Help, House being repossessed today at 12pm any advice for me

gemsy46

Hi Everyone, my first post on here and a bit of a long one, as the title says my house is being repossessed today by my mortgage lender Santander for arrears of £900.
I took out my mortgage in 2006 and have always kept up my payments on this and a secured loan which I borrowed in 2007.
My problems started in February this year when my mum aged 88 became ill with cancer of colon and I had to reduce my hours at work to help look after her and my dad aged 83 who is registered blind. As the months passed I struggled to keep up payments on the mortgage and the loan but kept paying. I eventually moved into mums in April and packed in work. I decided to rent my house out to a friend of the family with the intention of being able to keep up the mortgage and loan payments but unfortunately after the 1st payment from them they then kept making excuses to not pay any rent or gave me bits and bobs here and there but not the agreed amount. So it wasn't long before I got behind with my mortgage. At the end of Aug I had an advisor come out to arrange paying my mortgage plus the arrears. Then a week after in Sept my mum was rushed to hosp for another major op but unfortunately didn't pull through and passed away on the 11th Sept and so I missed another mortgage payment, I then registered as full time carer for my dad. After mums funeral etc I started making the correct Mortgage payments and got back on track. During all those months I buried my head in sand and stupidly never got in touch with anyone or asked Santander to forward arrears statements to my dads and unfortunately the letters from Santanders solicitors plus the repossession letters from the courts and the bailiff letter were going to my house and being opened by my tenant who eventually last week disappeared. At the weekend I found the bailiffs letter for eviction today so I called up the Solicitors on Monday to see how I can resolve things. My arrears were nearly £1700 of which I have managed to raise just over £700 from family and paid it direct to santander. This morning I called their solicitors to find out what I now owe and also did an income and expenditure form for which they agreed I could afford to pay my mortgage as I also have been paying my mortgage plus arrears for the last few months but I still owe £900 and they wont cancel the repossession till I pay £900 in full, which I am unable to raise.
So I am now at a loss at what to do or if there's anyone I should contact who could negotiate with Santander or Hamlins their solicitors. I did think all was going ok last week when my tenant went plus the fact I felt I was getting back on track with my bills but feels now like every time I get up someone wants to kick me back down.
If anyone can offer some advice on how I could stop this eviction i'd be grateful or do I just give up fighting and lose everything iv worked hard for.
P.S Im not one usually for complaining and don't have time to feel sorry for myself as I'm too busy looking after and caring for everyone else

Dave_Ham

Is it the court date at 12 today?

If so, get yourself there no matter how scared, embarrassed or worried you feel. If you turn up, tell the truth they are going to have no desire to follow up this process immediately given money recently paid and also your circumstances..

If it is gone through the court, you need to speak with the lender this morning and speak with a solicitor. It can still be sorted.

Not really my area of expertise, you may want to try and post on one of the other sub forums to do with debt as some of the experts are more likely to see there.

I wish you well, please try and raise the strength to attack this head on.

All the best

dancingfairy

Hi. You need to get in contact with Shelter the housing charity and get them to help you.
It's also likely that you will have to make an emergency appeal to the court to get the repossession suspended (Shelter will tell you how to do this).
Get on to SHelter and get down to your local County Court and get an application in asap.
df

dancingfairy

This factsheet from the NationalDebtline isreallyuseful:
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/guide.php?page=guide-mortgage-arrears#chapter8
It suggests you needto fill out the form N244 and explain your reasons - ie to sort out arrears plan etc etc.
Good Luck
df

paddedjohn

Are you sure they are actually going to repossess today? £900 seems such a small amount.

Goldiegirl

I wonder what happened.

I would have advised going down to the Court. Repossessions can literally be stopped at the last minute by order of the Court, so that would have been the OP's best bet.

Dorothy2311

Santander are vultures! I feel for you and I really hope you managed to stop it in time... And I hope you did not have to deal with the incomptent Solicitors they use (Eversheds). They tried to repossess my house last year for Mortgage arrears totalling £1200. I am a single working Mum with a Mortgage whose partner went to prison 3 years ago and left me with huge debts. Nearly half of the £1200 arrears were charges added on by Santander. And guess how much equity I have in my house which is worth around £270K...? Well I owe them £104K, so that makes £166,000 EQUITY. But they sent Bailifffs to change the locks without letting me know (well they sent me a letter but as it was addressed to "The current Occupier" I thought it was junk and never openend it) and turf me and my little boy out - all for for £1200... I broke down and the Bailiffs (3 huge burly blokes) called Santander and refused to go ahead with the eviction! They gave me one week to go to the Court and ask for a hearing to stop this. The woman from Santander who they were speaking to, was getting stroppy with them for not going ahead with the eviction. So do not expect any help from them. They will take your house, sell it, and keep the change! Thankfully when I got to Court 6 days later, the Judge was really disgusted with them - especially when he realised that half of the arrears were charges added on by them! He told them off, and threw it out once he realised they were refusing to let me release any equity as when you are in arrears you can not re-mortgage or get a loan or anything. The Judge was quite obviously not impressed with them and only ordered me to repay the debt at a rate of £20 per month - actually lowering my payments....

maninthestreet

So, what happened at noon today?

Goldiegirl

I don't think we'll ever know

gemsy46

Hi everyone, first of all many thanks for all your replies and suggestions on stopping the repossession.
Sadly I was unable to stop the repossession due to reasons I had been helped out before, a plan agreed which I had not stuck to and this went against me and I was kicked out at 12pm. Luckily tho I am not homeless as I now live with dad anyway being his full time carer. I do have equity in the property as house is valued around 70k and I only owed 31k on mortgage but am guessing by time Santander and the rest of them pile up the overpriced costings and charges I'l be lucky to get anything.
My neighbor even spoke to me today with an idea for me to contact Santander and suggest if I payed back all arrears and charges etc and even a lump sum of 5k on top especially with them knowing iv been keeping up my mortgage payments for past 3 months would they hand property back. My neighbor who is fairly well off and has done up and sold a few properties suggested he would pay the arrears etc and part of mortgage payments or all of it, then pay to get house done up with a view to selling or renting and splitting any profit which we would have worked out fairly between us. Which would have meant I could have house back and stopped some of the ridiculous charges. I did speak with a very blunt and rude man Kevin from Santander and he said not a chance they would agree to me keeping a mortgage with them and handing house over, the only way would be to transfer the mortgage to another lender or paying total amount, I'm just waiting now to find out what I owe all together and decide what to do if I can do anything.
Oh well roll on 2013, I thought life couldn't get any worse after mum passed away, talk about kicking someone when their already down.

maninthestreet

Are you claiming all the benefits you are entitled to as carer for your father?