Newbie Repossession order from Halifax - *Repossession Stopped*

[Colly46]

Hi there, We have received a Repossession Order from the halifax. We owe £4000 arrears,and until last week thought we were coming to an agreement.We havent actually missed a payment, just not paid the full amount. I did manage to secure more hours at work and was going to make an offer to pay our contractual monthly payments plus an extra £150 to help clear the arrears,this would be paid every 4 weeks (that is how my wages are paid,and it makes it easier,on payday just go to the bank and pay it directly) we received a letter from the solicitors on Tuesday saying our case was being handled by them, and yesterday we recieved a court repossession order for 19th December.Its all happened so quickly and I really dont know what to do, I am typing this through tears so apologise for any spelling mistakes. Thanks.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG. I'm sorry to hear you're going through this, it must be tough.

 

I expect the forum guys will be along soon, but it's always quieter here at the weekend. If needed, I can send a couple of SOSs for you in the morning. I think you've got time to deal with this.

 

My best, HB

[Colly46]

Thank you Honey bee 13, I just need some advice about what to do, these things always happen at the weekend.................whats an SOS?

[honeybee13]

Thank you Honey bee 13, I just need some advice about what to do, these things always happen at the weekend.................whats an SOS?

 

If you don't have any replies by tomorrow, I'll let a couple of the forum regulars know that you need help.

 

HB

[Colly46]

Thankyou so much, its such a relief to see we arent the only ones, I dont feel so alone now!

[Lea_HTH]

Hi there, We have received a Repossession Order from the halifax. We owe £4000 arrears,and until last week thought we were coming to an agreement.We havent actually missed a payment, just not paid the full amount. I did manage to secure more hours at work and was going to make an offer to pay our contractual monthly payments plus an extra £150 to help clear the arrears,this would be paid every 4 weeks (that is how my wages are paid,and it makes it easier,on payday just go to the bank and pay it directly) we received a letter from the solicitors on Tuesday saying our case was being handled by them, and yesterday we recieved a court repossession order for 19th December.Its all happened so quickly and I really dont know what to do, I am typing this through tears so apologise for any spelling mistakes. Thanks.

 

If you have a possession order, then there must have been proceedings previously. Or are you saying you have received a claim for possession?

 

If the latter, then you should file a defence. One of the things the mortgagee has to do prior to issuing court proceedings is to follow the pre-action protocol, which includes discussing with you what options are available, and considering any reasonable offer you make. Whether your offer of £150 per month is reasonable will depend on how many years are left on your mortgage, and whether the £150 will clear the arrears before that period ends. If yes, then there is no reason why they should not accept your offer and adjourn any proceedings until the point at which you fail to make payment.

 

So, if the hearing is on 19th December for initial proceedings, send a letter to them, recorded delivery, offering them £150 per month towards the arrears - state the date you will make the first payment and make it on that day if it falls before 19th December. Inform them in the letter that you expect a response withing ten days as per the pre-action protocol as to whether they accept or decline your offer, and to provide reasons why if it is declined. State that you will provide any such information to the court and ask that if the court decide that you should pay that figure or a lesser figure, for the court to deny their contractual entitlement to costs since the proceedings and arising costs could have been avoided if they had followed the pre-action protocol (it is in the judge's power to prevent this - but you HAVE to ask the judge to put it in the order he makes).

 

If they don't agree to the offer, then you proceed to court and file a defence including your offer and their refusal.

 

If, on the other hand, there is already a possession order in place, you will need to file an N244 to stay the eviction.

[Colly46]

My mistake, its a Claim for Possession! I got myself into such a state I didnt read it properly:oops:......................I was going to call the halifax tomorrow morning with my offer, we have 9 yrs left on our mortgage (is that what they mean by 'reasonable period?) So it would be better for me to write to them, is there a template letter I can get to help? ................Thank you so much for replying, you have no idea what it means!

[Lea_HTH]

You're welcome - try not to panic, you're not going to lose your home. It'll take you around 27 months to clear your arrears and you have at least 108 left on your mortgage, so plenty of time to repay. The absolute worst outcome would be a suspended possession order, but the best outcome would be an adjournment on terms.

 

I don't know about any letter templates, but this letter does not need to be complicated.

 

Dear Halifax (or whoever if you have a named contact).

 

I acknowledge that I have fallen into arrears of my mortgage by X. My proposal to repay these arrears is Y. This will clear the arrears in less than 27 months, which is well within the Cheltenham & Glocester BS and Norgan case, which states that the entire remaining period of the mortgage term can be taken into consideration to clear arrears. I request that you consider this offer and respond within 10 days, as per the pre-action protocols and the MCOB, which states that any reasonable offer should be considered and responded to. MCOB also states that possession should be a last resort, so I ask that if you agree to my offer, you withdraw the proceedings you have issued in order not to wrack up additional legal costs to my mortgage account. If you accept my offer, or not, and proceed to court, and the court awards you the same amount as my offer, or less, I shall ask the judge to consider disallowing your costs and ask for any order the judge decides to make to include that costs are not added to the security or the mortgage account; this I feel would be in keeping with the fact that my offer was in line with what the court would have ordered, thereby making proceedings unnecessary.

 

I have actively tried to resolve this issue, and believed that we were still in discussions to try to come to a resolution, so was surprised that proceedings had been issued. I am increasing my hours at work in order to be able to afford the payment offered, which is now affordable.

 

I look forward to your response.

 

Yours sincerely....

 

 

Hope that helps - you don't need to over-complicate things and you don't need to send an income and expenditure form (they may ask for one - don't do one over the phone if they do - come back here and ask for more help).

[Colly46]

Just spoken to the solicitors,and they basically want £950 plus our contractual monthly payment to stop proceedings...........if it does go to court they will issue a suspended order,which lasts 12 yrs and if we default just once in that time, we are out. I was a bit confused because they hadnt actually had any information regarding our court date. I explained about my increase in hours,and paying the £150 extra a month to cover the arrears,and she said that would be accepted, but would need the lump sum to prevent proceedings. What should we do? there isnt much chance of us raising the money. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

Please try not to worry too much at this stage. I'm sure help will be along later.

 

HB

[Lea_HTH]

The solicitors can demand what they want, doesn't mean it's reasonable or that a court will agree with them. Put your offer in writing as advised yesterday, then take it from the point you get a response.

 

Suspended possession orders do not last a fixed term. Once you clear the arrears and keep the account in good order for at least 6-9 months, you can apply to have the SPO discharged.

 

They should not be telling you that only the lump sum will stop proceedings as it's obvious you do not have the lump sum - most people, if they did, would try to clear the arrears with it.

[Colly46]

Thanks Guys! I'll get the letter done tomorrow morning,and keep you posted! Your knowledge and support have been priceless, there are some good people left in the world! xxx

[Colly46]

Hi all received a letter from Drysdon fairfax solicitors this morning advising us that they are taking us to court, (we knew last saturday) basically it said that we can negotiate payments to clear the arrears and we would have a suspended repossession order put in place, which we assumed. I sent my payment offer to the halifax on tuesday so am waiting for their decision, shall I reply to the solicitors with the same letter i sent to the halifax? I have since realised that we can make an additional payment in january and february (we dont pay our council tax,and we could pay off some arrears instead) a little confused who we should be talking to.

[Colly46]

Hi everyone, Have written a letter to halifax explaining our repayment offer, including my increases hours etc, sent that tuesday and till haven't heard anything. Yesterday received a letter from the solicitors asking to fill out an income and expenditure form, do we wait for a response from halifax, or just fill the form in and send it off anyway, just want to get things right in my head. Thanks:-)

[ukaviator]

Hi Colly46

 

I would send in an income and expenditure form to both the Halifax and the solicitor. Also request some information about any arrears charges on your account they will be adding. To help you further we will need some more information on how much you are in arrears, what the motgage amount is, how long left to pay etc..

 

Here is a budget sheet you can use:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=47633&d=1384275448

Edited November 24, 2013 by ukaviator
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[Colly46]

Thanks for the reply. I started a thread last sunday and have realised I get more response if I start a new one.There is a bit of confusion as to how much our arrears are, the letter from the court states its 4225, and the solicitors figure is 3555. We were communicating with the halifax on a regular basis and we thought they had agreed to add the arrears onto the end of the mortgage,and we were ready to discuss extending the term so we could pay less and switch to repayment, our mistake, we mis-read the letter cos it said ,if we want to add the arrears onto the mortgage no action needs to be taken by ourselves, the next day we receive a demand for the arrears,and by the saturday (2 days later) we get a court date, all happened so fast.I have managed to secure more hours at work,,and its now my new contractual hours so basically my wages can now pay for the mortgage,and we will pay an extra 100 on top of that a month (plus the 2 months we dont pay our council tax) I wrote a letter last tuesday helped by the wonderful ell-en,explaining my offer and sent it recorded delivery, we recieved the letters from the solicitor on saturday. I'll fill out the form from the solicitor................ do we do one each (we have one bank account and our wages get piad into that account, or do one together? sorry for the ramble hope it makes sense. thanks:-)

[honeybee13]

Hello again.

 

I don't think you get more responses if you start a new thread. If you add the question to an existing thread, it goes back to the top of the forum and the forum regulars will see it. You help them more by keeping the information all in the same place so they can refer to it.

 

For this reason, I'm putting the two threads together. I'm sure the guys will be back when their day jobs allow.

 

HB

[Colly46]

Gosh! You lot are so clever, I'm useless at this computer stuff:nerd: the solicitors sent some forms,so hubby is taking tomorrow morning off so we can fill them in, would you like to see it before we send them off? We are in a position to offer a little more every month, plus we dont pay our council tax for 2 months,so we will put that towards it too.

[honeybee13]

Gosh! You lot are so clever, I'm useless at this computer stuff

 

It's not often I hear that. I'm probably only a chapter ahead of you really.

 

You can't merge your own threads anyway, it's a site team thing. Stick with what you're doing, you'll be fine.

 

HB

[Colly46]

Thanks HB, We have just filled in the I and E form,and am sending it off, our outgoings are reasonably straight forward so after a huge starbucks,managed to get it sorted, I am now attempting to write a letter,and its not going too well:oops:................ would they object to a hand written one?

[Ell-enn]

Hi, there are examples of letters and an I & E form in our guide here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?325527-CAG-guide-Are-you-facing-eviction-or-repossession make sure you account for absolutely everything on the I & E , if you have anything significant left over at the end of the month they will expect you to pay it towards the arrears. If the solicitor's I & E form isn't as comprehensive as the one in our guide then don't use it, use ours.

[Colly46]

Thanks ell-en, We used their form, it had on there what we needed,so put it all down with my new hours at work,and our plan to repay them, we have worked it out we actually owe them about £2000 in arrears,the rest are charges and a field agent chappie they sent round a few months ago. will keep you posted on any news!

[ukaviator]

How much was the field agent?

[Colly46]

It was £100,waste of time really just clarified what the mortgage company already knew..................received a letter from fairfax solicitors,what a joke................ (remember our mortgage monthly contractual payments are £850.56 a month) 'we refer to your conversation of the 15th november and we agree to your proposal to pay the contractual monthly payment of £150 (subject to the variable interest rate) together with an additional payment of £150 to reduce the arreras! WOW!!! I'm having some of that £300 per month!! 'we confirm this is acceptable to our client subject to legal action continuing to enable us to obtain an order for posessionsusspended on the above terms.we will be seeking a money judgement in respect of the debt. please attend the possession hearing......... blah blah blah! A huge balls up on their part me thinks!

[Colly46]

Whats a money judgement?