with this particular bank account. Luckily we kept them separate! Good fortune I suppose. Any profit from the rent was sent to us in India by WU. Of course. I totally agree with all which you say above. GOSH is renowned as one of the best in the world for paediatric care, and if the chips were down and one of my kids had a serious medical condition which they couldn't treat in India, I wouldn't hesitate to come back to the UK to avail of the healthcare. Call me selfish again - (you will!) but after all I'm a mother doing the best I see fit for my own family given my present circumstances. It's now 2.47 am in Goa and I'm going to bed now!

Agreed. People are all too quick to judge another's (shameful) actions, without appreciating that they would do exactly the same thing given the same set of circumstances. If the system allowed it, does that make it OK? The system allowed me to get hideously into debt. I have now run away from that debt and that system and started a new life. I agree that the system in the UK in it's current form is not working and people should not be able to get into as much debt as I did. The country itself is in so much debt, not just individuals. Well, now I live in India the UK deficit does not directly concern me, but I still take an interest in my country of birth. I am concerned that the UK is going down the toilet internationally. I am out but that does not mean that I do not care. If I came back in 7 years time (credit defaults wiped from your record in 6 years - yes I researched it B4 I went) - I would hopefully be able to buy my old house back for less than what I paid for it in 2005 - the Hastings house, not the London one, as prices would have crashed that much! We live in hope.

You wish. Your mind is so closed you just don't want to believe I have done what I have. But I have. Like I said, you do not have to believe me, but it doesn't make it any less true all the same!

I don't intend to come back in the near future. What is there to come back to in England in any case? And FTR how on earth could I have paid off £150,000 of debts with a house which sold for close to this amount with a 75% mortgage? It does not £150,000 make! Take the money & run, flight, not fight. I chose. I know some people will be offended by my actions, but I did the best for me and my family and that's all any of you would do if you were given the options I had. I feel no guilt, but am not proud of my actions either. Some would say shameful, some would say pathetic. But it was the best I could do considering my circumstances.

If you're bored, go switch off your computer and make a sandwich or jerk off or something that will have you interested in life. Your comment 'how convenient' insinuates that I have lied / am lying to you. But I am not. I can assure you. What I have told you is entirely true. Believe it if you will if not then don't. No skin off my nose.

I was also a taxpayer when I lived in the UK, between me and my husband we paid c. £1,500 per month in income tax alone. Let alone NI and VAT etc. I feel I have paid my dues. And as I am no longer living there, I am no longer a burden on the state - school system, NHS etc.

In another house I 'owned' - I forgot to tell you all I was one of those evil BTL 'investors'. But rather than buy to let I let to buy. I owned a house in London, which I let out in 2005 in order to buy a house in Hastings which I lived in until my move to India. I still owned the house in London which I sold about 2 months ago when I briefly went back to England (and I had no legal charges on the property which was amazing considering the debt I had accumulated). I fully expected this second property to be riddled with charges, and not to be able to sell it. But sell I did amazingly, and made a little profit on the purchase price. The creditors must be wringing their hands now that they have NO way of contactiing me and I now have NO assets in the UK (money from house sale was swiftly despatched to India). Their loss.

A bit of an update for you! I recently returned to the UK for a short while to find stacks of debt collection letters from all kinds of companies incluning my former employers no less!! I duely ignored them. It made me think even more that I made the right move in relocating to Goa. For those unaware of my situation: I was over £150,000 in debt and instead of paying it back (fight), I chose flight - move to India and forget about the UKand my debt. It's now been well over a year since I moved and no repercussions of any kind here. As I'm aware it is 6 years when a credit file is wiped, failing contact with the debtor, which means I now have 5 years to go and can move back with a clean slate. Meanwhile loving my life in tropical Goa A*

Just because you are paranoid doesn't meen they are not out to get you! LOL. I have already had cause to chastise a fellow poster for asking too much information. Thank you for trying to be helpful! and sorry for my over-reaction! Anjuna x

Get a life already! Daily Mail reader! 'Nuff said! Anjuna x

By email. And I scanned and emailed back the signed copy, so as to remain untracable. Anjuna x

Well all I can say is likewise. I couldn't care less if you believe my story or not. But true it is! Anjuna x

Liable as I am, I have skipped the country and am untracable! In India! Yes the lender DID sell the property, at what I would call a knock down price - to our next door neighbours! But in fact it was the market rate for the property at the time of sale. Your last point "The other threads give more details" leads me to believe you have ulterior motives for this post. Have you? A

Yes, this is my true story. It has only just started. No need to be envious - anyone can default on their debts and skip the country. I am not proud of what I have done, but neither am I ashamed. I just did what I felt was right at the time and followed through. Not just talking about emigrating, but actually doing it. Who knows what the future holds? I am sure that even IF I am persued by UK debt collectors here (unlikely) they will move on to a much easier target. A

What you have to remember is that India is a (sub) continent and not a country. The school choices (and fees) vary from state-to-state. Here in Goa fees for the best schools are about £100 per month. These are pegged so that local families as well as foreigners can afford them. Show me a school in Goa which charges more than that! A

The standard charges for all private schools in India are approx. £100 per month. This is true of 'Ivy league' schools and others. The currency is just diffrerent here. What you have to remember though that zero is zero in Any currency A

Wow you really are smart, but but quite smart enough! Hoping I would get so mad with your rantings that I would divulge personal details I got to hand it to you you nearly had me there. By the way which debt collection agency DO you work for or are you purely on commission? The only trolls are the ones who pay you. A

No

Well perhaps the LR are becoming more efficient than they once were! Fact: Keys handed back on 27th August. Fact property SOLD on 27th October to ex-next door neighbours. Fact Sale appeared on LR on 1st December. I don't know the circumstances of the sale but the fact that there are NO mortgage lenders listed on LR suggests to me a cash sale. Actually no. If you hand back the keys to a property, the lenders send you a 'voluntary posession form' which you merely need sign and send back. There is no court hearing as the matter is settled out of court. I discussed the matter or relocating to Goa fully with my husband and children and we were all in agreement that we go. It was not purely my decision, but a family one. My chiltdren are in a private school in India, not a state school. Private school fees here are roughly £100 per month per child and only 10 children to a class. State education in Goa is free, but 50 students to a class. Ooh mistake, typo! Will you hold that against me! You wish! My situation is real.

Precisely!

Well I wasn't! Thinking that is. I now see clearly, the UK in a different light. My situation is far from unique, only the choice I have made to run away is unusual. Most people stay and repay their debts. If everyone did the same as me then the country would be in even more trouble. For that I apologise, but charity begins at home! A

You may diss my situation but would you do the same in my circumstanses? I think you personally were smarter than to run up so much debt in the first place, and therefore have nothing to escape from. I was not so smart. Just now wising up and wanted to make a clean start. I don't have any immediate reason to come back to the UK. The honeymoon period (if there ever was one) has truly run out in Goa and I am living a real and sustainable life here. For my son there never was a honeymoon and he had to learn pretty fast that he bucks up his ideas educationally or fails! Well thank you for wishing luck to my kids! If you wish luck to my kids I appreciate that more than any luck wished to me as they are everything to me. A x

Yes totally genuine! There are many people who have done as I have, but not that many who would subject themselves to public scrutiny on the internet! Thanks for your vote of confidence! A

Firstly I am as amazed as you are that my next-door neighbours bought the property ( with CASH - there are NO charges/mortgagees listed on Land Registry) they are dark horses of Romany Gypsy origin and for the five years we lived next-door to them they seemed to be of modest means! Who knows!! The house is sold and it has gone to them. Secondly, the house was not reposessed. We volantarily surrendered the keys to the lender and told them to sell the property (I had NO arrears at the time I left the country) Thirdly, I am married, with a husband and three children. The reason I mention 'I' on posts and not 'we' is that I am responsible for my own decisions. I don't try to blame anyone else for my actions or seek redemption. I don't seek to implicate my family in my financial mismanagement. Otherley , if you have not seen the education standard 11 year-olds are expected to achieve in India, then please do not comment on this. My son has had to go through merry hell since he has been here to catch up with his peers. Rest assured the UK state education system is churning out narcassistic wannabees who believe the world owes them a living. I know because I am one of them. In ten years the UK will realise thie fallacy of the 'everyone must have prizes' schooling when all the skilled jobs are going to the Indians, Chinese or UK public-school educated. I don't want the same for my kids. , I could have easily been living in a council flat, on benefits or minimum wage, like a slave to the system. Instead I chose to wake up and smell the corriander, live within my means and grab a better life for me and my children. J