Mortgage Misery

They moved to Bristol from South Africa five years ago.

Their son Francois Jnr is Bristol born and bred.

Like millions of other people they worked full time - to buy their own home.

Their mortgage was almost 100% of the value of the property which didn't leave them much wriggle room if things went wrong.

Over the edge

But the problems started when Francois became ill.

As many as 78,000 families risk being trapped by negative equity, as the value of their home sinks below their mortgage Read Declan Curry's feature on the Credit Crunch

Determined not to miss a mortgage payment, they started using credit cards to pay for other household bills.

Denise said it had been easy getting the credit at the time.

"Very very easy. When we originally started with a credit card sort of thing it was just basically for those little things which we were able to pay off within a month."

But as time went on, it became harder to pay the money back.

It makes me feel like we've failed. We came here hoping for a better future Denise Taljaard

Denise said: "Unfortunately the mortgage rates have gone up so much that the young buyers' aren't interested in looking at the moment and the area that we live in is a very much first time buyer sort of area."

The more their house falls in value, the smaller the chance of paying back their loans. If things get worse, they could face insolvency or repossession.

Denise: "It makes me feel like we've failed. We came here hoping for a better future� and we felt so lucky that we were so young."

But the Taljaards are not alone.

As many as 78,000 families risk being trapped by negative equity, as the value of their home sinks below their mortgage.

Panorama: Feeling the Pinch was on BBC One 8.30pm on Monday 14 April 2008.

If you miss Panorama you can catch up online with the BBC's iPlayer where the programme will be available for seven days after transmission. BBC iPlayer.

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