How To Save Your Home From Repossession

For any homeowner, the threat of repossession is a real worry. Many people live day to day earning enough to meet their bills. Then something changes, and all of a sudden mortgage payments start to be missed. When payments are missed, your account with your lender is said to be "in arrears". Often after two or three missed payments, lenders will start to take action with the intention of regaining ownership of the property and sell it in order to recover the debt.

Although repossession should be taken seriously, the fact that a lender is taking court action doesn't mean that its time to throw in the towel. You do have some options but the main thing is to take some action and act quickly. Options to consider include refinancing your property, selling your home or borrowing the money from friends or family to clear the arrears.

Before you decide any drastic measures, the most important thing to do is to talk with your lender. Some lenders are more helpful than others, but help may include extending the term of the mortgage, switching to interest only from a repayment mortgage, or rescheduling the debt in another way. This may prevent the need to go to court. However, even if you can't agree a suitable solution with the lender, the judge at court is more likely to sympathise if you can show you have tried to solve the situation and not hide from it.

Going to court, if matters reach that stage, may not be as daunting as you might think. Hearings about possession are held in private rooms in the county court with a judge. A legal clerk will be there to represent the lender and the hearing generally takes about ten minutes. There are no black gowns, wigs, public galleries, witnesses or a jury. Its your opportunity to explain what has caused your account to go into arrears and try to reach an agreement so that you can keep your home and continue to meet any revised payment obligations.

At the hearing the judge will be looking to identify what you can do to pay off the arrears and meet your commitment for the normal monthly payment. You could offer to pay off all or a significant sum towards the arrears. Clearing the arrears will mean the lender has no reason to possess the property. Another option is to offer to meet further monthly payments in full, with a contribution towards the arrears. In this case the judge may grant a suspended possession order allowing you to keep your home provided you meet this commitment. Whether the judge is likely to grant extra time for options such as refinancing or selling your home will be dependent on how far these have progressed.

Refinancing your home may be an option worth considering. However, in a repossession situation time is of the essence and the broker may not have any control over timescales or being able to guarantee you will be able to get the refinance you need. The fact that you are in arrears will also limit the availability of finance to you and the long term cost is likely to be very high. Selling your home is a further option but again beware that you will have very little control over the timescales and it may take time for an offer to be made and for the buyer to get the finance they need to buy your property.

If you are granted extra time at court, it generally comes in the form of a suspended possession order. This enables you to keep your home provided you meet the terms of the agreement set out in the hearing e.g. a commitment to make future agreed payments. Alternatively the judge may grant you an extra 28 days with a future hearing after that time to progress whatever solution you have proposed. If however you fail to win the verdict and the lender is granted possession you will generally have 28 days before eviction.

Facing repossession is every homeowners worst nightmare. However, recognising that their are options available and that there are organisations available to help you is important. What's critical is taking some action and seeking help. Organisations such as Shelter, the Citizens Advice Bureau and the National Debtline are good starting points for advice, Make sure you are contacting these government supported agencies or charities and not some copy cat private enterprise.

About the Author

Author James Bailey has an excellent working knowledge of the repossession process and has helped a number of people save their home in the UK. See more information, articles and obtain a full report on the repossession process at www.repossessionhelp.info