house repossession

D&DD

Hiya we were reposessed in 1994 and unless things are different now you can apply to the council for help with housing,but its a very long drawn out process so do be prepared for that.
We were told they would help us but could do nothing about temp accom until we had a copy of the actual court possession order.This then meant we were effectively homeless from that date so literally one day before the baliffs turned up we were rehoused temporarily in a 2 bed top floor flat,which I have to say was gorgeous and better than our 1 bed flat above a shop with 2 kids and running alive with cockroaches...but thats another story!!
We then spent 7 months there while they totally disected our lives over the previous 2 years,They had to be granted access to everything financial so as to see wether we were intentionally homeless or not.
Finally we were rehoused but it did take a toll on us as we were effectively in limbo for over a year.Good luck at the court you never know 4 months is nothing for arrears nowadays and if things are picking up they may not reposess

desperado1_2

If the judge decides thatthe repossession goes ahead, when would we get a copy of the court possession order.

Why does the council have to look back 2 years of finances, if the problem started a few months ago, thus causing our rent arrears.

lynzpower

desperado1 wrote:

I appreciate all advise given.
I am aware that I have two problems to face, our house repossession and our debts, but I want to sort our housing problem out first and then i can face the debt problem. (although i do have an arrangement to pay them token payments each month)


What i do not understand if we are unable to pay our mortgage due to having no money and we get our house repossessed, how can the council say we intentionally made ourselves homeless, do they honestly think that i would be putting this stress on myself, husband and kids on purpose. Do they reall think i want my children to have no home, we just couldn't afford it

Basically, you wont be able to "sort out" the housing thing in terms of the council finding you anywhere else to live.

Richard makes good points about intentionality, but theres also another clause which can counter intentionally homeless which is "reasonableness to occupy" Its not reasonable for you, Id suggest to continue to occupy a property that you cannot afford- so intentionality COULD be countered. However, I am not a trained housing lawyer, I just know this is similar to some cases I have dealt with over the years.

You will, I expect have to wait until the lender issues eviction procedures and they are executed by the court. Given the fact that you are many many months away from this, I would start making every effort possible to pull it back.

Im going to re-read the thread and see what other advice I can offer.

lynzpower

desperado1 wrote:

If the judge decides thatthe repossession goes ahead, when would we get a copy of the court possession order.

Why does the council have to look back 2 years of finances, if the problem started a few months ago, thus causing our rent arrears.

they have to look at your history to see whether youve ever done something ACTIVELY to make yourself homeless, such as leaving somewhere you could afford. Its simply to ensure that resources are distributed fairly.

I cannot stress enough that you seem to be overpanicking at this stage.

No one is saying the repo is def going to happen and even if it does, then eviction can take in my experience up to a year. However, lenders may be able to take steps quicker I dont know, but courts need to be involved.

You need to be completely clued up as to your finances, what you are doing about them( as much as poss!) anbd what you will be able to offer the lender to back off.

Do a SOA first, we can take it from there

and heres a :coffee: sounds like you need one.

tryhard_2

hi! as many others have said do a full statement of affairs of all incomings and expenses. you might find that you could afford a bit more than 650 pm

tryhard_2

i might have missed something but had you contacted your lender re inability to pay as most will not want the hassle of court etc. not sure if it is worth getting in touch? i'm sure someone will be along who knows more

D&DD

We got the copy on the day of the hearing.We were 9 months+ in arrears (due to my ill health and you couldn't claim any help back then!) and our mortgage was 15.7% :eek: I was the main earner so we could prove it was a matter of a change in circumstances why we couldn't meet the bills.By the time it went to court we were 12 months+ behind and then they gave us 28 days to vacate the premises.They looked into every aspect of our lives from what every payment in and out of our accounts were,did the kids have money,what our incomings outgoings were,why we needed a car....the magistrate tried everything to see if there was a likely way out but for us there wasn't.
Then the council have to start disecting your life too!Same sort of things and they do look into everything.They asked much the same as the court but I had to account for every transaction on our bank statements for each account for two years :eek: This was incase we had 'hid' money or recieved any that we could have paid the mortgage with...even if it was the childrens!!

desperado1_2

hi we have spoke to our lender about our arrears.

We owe 4 months about £4400

My husband had a contract job due to start in January, because of this we agreed to pay GE money £1500 on the 20/1 and an extra £300 a month on top of our normal payment. They have agreed to go for a suspended possession order.

The dilema we have now is my husbands job has not been postponed to February due to the weather, so it appears we will not be able to make the payment on the 20th, thus breaking the proposal agreement, so i feel the lender will go for an outright possession.

Basically we would not be able to convince a judge at present that we could definately pay the mortgage each month plus arrears, because my husband is a self employed scaffolder and his wages can vary each week, what proof can we give the judge we can pay?

thanks for all your help

Richard_S

desperado1 wrote:

I appreciate all advise given.
I am aware that I have two problems to face, our house repossession and our debts, but I want to sort our housing problem out first and then i can face the debt problem. (although i do have an arrangement to pay them token payments each month)


What i do not understand if we are unable to pay our mortgage due to having no money and we get our house repossessed, how can the council say we intentionally made ourselves homeless, do they honestly think that i would be putting this stress on myself, husband and kids on purpose. Do they reall think i want my children to have no home, we just couldn't afford it

Desperado,

They are two seperate problems but they're inextricably linked, ie if you didn't have debt problems you could probably afford to pay yr mortgage. I agree that the priority is the house but the solution there could mean confronting your debt problem.

How much are your token payments? Are you claiming all the tax credits you're entitled to?

When we realised that our financial problems were so bad that they'd inevitably result in BKY we stopped paying anything to all creditors. The only bills we paid were council tax, heat, light, water & food, we saved like fury knowing that we were ultimately going to lose the house and would need a large deposit to secure rented accomodation. We stopped paying the mortgage in April last year, it's been stood empty for almsot 3 months and we've still got the keys.

I appreciate that you want to keep yr house but if you adopt a similar approach and use the money to make sufficient payments on the mortgage to keep the house then that's Problem 1 addressed. Of course, what's going to happen then is you'll be hounded to insanity by telephone calls and letters from creditors. Again, what you need is advice, contact CCCS or National Debt Line (forget the ones that will charge for their service) and see what you need to do to solve the debt problem.

There's no question that you're going to have a lot of hassle and anguish before you get on top of this but it's eminently achieveable. There are lots of people on here that have faced the same problems as you, some not as bad, others twice as bad.

To summarise:
1. Contact CAB or a solicitor to see what you need to do to be able to stay in the house (if that's possible) or long enough to secure rented accommodation if not.
2. Contact CCCS or one of the other charities for advice on yr options re debt problems.
3. Post yr SOA on here, doesn't matter how sketchy it might be, you'll be asked for the info that's missing if there is any.

How about yr partner, is he/she behind you on this? If yes then you'll get to grips with yr problems much less painfully. If not, then you need to do some work on them.

Once again, wishing you all the best, and don't lose heart,

Richard

D&DD

Definately keep the channels of communication open with your lender.Have they done a home visit or anything yet or have you been to see them personally?Ours didn't want to take us to court and if we had offered them a reasonable amount I think we would have been ok..Our main mess was with the bank charges swallowing my husbands wages each week we had nothing to offer them as I wasn't working.If it is a short term blip and he has work coming they may be prepared to wait as long as you keep them informed and have written proof to back up what you say with regards to finances/contracts for work.We made 3 agreements to pay up and it was only after the third failure they took us to court.
Do do an SOA in the meantime to see if we can help you cut any of your outgoings so that'll take some of the pressure off.My OH has the typical 'head in sand' attitude to everything and has always left it to me to sort out everything and sometimes it just makes you want to scream,is your OH supportive as I know how stressful this sort of thing can be.I do sympathise more than you know,our middle son was 12 weeks when we left so was blissfully unaware but the eldest was 4 and he understood everything that was going on.Its often left to mum to pick up all the pieces so do take care of yourself