repayments. You may feel like you are on a slippery slope.

Although this is usually a last resort for any lender, you may have found yourself facing legal proceedings to recover the arrears and repossess your property. If your property is repossessed it will be sold at auction. The proceeds of sale will be set against your outstanding mortgage balance, plus any fees that may have been incurred. Any surplus money will be returned to you once the mortgage has been repaid.

Although the lender is required to sell your property for the highest price possible it does not always achieve the price you would get on the open market so this situation needs to be avoided where possible.

However, there is a set procedure that any lender taking you to court has to go through to satisfy the courts that the lender has given you a fair opportunity to settle before arranging a court hearing. A court will normally give you up to 60 days to come up with a plan or a remortgage to another lender

More information

In this section we will introduce issues that relate to mortgage repossessions. A crucial point to bear in mind is that if you do not keep up your mortgage payments, the lender WILL eventually be able to enforce an eviction order on you, repossess and sell the property to recover its capital. As a general rule, lenders do not want to evict occupants. If you are in danger of losing your home seek full legal and financial advice immediately. In the same vein, you should consider taking advice as early as possible in the event that you get into difficulty over mortgage repayments in the future.

Lender Letters

The initial correspondence is likely to be a letter reminding you that you have missed payments. It will usually request you to: confirm when you intend to catch up on arrears, or simply ordering you to contact the lender to discuss the mortgage situation

If your lender is not satisfied with your proposals, or if your debt and arrears situation worsens, they will probably write to you again. The second letter states that solicitors will be requested to contact you if you do not clear your arrears in total immediately or to make contact to discuss the situation within seven days. Leybridge Limited can communicate with your lender, ensuring that the matter is managed professionally. We work with you to stop repossession.

Lender's Solicitor

Your lender's solicitors will send you a letter giving you seven days to pay off all your arrears or make a proposal for doing so. If they are not satisfied with your response, they can immediately start court action for repossession of your property.

Leybridge Limited can negotiate for you at this stage to stop the repossession. The court is more likely to be sympathetic if you have made an effort to address the problem before legal action was started. Our advisers can help you to do this.

The Possession Order

If you are in arrears, you must contact your lender immediately. It might be possible to negotiate a renewed repayment plan. Many lenders are in fact sympathetic to personal difficulties, provided you are honest with them at the earliest stage. If letters are ignored, you WILL eventually be served with a county court claim (within six months of the first arrears).

This Order signifies that legal proceedings to repossess your home have begun. At the subsequent court hearing, your lender will notify in detail to the judge that your arrears amount to a breach of contract to make and continue making payments.

If the judge agrees, he will immediately grant the lender possession. That means you must move out of the home by a date set by the judge. Thereafter, your home will be sold to repay the mortgage. If the sale does not cover all the expenses (including all arrears, legal and admin costs, bailiffs, etc) then you will still remain personally liable to the lender for such subsequent claims..

Do not suffer alone. Contact us as soon as threatening repossession correspondence is received from your lender