Repossession is at a 5 year high in the UK at the moment so the first thing to realise is, you’re not alone if you’re struggling to make repayments on your mortgage. Don’t panic. There are lots of things you can do, not least get help from a specialist organisation. Here some information in repossession you’ll find useful.

In the UK you can be evicted and your home repossessed once the court has made a repossession order. But before you have a repossession order and given a date to leave, there are some stages before hand that give you the opportunity to put things right.

Notice from your lender

Your lender will contact you directly and ask you to find a way of getting your missed repayments back on track. If you get this call don’t ignore it, talk to them and see if you can work out a repayment plan. Tell them what you can really afford not what they want to hear.

If they are not happy with this, they will write to you warning you that they are going to go to court. Once you have had the written warning, they can apply to the courts for a possession order.

Once again, don’t ignore the letter, talk to them. Tell them you want to work with them to resolve the backlog of missed repayments. Do it in writing and on the phone and keep a record, just in case it does go to court. In the meantime, get professional debt help. There are debt solutions that mean you keep your home available, but you’ll need to act quickly.

A court summons

After trying to work through the problem with your lender, you haven’t managed to find a resolution and you’ve had a court summons. The first thing you do is reply to the court. Failure to do so will not go down well. It’s still not to late to get help. If you haven’t already, please pick up the phone.

The day of the hearing

The day when the judge will hear from you and your lender before making a decision on what to do. He or she has a number of options that include:

• Strike it out
• Allow you to keep your home with a few conditions attached e.g. you repay the missed repayments in instalments
• You have time to sell your property to prevent it being repossessed and losing everything
• Decide you should be evicted and set a date

Stop repossession

So if the message has not come through loud and clear yet. If you are being threatened with repossession you MUST get professional debt advice as soon as you can. The earlier you get advice the less severe the consequences of missing your mortgage repayments will be and the less likely it will be that you’ll lose your home.

You may be tempted by the idea of giving your keys back or a mortgage rescue scheme  (selling your home and renting it back), but these are not great solutions and normally make your problems worse not better.

There are often straightforward ways of preventing matters going to court but you must talk to someone so they can understand your specific circumstances.

There is a list of debt organisation on the site that can help you work through your debt problems and discuss the options you have available. Please do it today.

I'm facing repossession in 2 weeks time - I need some help . I have 2 vulnerable adults in the home

As you will know from the news there is help from the government from those in danger of repossession.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/Keepingyourhomeevictionsand...

There will probably be further announcements in the budget about a voluntary scheme banks are being invited to support. They will agree to negotiate with people in serious arrears rather than go for repossession. I believe RBS (partly owned by the government) have been instrumental in this.

The experts in housing matters are Shelter.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repossession

If you need further direction about where to find help contact us at Debt Advice Foundation.