Hi,

My sister has just had her home repossessed. It is a very sad tale but we are trying to get through it. I won't go into the detail of how she got herself into this situation, I need help with how we can get the house back please

We have submitted an order with the court requesting the possession order be set aside so they can get back into the house for the next 6mths and try and sell the house on their terms. I have offered to pay the arrears. We do not have a hearing date yet but I am not hopeful that this will be successful since the bank has asked for the full mortgage amount of around £200k.

I am prepared to lend this money to my sister (not rich just have some equity myself!) and will put a charge on the house to this value so when they sell it I am repaid. However, on talking to the bank they have said that even though you repay all the debt they will have to decide whether they will give the house back to my sister and not still just sell it at auction. In which case it is not worth paying them anything at all!

I will be getting a lawyer involved at some point as I am completely out of my depth but I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this and knows the process and what the chances are of them giving the house back once we have paid off the full amount?

Many thanks

Fiona

I don't know the answer to your query, but as a "back-up plan",

If you have the £200k available, can she not bid on the house if it goes to auction?

Anything you pay at auction will come off the amount to be paid to the mortgage company anyway??

thanks but the house is worth a lot more than 200k and she has no way of funding the difference. I think you would have to prove you have the money when you bid. Not sure that would work but thanks for replying

Not my area of knowledge, but i would offer the following points to consider

The mortage company will have incurred other costs with the repossession, so it won't be just the arrears. I suspect those costs would have to be dealt with as well.

If it goes back to court, the future affordability of repaying the mortgage will have to be considered. Unless your Sister can evidence that she can reliably pay the monthly mortgage repayments, then it might be difficult to regain possession.

The housing charity Shelter does have people that deal with repossession issues. They might be able to help or put your Sister in touch with Solicitors that can help with gaining possession of the house again.

thank you. I do think we now need a solicitor - completely lost here but learning every day...

speak to Shelter before hiring a solicitor so when you do that you can instruct them to do what is possible rather than just chucking money at the problem as a whole.

Solicitors have a habit of saying that "you have a very good case" when all they really mean is I can make money from this regardless of its merits. With a focus on what is achieveable you will spend less money and be more likely to get a result.

Also, dont forget she is in this predicament for a reason so that has to be addressed as well.

We have a hearing date with the judge in a few weeks so I am hoping we can come to some arrangement. Very stressful all of this business. Thanks the reply. I have told her to make sure she knows all her outgoings etc for the hearing.

When you say repossessed - do you mean she has been evicted or that the lender has been given a possession order? if it's the latter then there is still a chance to stop eviction - it's a shame you didn't find us before.