Secured loan arrears - Repossesion order. Please please help!!

[Lea_HTH]

Hi Guys!,

 

I'm hoping somebody can help - my parents have fallen behind on a loan they have secured on their property with HFC who are now demanding we be out of the house in 14 days! we are £3000 behind and have fallen behind on a number of occasions now but have always managed to scrape by!

 

I want to know where we stand with these guys in as much as if we are making A1 payments on the mortgage does that account for anything? I dont want to lose my home and neither do my parents but it looks like we may have no choice, so you guys are our last line of defence!

 

Has there already been a court hearing? Was a suspended possession order granted? You are stating you are to be out of the house in 14 days, which implies an order has been granted - did you attend the hearing?

 

How much is the secured loan? How long has the loan left to run? Is there any equity in the property? Are you able to afford the monthly payment plus something towards the arrears? Is the secured loan in joint names? You say 'they have a secured loan'. Do you pay anything towards the mortgage/loan repayments?

Edited March 30, 2011 by Lea_HTH
I appear to be unable to respond to posts - but I can edit. Reply to follow.

[Lea_HTH]

I have a bit more info regarding the letter:

 

From the lender...It says (from their solicitor) our client has instructed us to ask the bailiff to evict you so that your property can be sold. A warrant for possession of your property has been requested.

 

You stated in your earlier post that your parents had not been to court, so it's important that you find out for certain. No one can evict your parents without first obtaining a possession order and only then applying for a warrant of execution, which leads to the bailiffs posting a notice of eviction through your front door. If none of that has occurred, then no one can evict you.

 

I strongly suggest you ask your parents to double check all their paperwork for possible notification of the court hearing - and if they definitely have nothing, ask HFC to provide them with the case no. from the county court so that they can make an application to have the possession order set aside (and/or to make a stay application if a warrant of execution has in fact been applied for).

 

There is a potential problem as you state there is no equity in the property - are the two loans covered by the property, or is there a shortfall? If there is a shortfall the first charge will get paid first and the second charge may get nothing at all.

 

Your starting point is finding out about the court order - if there hasn't been an initial possession hearing, then the solicitor's letter is inaccurate, but you HAVE to check with the court - do not take anyone else's word for it.

 

I asked about your contributions as you may have an overriding interest in the property, which means you could ask to be joined to the proceedings (if any).

 

In the meantime, if your father does not yet have a job, and there isn't one on the horizon, I suggest that he makes an application for job seekers allowance (he'll need to check if he's made enough contributions for contribution based JSA, but there is another form of JSA he may be entitled to) - when he does this, he should also ask about making a claim for SMI - which is the government assistance to help with interest payments on mortgages. It is not payable for the first three months (13 weeks I think), so it'll take a bit of time to come through, but may help to reduce the payments.

 

Anyway, find out if there have actually been any court proceedings as yet, and then come back with the info and we'll see where to go from there.

Edited March 30, 2011 by Lea_HTH
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