Eviction/Repossession - Any Other Options?

Down_But_Not_Out

Hi,

I'm not sure if I am posting in the right part of the forum for this question so please steer me elsewhere if I would be better placed asking it in another one.

I own a flat that the mortgage company are try to evict me from. The flat may be worth around £150k and my outstanding mortgage on it is £87k. After working for 15 years I lost my job for the first time last year and have spent all my savings now & have got into arrears on my mortgage. My communication with the mortgage company has not been the best & I have found it tough to get them onside. They got a repossession order a month or so ago and gave me 28 days to come up with an acceptable proposal to stave this off. I wasn't able to do that and they are now saying they are going to evict me.

They have said that only the payment of the outstanding arrears will hold them off and I have no-one I can borrow that from and no means of getting a loan as I have no income.

I have spoken to one of the 'We will buy your house now' type companies and they have said they can stop the repossession/eviction put some money into the property to refurbish it a bit and then sell it on to one of their 'approved buyers' for the 'best possible price' and then split the money left over with me on a 50/50 basis. I am a bit suspicious that this may see me ending up with seven eigths of nothing at the end of the day. Am I right to be wary?

I am not greedy but I am conscious that there may be £50k-£60k of equity that could be very important to me in my situation and I don't just want to throw it away.

My ideal situation would be to put the property on the market and sell it asap, pay off the mortgage company and take whatever proceeds I can secure and rent somewhere until I can get back on my feet.

I recognise that I should have put the property on the market ages ago but I have been hopeful of getting a new job and working my way back out of arrears.

Do you think the bank might still let me put the property on the market now? Is there any way, with the equity I have, that I could get a loan of £5/6k to clear the arrears (even without a salary) and give me some breathing space to sell the property?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Growurown

Down_But_Not_Out wrote: »

I have spoken to one of the 'We will buy your house now' type companies and they have said they can stop the repossession/eviction put some money into the property to refurbish it a bit and then sell it on to one of their 'approved buyers' for the 'best possible price' and then split the money left over with me on a 50/50 basis. I am a bit suspicious that this may see me ending up with seven eigths of nothing at the end of the day. Am I right to be wary?

Oooh I would be super wary of these companies. There must be another option that wouldn't lose you half of your money.

I think you should get some professional advice. You could try CAB and Shelter are really good with housing problems. There's also Community Legal Advice for people on benefits. Link below.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/UsefulContactsByCategory/Governmentcitizensandrightscontacts/DG_195356

fatbelly

Any prospects of employment in the immediate future?

Hovel_lady

Have you read this, might be helpful...

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

Down_But_Not_Out

Growurown wrote: »

Oooh I would be super wary of these companies. There must be another option that wouldn't lose you half of your money.

I think you should get some professional advice. You could try CAB and Shelter are really good with housing problems. There's also Community Legal Advice for people on benefits. Link below.

Thanks for that. I will try them. I really want to find out how long it takes to get an eviction order after a repossession order has been granted and enacted. Could they come to evict me on Monday for instance?

Down_But_Not_Out

fatbelly wrote: »

Any prospects of employment in the immediate future?

A couple of things but I need a very, very immediate solution to the eviction issue and interviews are still a week or so away.

Down_But_Not_Out

Hovel_lady wrote: »

Have you read this, might be helpful...

Thats very helpful. Thank you.

Lensman_2

Re Monday. Have you got somewhere to go yet?

You REALLY need to speak to Shelter as soon as you can get through. As long as you get your arrangements sorted you won't be on the street. I don't know when their phone lines are open but the number is 0808 800 4444. Call now - the least you will get are the opening times.

You also need to know if the court has issued a Warrant of Execution on the repossession order. This needs another court hearing and needs to be in place before the bailiffs can act. I think the court should be able to tell you this and (if it has) who the bailiff is. Call them and ask when they will be attending.

If eviction is not imminent then Shelter will be the best people to advise you to begin with.

Good luck with all of it but please have a plan B ready for eviction if you don't already have one.

fatbelly

Down_But_Not_Out wrote: »

Thanks for that. I will try them. I really want to find out how long it takes to get an eviction order after a repossession order has been granted and enacted. Could they come to evict me on Monday for instance?

You'll get a notice from the court - a warrant of eviction - about ten days before the actual eviction. This may be hand delivered by the bailiff who will attend on that day, at the time specified.

How long the lender will take before they apply for the warrant now that the possession order has expired is difficult to say. I've known them take a week, I've known them take six months.

Why I asked about the employment is that if it is definite then the warrant can be suspended (on an N244) on the grounds that you can pay the contractual instalments plus something to the arrears. It would be decided at a separate hearing.

I've attended hearings as late as the morning of the eviction, where the bailiff has waited outside the court to hear whether the eviction will take place an hour or two later.

However, that's the last chance saloon really. I agree that you need to be looking for alternative accommodation as all this could happen quite quickly now.

SouthCoast

My ideal situation would be to put the property on the market and sell it asap, pay off the mortgage company and take whatever proceeds I can secure and rent somewhere until I can get back on my feet.

Speak to your local estate agents as they will have investors on their books looking for properties of this nature.

cvt1

If you have no income and cannot meet the current monthly instalment (CMI), plus at least an amount equivalent to the arrears to be paid over the term of the mortgage, you would not be successful in asking the court to suspend the warrant. You have to have an offer to put to the court for this.

If you can negotiate with the lender, before the warrant is served, then all the better (or get a housing expert such as Shelter to do it). If the lender won't agree, you will have to make an application to the county court, before the warrant is executed and ask the court to suspend on the basis that you can make an offer to pay the arrears off over a period of time with the CMI. You can also negotiate to hold off service of the warrant to allow a sale to go ahead. However, the lender has a good chance of recouping this anyway, because of the level of equity, so may not agree.

If you're in receipt of JSA then, you could have asked the DWP to pay the interest. The current rate may have left you with a shortfall, but some payment would have been made.

Did you attend the possession hearing? If you need time, always ask the judge for a 56 day order; particularly, with that level of equity. This would not prejudice the lender, to any great degree and would satisfy the Administration of Justice Acts relied upon by the courts. Also, check the lender applied the correct protocol before obtaining the hearing, to see if you have any chance of setting the order aside.Judges miss this and lenders often make procedural errors with service of paperwork.

If you receive the warrant, contact Shelter for assistance with representation at the hearing and take your statement of means with you, so that the court can see any reasonable offer. At the hearing, it is the decision of the court, not the lender, despite how unhelpful the latter can be. If you become employed again beofre the warrant, take the offer letter with you to the hearing and a breakdown of the CMI plus a reasonable arrears offer, based on paying them off over the remaining term, if you can't offer more and most courts should be fine with this. They are where I represent and I go to a few.

Be very wary of companies offering to buy the property, unless the price is good, which it seldom is with these firms.

good luck!