• ……The Bailiffs, have the power of the court to ensure that you and any family (in fact anyone in the property at the time of the eviction) and any pets are removed from the property and the Bailiffs will then change the locks to all external doors to the property, so as to prevent reentry. THIS IS AN EVICTION!
• 
  Obviously, these are devastating circumstances for any Homeowner, particularly if you are at the Eviction Notice stage, before contacting us.  Nonetheless, it is never too late!

Close Panel

…..Once your Lender has been granted a “Suspended Possession Order” they can go back to court at any point, if you fail to maintain the “financial arrangement” set at prior court hearing. When the Lender goes back to court under these circumstances, an Eviction Order can be applied for immediately without the need for a further hearing. You will simply be informed of the Eviction date and time with approximately two weeks notice. If your lender tells you that they have applied or are about to apply for an Eviction Notice, seek advice immediately.

AT THIS STAGE-YOU NEED TO CONTACT US - NOW !

Close Panel

Without strong advice, assistance and support (i.e., a robust defence) you are likely to end up with a “suspended possession order”, which contains a “financial arrangement” which is simply unaffordable.

This lack of affordability will be due to the amount of money required, over and above the normal monthly mortgage payment. This happens when the Lender applies to have the arrears repaid over too short a period, which is normally the case.

It is therefore crucial for you to have the best possible submission, in the form of a Robust Defence to be put before the court, to help you to achieve a suspension, over a period of months or even years, which is long enough (i.e., financially affordable) to allow you to get the mortgage account under control or enable you to sell the property at its proper market value etc.

This in itself can save huge sums of money and possibly save you from having to pay the Lender for many years after the property has been repossessed, due to a shortfall between sale value achieved and the amount of the mortgage, (mortgage shortfall). Even if a Suspended Order has been arranged previously, it is not too late to seek advice. If the agreement is unaffordable, it can be varied.

DON’T HESITATE ---GET HELP WITHOUT DELAY

Close Panel

If your Lender has threatened Court action or has secured a Court hearing date, you are clearly facing what is commonly known as ‘Repossession’. You are now at risk of losing your home.

You may have received documentation from the Courts or correspondence from your Lender or their legal representative informing you of a COURT HEARING DATE. You will have received defence forms; you need to seek advice to ensure you complete the forms correctly, and to your best advantage.

A Lender who has an account with multiple mortgage arrears (normally at least 3 months) can ask the courts to issue proceedings for a “Possession Hearing” to take place. A “Possession Order” is the formal title of what your Lender wishes to achieve through the court, their aim being to get the court to ‘grant’ them ‘possession’ of your property.

At the hearing, the Lender’s representative will present their evidence about the arrears and any other relevant information about your case. The outcome of the Hearing will depend upon your defence, if the Court grants a Possession Order; it is what is more commonly as known as Repossession. A “Suspended” Possession Order is the most common outcome at this stage. However, this suspension normally only lasts for 28 days. The vast majority of Homeowners usually need to secure a far longer suspension, than the 28 day norm.  

To get the most amount of time to sort out your affairs, one way or another and perhaps to stop your case from bouncing straight to eviction in only 28 days, you will need the most robust  defense possible. Defending your case can be complex and you need to seek advice immediately to ensure you make the right approach.

Vitally, you will be much better off by gaining the maximum period of time, over which the “suspended order” can run.  This can allow you more time to; arrange suitable temporary accommodation, sell your property at an appropriate price on the open market, find suitable/more affordable rented property or in fact, work within an affordable overpayment plan, (a formal “Financial Arrangement”), to let you to bring the account up to date, over a longer period, thereby allowing you to retain your home.

Close Panel

Once you are in arrears with your mortgage or secured loan, you are vulnerable to your Lender taking further action. When this happens you will have broken your contractual obligation to your Lender and as it says within all mortgage advertising; Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage etc.

1a) Limited Mortgage Arrears.

Clearly, these start from one whole month’s payment having been unpaid. Lenders are normally quite relaxed about “Limited Mortgage Arrears”, if you are just one months payment behind, they will simply write to you to say, please bring this account up to date. 

However, if you do not bring your payment up to date and then carry on making normal payments, it is easy to forget that your mortgage account is in fact one month in arrears.  If overtime, another payment slips by without being paid, you become two months in arrears and so on.

Some Lender’s will look to threaten Court action with as few as 2 missed payments.

1b) Multiple Mortgage Arrears

So, as you can see, you do not have to miss payments one after the other, to end up with “multiple mortgage arrears”. Multiple arrears will lead to the Lender threatening court proceedings and eventually putting that threat into action.

A sign that court proceedings are going to be instructed, is that your Lender passes your file to their “Litigation Team” or “Arrears Department” or in many cases, their “solicitors”, this normally happens once you are three to six months  behind with your payments.

Importantly, when you are in arrears you will be penalised in at least two ways by your Lender; i), you will have additional costs charged against your mortgage account and ii), you will have late/missing payments recorded on your credit file.

When you are in arrears you need to SEEK REPOSSESSION HELP & ADVICE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Close Panel

This is so often when things go wrong, Lenders do not want Homeowners to take a long time in paying off their arrears. This usually means that the Homeowner cannot keep up with the financial arrangement (overpayment plan), for repaying the arrears, which must be paid on top of the normal monthly mortgage payment.

When the Lender has already been granted a “Possession Order” by the courts and the Homeowner fails to maintain the “financial arrangement” within a current suspended order, (which the court may have decided upon even in the Homeowners absence), the Lender does not have to go back to court for another Possession Order to enforce a current suspended order, they simply make an application, for eviction.

Seek advice immediately - THE SOONER ACTION IS TAKEN THE BETTER

Close Panel