Home repossession - Help for newbie

[ChiGun]

My parents are in financial difficulty, more recently with mortgage repayments. Last year they negotiated with their lender to change their mortgage to an interest only, but that reverted to a repayment type Jan 2013. They agreed with their lender to pay a reduced payment for 9months. In september they made a new offer, but I as I understand it, it was rejected. They left to go abroad for several weeks to reclaim some owing money, and are due back in the next 10 days. However, during this time, they were served notice for possession, with court date on 31st October 2013. Of course they did not get any of these letters and therefore did not turn up to court.

 

We checked in on the house on 31st October to find letters pertaining to the repossession. We don't have the courts verdict yet, but having called the lenders solicitors (with permission), they told us a possession order was granted. They told us that in 28 days, they can apply to the court for an eviction.

 

We don't want to see them lose their home in this manner, so we have agreed (and are financially able) to clear their arrears and pay the mortgage in full going forward. Having stated this (verbally) to the lenders solicitors, they asked to pay the arrears over the phone straight away, but when asked if this would change the possession order, they stated that it wouldn't and that thy would have to discuss with their clients. Our parents tried talking to the lender directly, but they referred them to their solicitors. Skeptical, we did not pay any money to the their solicitors until we got some advice.

 

So, the question is how do we go forward. Do we pay the solicitors directly? Write to our lender with our proposal? or go to court (N244 I believe) and get the court to change the order?

 

Someone did suggest to us that we write to the lender directly stating we (parents) can now afford the payments and going forward pay the monthly mortgage together with part of the arrears spread over the remaining term (or more generous than that). They suggested we don't go back to the court and leave it to the lender to get an eviction order if they chose to do so. They said by the time they get an eviction date (few months) taking into account christmas amnesty, my parents would have 2-3 months positive payment history and at that point the court would suspend the order.

 

Sorry for the long post, but I thought it may be helpful. We are new to this (as I'm sure most in this situation are) and would welcome any advice on the matter.

 

Regards

[Ell-enn]

If you are able to clear the arrears in full then you should do so - if there are no arrears then there can be no eviction.

[Lea_HTH]

Your parents need to apply to the court to have the judgment set aside. This is the best option and is their right as they were not in the country at the time the hearing took place (if they've got proof of that).

 

Pay the full arrears if the money is available, no point in hanging on to it if the money is available.

 

Make the set aside application on N244, asking the court to reconsider the judgment as they were not present at the hearing, and that if they had been a different outcome may have been a possibility. There is no need to wait until the eviction order comes through if you act NOW.

 

You can of course wait until the eviction notice comes through and apply for a stay instead (also on N244), but what will happen at that stage is that the eviction will be cancelled, but the possession order will remain, albeit suspended.

 

The best outcome will be from having the original judgment set aside.

[ChiGun]

Many thanks for your helpful replies. We would much prefer to have the original judgement set aside - that's what we will embark on doing using N244.

 

In the interim, we now have the letter from the court granting the lender (claimant) possession of the property on 28th Nov 2013. In addition, there is a paragraph that states " claimant will send you a copy of the bill of costs with a notice telling you what to do if you object to this amount".

 

So, I have a couple of questions:

1) Are we (parents) still liable for the costs which the solicitor will no doubt send to us? Is there any way we can have these revoked given that the parents did not know about the court hearing? If so, how would this be done (at time of set aside court hearing???)

2) With respect to paying current arrears, should we do that now (ie straight into their mortgage bank account) or do we do this at the time of the set aside order?

3) Is there a specific way the N244 form should be completed? I know there are guidance notes that accompany the actual form, but anything from this forum?

 

We appreciate the advice (and time taken) from those responding.