Birmingham midshires - How can I stop Repossession??

[Bonus77]

Okay.. long story, but im in a bit of a situation and need some advice.

 

I had a repossesion hearing back in March, due to me being slightly over 3 months arrears. I agreed to a repayment plan of £50 per month, plus the standard mortgage payment.

 

The problem is, they now want another hearing as my payments have been erratic. I am all up to date with the payments, but sometimes they have been a week or so late. I spoke to them on most of the occasions, but once I missed it completely so they got 1 of those payments 3 weeks late so they are now taking me back to court.

 

They said they would review my account before the court date and there may be no action taken as ive brought my account up to date ( in a manner of speaking ), but its plagueing my thoughts and am thinking of pre-drafting a defense explaining the reasons for late payment ( all genuine with paperwork to backup ).

 

Can anyone offer any advice?

 

Can they still repossess my home for having late payments although ive paid all my installments to date? I partly think its their excuse to whack on £500 solicitors fees on top of my mortgage and I do think I will be more than able to completely pay my arrears, I just need a little time and space.

[storm]

Given what you have said, I assume you are now approx about 2 months in arrears if you are up to date with the payments ordered by the court

 

I can assure you through personal experience courts are very

reluctant to let companies repossess unless they feel there is absolutely no way on this earth the arrears can be repaid (especially if you have children, have lots of equity etc)

 

At our worst, we were about 8k in arrears and still successfully fought off a repossession order in court

 

All I would advise is keeping in touch with your mortgage provider if you feel you are going to be late with any future repayments.

 

Out of interest, who are they?

[Guest HUSBANDKHAN]

I fell behaind in my rent. Went for repo hearing. judge ordered liberty to restore. now because of the housing associations c*** up another hearing to restore. not worried as have paperwork and am going for costs this time.

[lookinforinfo]

Is there any way you can borrow the outstanding two monthly payments? Once

you are back all square, the present Court order ceases. And so cannot be used

in the future should you fall behind again. It will need anew possession order

before you are at risk again.

[Bonus77]

Is there any way you can borrow the outstanding two monthly payments? Once

you are back all square, the present Court order ceases. And so cannot be used

in the future should you fall behind again. It will need anew possession order

before you are at risk again.

 

Wish I could. Its the problem that I dont have much room in my budget for exceptional costs so when something major goes wrong I end up being short on one or some of my bills. The mortgage just so happens to come out after the other bills. I am trying to re-arrange a different payment date.

 

Thanks for advice so far, I will certainly keep in touch with them although they really apply the pressure whenever i call them and can be extremely rude, condesending and blunt.

 

Its Birmingham midshires... I know, but needs must at the time and really the rate wasnt that bad.

[lookinforinfo]

Bonus, you have perhaps to make some tough choices.

On the one hand, you are in danger of losing your house, or at least under threat of losing it if, after the Court hearing you default on further payments. And so losing

the equity that you have built up in the house as well.

 

On the other hand, you are making monthly payments to presumably credit

cards, telephone companies, electricity etc etc all of which, if you do not pay them for

a month or two, would be unsecured debts. And most of them do not charge

for missed payments.

 

Can you not therefore cancel a couple of the lesser important monthly payments

this month, so that you can get your motgage back on track to avoid going to Court?

And when do you reinstate them, arrange it in such a way as to ensure that the mortgage gets paid first in the queue to avoid scares in the future.

 

It is not a difficult decision-lose the house, or perhaps get your phone cut off

for a couple of weeks. Get a ccj or use a public telephone box.l

[chesham]

Repossession is quite a serious thing, it's usually the last resort for most companies and for most consumers. However, it is true that most courts will not authorise it unless there is no way that things will get better, and usually there are ways and means of doing so.

 

However, can I suggest that now that there are legal implications involved that you go and visit the Citizen's Advice Bureau and get them to help you out, they are great at these kinds of things and may even provide you with a solicitor to assist.

 

But as lookinforinfo said, sometimes sacrificing a few things for a while may improve and maybe even ultimately solve your problem?

[Bonus77]

Thanks for your help guys, I dont think even if I stopped all my other payments for the unsecured debts I would quite be able to pay the arrears up to date in time.

 

I have looked reluctantly about getting a massive APR secured loan to cover the arrears and a couple of other debts which would decrease my monthly outgoings anyway, but I really dont want to increase my debt. Especially as it will also have various tie-ins and charges.

 

I will certainly speak to the citizens advice, the hearing isnt til the end of December, so im hoping I have enough time to sort a solution.

 

Thanks again for the advice.

[lookinforinfo]

In that case if you can continue to send the payments each month, even if it means

that other companies suffer, to show the Court you do not want to lose your house,

and that you do intend to get the payments back on track.

 

Good idea to go to CAB.

[sequenci]

1. fill in a personal budget sheet

2. make sure that you keep paying your priority debts, this would include electricity and gas

3. if you have any unsecured creditors, these are non-priority so you can possibly offer pro-rata or even token payments to these creditors.

 

Cheltenham & Gloucester v Norgan suggests that you can pay your arrears over the remainder of the mortgage term.

 

there is an awful lot of really good info on this factsheet

 

http://www.bdl.org.uk/images/bdl01_ew_MortgageArrears.doc

 

good luck

 

seq

[NewronGyal]

What type of order did get back in March? From what you have said, it appear that an order for possession was not made otherwise your lender would have issued a warrant of possession.

 

Before your house can be repossessed, an order for possession would have to made at court and then enforced by the lender issuing a warrant of possession to gain an eviction date.

 

Your hearing in December may just be a review and in that case you may want to think whether the additional £50 is manageable and ask the court to vary the order to something more manageable to be paid on a date each month that you would be able to meet.

 

You may find that by keeping up with the payments as and when they are due, your lender may consider capitalising the remaining arrears after 6 or 9 months

[Bonus77]

Again, thankyou for the very valuable advice.

 

They made a suspended order for possesion, I am all up to date with the payments per say, but for the bill due at the end of August, I didnt pay til three weeks later on the 21st September. I didnt tell them til very late either that it was due to a large council tax bill that had to be paid. They appeared to accept this over the phone, I even offerd written proof. I then received a letter from their solicitor saying that we had not followed the order and was sending it back for a court hearing.

I contacted Birmingham mids several times since and have had really varied responses, one from a person who said not to worry because they re-review your account before it goes to a hearing and as the payments were up to date they wouldnt vary the order to another person who said basically pay the arrears by the hearing or I would be repossesed.

 

After reading, and hearing everyones advice on the matter, it seems highly unlikely they would issue a repossesion warrant just because the payments have been a little erratic, but it certainly is a worry. I would rather not go to court.

 

And.. classic Birmingham Mids... they whack on £500 for solicitors fees, plus arrears charges, etc for the privilage! That also accrues mortgage interest too as it goes on the end of the mortgage!

 

I am certainly close to getting my house in order, but i am certainly not able to pay the full arrears. My word what a mess! I cant even understand the arrears amount, but dont really want to pay the £20 statement fee to get breakdown.

[Guest HUSBANDKHAN]

yOU COULD ALWAYS ASK THE JUDGE TO NOT AWARD COSTS.

[TheFonz1]

Hi all Bonus how is it going and Sequenci re your post Cheltenham & Gloucester v Norgan suggests that you can pay your arrears over the remainder of the mortgage term.

 

there is an awful lot of really good info on this factsheet

 

http://www.bdl.org.uk/images/bdl01_e...ageArrears.doc

 

The link doesn't go anywhere can you readvise and have we info on Gloucester v Norgan on site anywhere

Sorry to but in Bonus but this might be useful to you also!

[Bonus77]

Hi

 

Just received a statement from my mortgage company and noticed they have been charging me £40.00 a month as we are in arrears on our mortgage. I think we are 2 months in arrears due to a bad situation we were in, now we are paying it off. To find out that I have an arrangement in place and they are charging me £40.00 seems unfair. Considering its half of our repayment for the arrears. Is this fair? Can they charge this? Surely this is making our situation worse? Can we claim these back?

 

Thanks

[Tawnyowl]

Yes they can take these monthly arrears charges.They take great delight in taking these charges even though you are paying by arrangement your arrears.I know how you feel as do thousands on this site-makes you sick.Just tap in monthly arrears charges or go to any of the mortgage companies and check the feelings about this matter.I hope they will be punished and made to pay back these rip off charges someday.If you phone and ask whats going on they will probably say its the cost of running the dept but no harm in trying.Good luck Tawnyowl.