Victoria Adams writes: Mortgage arrears could be the worst nightmare for any homeowner since it leads to you losing your home. When you are unable to pay the loan secured on the home, the chances of having your home repossessed increase. The risk of losing the possession of your home to your mortgage lender also increases if you do not pay your instalments on time. Mortgage repossessions have leaped to their highest levels in the last few years.

Generally, major lenders will not begin the house repossession unless you haven’t paid your instalments in the past three months. Some might even give the homeowner a period of six months before taking proceedings.

Mortgage lenders must follow certain rules before eviction.

Before a mortgage lender takes you to the court for a trial on your mortgage arrears, he must follow a 'pre-action protocol'. Repossession of a home is a serious issue because it usually results in eviction and homelessness. When a mortgage lender goes to the court to repossess your home, the court wants to see whether you and your lender have explored all the possible options. The lender must take all reasonable steps for avoiding repossession since it is only a last resort. You are entitled to get a notice of minimum 15 working days in writing which differs from state to state before your lender starts a claim for possession.

To stop eviction, you must follow these steps:

Talk To Your Lender:

Once the repossession process starts, it gets more and more complicated and difficult for you to get out of it since the legal entities are also involved. Therefore, you must never wait for the lender to apply to the courts for a repossession order because a repossession order will in turn lead to eviction.

You must inform the lender of any financial issues that may affect your monthly payments at the earliest possible stage. Do not ignore calls and letters from the lender. When you contact your lender and explain your situation to them, it may be possible that they provide you with an arrangement, like making changes to your repayment mortgage, extending the term of your mortgage, deferring interest payments etc to ease your situation. Hence, the sooner you contact your lender, the better your chances are of being able to reach a mutual agreement!

Take expert advice:

Also, apart from talking to your lender, you must also take expert advice from professionals who are in this field. Depending on your specific circumstances, you may be able to prevent or delay your repossession. A good adviser can help you with:

Your options
Negotiating with your lender
Filing court papers
Finding a legal help who can represent you in the court.

Consult a solicitor:

You are also entitled to legal aid by a solicitor. Yes, you must get immediate legal advice if you know that the bailiffs are coming to evict you! This is the first step to prevent the eviction. The court bailiffs normally send an eviction notice and cannot evict you without a warrant. If have a low income, you can claim certain benefits and challenge the bailiff's warrant.

Ask the court to suspend a bailiffs' warrant

The bailiffs cannot evict you if the court decides to suspend the warrant. To suspend the warrant, you must apply to the court. If the court decides to consider the suspension, there will probably be a short court hearing where you are given a chance to explain to the court why it would be fair to stop the eviction.

Ask the court to delay your eviction

You can even ask the court to delay your eviction in case where court the court has disagreed to stop the eviction by bailiffs. A maximum of 6 weeks’ time period can be given by the court to delay it. In certain special cases like health problems or disability, you could ask the court to delay the bailiffs.

Author:

Victoria Adams is a blogger for Stopping Repossession. Stoppingrepossession.com is a firm in UK that helps troubled homeowners navigate their way through the process of repossession and eviction.

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Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors

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