Help (again!) with repossession question

[jimjam66]

Dear all

 

Everyone on here has been extremely helpful to me in the past so thank you in advance for anything you can offer me now in my current situation.

 

I have 2 secured debts against my house, one a main mortgage & the second with First Plus is a secured loan - both debts have suspended PO in place.

 

I thought I was able to maintain the agreed repayments however my personal circumstances have changed yet again , for the worse & as such I have put the house on the market as I simply cannot afford it & all the associated bills.

I have no income & have moved in with family to eliminate my outgoings. I have written to both parties explaining the situation & so far the only responses I have received have been along the lines of "we will enforce the order/issue the warrant" & go down the eviction route!

 

My query is that I have basically evicted myself already?! If they re-approached the Court to gain possession would the Court not take into consideration the fact I am already trying to sell the house myself to repay their debts & arrears which in effect is what they would have to do anyway?? Plus I am marketing it at the proper market value (as obtained by 3 agents) so in effect I am trying to sell asap

 

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated. I simply have no funds to offer them. I will have some equity to take from the property when it sells which is the only positive I can take from all this. Plus the stress of trying to keep all the balls in the air will be removed as this has had a major impact on me

[jimjam66]

Hi...does anyone have any advice for me? I'm wanting to reply to them on the basis that I'm voluntarily vacating & selling my house already i.e. saving them the effort & expense? obviously I can't predict when it will sell but I'm reluctant for a lender to take a more aggressive stance to a sale ie.sell for significantly under its value just to clear their loan

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I'm sorry you haven't had any replies yet. Not everyone on CAG know the answers to what you're asking, hopefully they will be along soon.

 

HB

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, I have only just seen your post as I was away for a few days.

 

If you are unable to make any payments at all then there's nothing you can do until the lenders apply for an eviction warrant. You can then defend by applying to the court for a hearing and show the judge proof that you have the property on the market. In the meantime you should gather together the estate agent information i.e. your contract with them, any advertising of the property and how many viewings you have had etc. Take photocopies of it all and keep it ready to submit with your application to the court (we can help you with the forms).

 

Also, you need to check the mail at your property every day as once the eviction warrant is issued you won't have many days to get your application to court. If you receive any letters from the lenders stating they are applying for eviction please let us know and we can draft a reply.

[BornThisWay]

Hi honeybee. Ell-enn is the expert on all of this but I would just add one thing which is important.

 

 

The lenders are not remotely interested in you or your circumstances. I have myself in the past tried to negotiate with my mortgage company, etc., the fact is that no-one there gives a damn. They are employed to get the money in.

 

 

So as Ell-enn says, they will go for eviction, they are not interested in where you are living or what you are doing, they want the money they have secured on your property. I have wasted so much time trying to negotiate with people who simply do not care.

 

 

The court is the place to have your say, and your presentation of circumstances needs to be there as Ell-enn says. They will listen to you (albeit briefly, don't expect to be able to run through your life story!!) and make a decision.

 

 

Sorry to butt in but just sharing what I have learned!!

[jimjam66]

Thanks so much all for your responses. I'll update after the weekend dependent on latest correspondence &/or phone discussions

 

Ultimately I hope the court (as a minimum & even the lender!) see that i'm trying to take the most pragmatic approach now by voluntarily selling up instead of just dragging the situation on & on

 

My biggest underlying concern is if they did take the heavy handed approach & take over the selling process just how aggressive would they be able to be in achieving a sale price versus its market value - my fear is that they will just sell at any price to clear their debt & sod the (little) equity I have left

[jimjam66]

Hi all

 

since my last posts I've received correspondence from Skipton BS's Solicitors advising that they have obtained an eviction date of May 7th. In addition, Eversheds, on behalf of 1st Plus, have also written to me to advise that a "warrant of possession" has been granted & will be enforced on April 30th.

 

Arrears with SBS are £5435 & £1954 with 1st plus. I cannot clear the arrears & property is on the market for sale which is the only route I have to make any payts

 

Can I approach the court to postpone the eviction pending the fact I already have the house on the market? The sole reason I'm selling is because I've recognised I cannot afford the house & don't want to continue falling in & out of arrears & failing atp's etc..with suspended PO hanging over me.

 

Any advice would be warmly welcomed as I need to submit something asap

[sequenci]

Hello there, you can make an application on the n244 asking for time to sell the property.

[jimjam66]

Hello there, you can make an application on the n244 asking for time to sell the property.

 

 

many thanks for that. Do you happen to know if I can submit this application from overseas? Reason I ask is that I'm now living with family in France as I couldn't afford to rent anywhere else in UK so would have to organise myself if I had to physically attend a court hearing in person to defend my case??

[jimjam66]

Help with N244 completion....I've downloaded the form & will , I assume, need to submit one for each lender's case basically stating the same thing i.e. i'm trying to sell my house etc...

 

would appreciate some help filling it in as well as guidance on what to say to the court bearing in mind it is extremely unlikely that I'll be able to attend in person as I won't be able to afford to travel back to the UK. Will they accept my "defence/case" in writing & without my attendance??

 

Many thanks

[sequenci]

There's some info here: https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/G2%20EW%20Mortgage%20arrears%20guide/Page-12.aspx

 

Oh, and you'll be able to send someone on your behalf - just check with the court first.

[jimjam66]

There's some info here: https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/G2%20EW%20Mortgage%20arrears%20guide/Page-12.aspx

 

Oh, and you'll be able to send someone on your behalf - just check with the court first.

 

 

Thank you sequence. I will take a good look through all of that tomorrow as well as contact the court about appearances etc.. The problem I have is that I don't have anyone else in the UK to call upon to attend on my behalf. I'll have to see what they say

[jimjam66]

Hi all

 

I've submitted my N244's & have a hearing date listed for next week. I have to either attend in person or instruct a solicitor to represent me if I cannot make it back to the UK in person

 

The concern I have now, having spoken on the phone to a solicitor is that their professional advice is that my case isn't very strong. 1) there is no-one living in the house at the moment so no humanitarian aspect to consider of making someone homeless 2) the basis of my case to suspend the eviction is purely financial ie I want to try & achieve the best price for my house as opposed to letting it go to auction etc... & 3) I have no offers or imminent sale completions so just marketing the house for sale doesn't really mean anything to the court/claimant

 

Feeling really down about all this now as it seems like the inevitable is going to happen & I'm scared I'll end up with nothing

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I'm sorry hear you haven't had the opinion you would have hoped for. Please hang on for the guys, I'm sure they'll have some advice for you.

 

HB

[jimjam66]

would appreciate anyone's input as struggling to know what to do next with this. I've even looked at some of those companies who buy your house off you for 85% of its value but that wouldn't leave much at all for me, if anything

 

Also contemplating biting the bullet to see if my parents will lend me money for the arears to enable me to stop the eviction but that's pretty scary too! All I want to do is try & get more time to sell the house & achieve a more genuine price which will give me more of the equity back to help me start afresh

 

I also have a separate comment on another forum here about First Plus & a decision they took, without advising me, to freeze interest on my loan. That has now resulted in them adding back over £7000 to the settlement figure which I was unaware of until now - can they do that without advising me?

[Ell-enn]

Hi, the only sure way of stopping the eviction is to pay the entire arrears - this would give you time to sell. If you think your parents could give you the money, then I would certainly bite the bullet and ask.

 

 

If the property is repossessed the lender will sell for whatever they can get and if it isn't enough to clear the mortgage they will come after you for the shortfall!

[jimjam66]

Thank you Ell-enn

 

I am currently building up the courage to ask them!!

 

I also spoke to the building society & they told me that they won't take the house to auction but will market it on the normal open market via an agent based on 2 valuations which, in theory, should be very similar to the price I put the house up for a few weeks ago??

 

The sale price should be in the region of £220K with total outstanding mortgages of £180k

[Ell-enn]

They would accept an offer to clear their mortgage - they won't be worried about your equity

[jimjam66]

so under TCF etc..they could accept an offer of £185k when the house is clearly worth £215/220k??