Repossession - Court hearing on the 29th October

[megthemog]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

I am very much in the same boat and have a court hearing on the 29th!! Very worried!

3 months mortgage in arrears which occcured when my partner and i split up. We had the arrears suspended for 3 months whilst we tried to sell the house, but current market being what it is. No sale went through.

I decided to remove the house from the market and subsequently stay in the property myself.

I am managing to pay the mortgage each month and have done so for the last 5 months. But now the review ended and the lender has put in a court order for the 3 outstanding payments.

My question is. If my mortgage is for example, 20 years, can the 3 months arrears be added to the length of the mortgage, so it's now 20 yrs and 3 months?

I cannot afford more momey per month as i am also tied into an iva and money is very tight, with every pound/pence counted for.

 

Please help.

 

Kind regards.

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, you would need to write to the lender asking them to capitalise the arrears to the end of the mortgate, but you are very tight on time though with your hearing on 29th October! I would say it is unlikely that you will receive a reply from your lender before the hearing. You could try ringing them and getting them to agree and send confirmation in writing asap, which you could then take along to the hearing. Have you only just been informed of the date of the hearing?

 

Usually the judge will only consider suspending possession if you can make an offer to pay even a small amount towards the arrears on top of your normal monthly payment.

 

If you want me to draft a letter for you let me know, you would have to send it by guaranteed next day delivery though, and enclose a budget sheet (which I can let you have) showing your financial position.

 

Kind Regards

 

Ell-enn

[megthemog]

Good morning Ell-enn,

 

I have tried contacting Abbey National (Mortgage lenders), but as it has now gone to Litigations, they will not speak to me to try and rectify any arrears solutions.

 

I have received two letters from Litigations explaining it is now dealt with by them, and that they have applied to the courts for a hearing, but no correspondence to offer help/advice prior to the hearing.

 

I honestly, thought at this stage, Abbey National or Litigations would not be in a position to help me until it actually went to court to be finalised.

 

I would like to pay even a small amount, but with the IVA and court costs already added to the mortgage, which has increased the mortgage by £14 per month, i'm not sure if i'm over stretching.

 

I suppose i could rent a room out, but again, this is a solution for later, and i think i need one sooner than later.

 

I would very much appreciate if you could draft a letter for me, that would be perfect, as i'm not too sure on what to write.

 

If you need an email address to send them to me please let me know.

 

Thank you very much for helping me.

 

Kind regards.

[PGH7447]

Can you not try and change the mortgage to interest only for a limited time?

 

Considering that these companies are supposed to be more lenient at this time, going for possesion for 3 months arrears does not exactly sound like they are taking much notice of the government

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, OK - I will draft a letter for you this morning - if you cannot offer any monthly payment towards arrears the only thing we can do is ask if they will capitalise the arrears onto the mortgage term. However, I would think it is unlikely they will do that at this stage but always worth a try.

 

Will post the letter on here later.

 

Kind Regards

 

Ell-enn

[megthemog]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

Thanks very much.

 

If this seems unlikely that the judge would allow the mortgage to be capitalised. From your expertise, would there be any other options to save the possession order being made other than additional money per month added to the mortgage to cover arrears?

 

What would be the least amount of money per month they would accept?

 

If i'm tied into an IVA for 5 years, therefore forfitting any equity to myself if the house is sold within this time. If i didn't sell, and stayed in the property would the court consider the arrears to be paid over the 5 years do you think?

 

Again, much appreciated.

 

Stephen

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, the court has the power to order that the arrears can be spread over the remaining time of the mortgage (in theory!) as per the Norgan case law (Cheltenham & Gloucester v Norgan). However it is usually large sums of arrears that would be considered for any great length of time. In your case, with only 3 months arrears I don't think there would be a problem with spreading it over 2 - 3 years.

 

How much are the arears and how much extra could you afford to pay each month?

 

Ell-enn

[megthemog]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

The arrears only amount to £1545. The Mortgage was £404.00 per month and now with court costs added to the mortgage payments are £418.00

 

Having already completed an expenditure form for the IVA. I have a disposable income of £113.00 per month, but this does not include food. But everything else is included.

 

The mortgage is still on both names, mine and my ex. But we are both in the same situation undergoing an IVA with very little to offer for arrears. Would the court consider £50.00 per month (£25.00 from each person) over 32 months? I don't know at this stage if my ex can agree to this though, so i can only offer £25.00 from myself.

 

Should i try and contact Litigations or Abbey to try and request the mortgage to be capitalised at this stage? I wish i'd asked this question to them alot sooner now.

 

Thanks again.

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, it's unlikely you will get an answer from them before the hearing next week so not much point in writing a letter.

 

Did you fill in the defence form you would have received withthe court papers and return it to court? if so, what did you put in your defence?

[megthemog]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

Your going to throttle me i'm sure!

It wasn't until last night after reading advice you had offered to others that i realised it had to be returned prior to the court hearing.

I don't know why, but i thought i had to fill it all in and take it with me to court.!

I'm going to fill it in today and hand deliver it to the courts tomorrow.

I'm not sure what to write, but i thought about something like this:

- This is what was disclosed for the IVA to be submitted.

 

Due to my finances being in disrepair, due to loans and credit cards I then consolidated in 2007. This then lead to over borrowing and leaving me nothing each per month. After the relationship ended and with the house up for sale and having a buyer being accepted, we decided that not to pay the mortgage while the sale was going through would be the best option for us at the time. (as arrears would be paid after the sale went through).

 

It wasn't until the buyer pulled out at the 11th hour after 2 months that we would be asked for the arrears as the sale didn't go through.

 

We had the arrears put on hold for 3 months as agreed by the lender, but this time expired and went to Litigation without any further reviews (as promised).

 

We took the house off the market as we'd lowered the price just to cover the mortgage amount but no interest from buyers at all.

 

I decided to move back into the property and have maintained all payments on time per month since.

 

What do you think?

 

Regards.

[Ell-enn]

Consider yourself throttled !

 

OK, I will put what you have posted into "court-speak" and post on here shortly. So in the box at Q.27 write "see affixed sheet".

 

Back shortly

 

 

Ell

[megthemog]

Ell,

 

 

Steve

[Ell-enn]

Here you go, enter the claim number at the top and also your name(s). I have referred to yourselves in the plural as the mortgage is joint so you both should answer to the case, but only one of you actually needs to attend (you - I presume?). Affix the statement to the completed N11M form and then hand deliver it to the court, pronto!. Make sure you take a photocopy of it all first as you will need to take it with you on the day so you can refer to it.

 

Ell

[Ell-enn]

oooppps, it didn't affix !

 

here you go..

Megthemog Q 27.doc

[megthemog]

Dear Ell,

 

Thank you so much for all your time and trouble to help me.

 

I honestly do not know what i would have done without your help.

 

Obviously, i will keep you informed of the outcome.

Is there anything i can/or should being doing now in the meantime.?

 

(Apart from hot-footing it down to the courts to hand deliver the forms, of course)! .

 

Thanks again, the form looks great.

 

Steve.

[Ell-enn]

You're welcome ..... now get down to the court! we can talk strategy later lol

[megthemog]

Ell-enn,

 

All signed and delivered this morning.

 

Fingers crossed now.

 

Steve

[Ell-enn]

Great stuff, all we can do now is wait until Wednesday, but I am confident you will be ok - the judge is very unlikely to give possession to Abbey at the first time of asking, especially as they have not offered any help to you before proceeding to litigation.

 

Try not to worry too much about the hearing, it will be conducted in a private room with just the judge, yourself and a representative from the other side. The judge will understand that you are nervous and they are usually very good at guiding you through the process. When necessary you should address him/her as Sir or Madam. As Abbey are bringing the case they will be asked to speak first - don't interrupt at this point. The judge will hear their side and then address you. The whole process should take no more than 10-15 minutes. You will then find yourself outside on the pavement feeling a hundred times better than you did when you went in as you will still have a roof over your head.

 

Can you get a statement (bank or internet) showing the regular payments you said you have made over the last 5 months? We could do a statement affixing that proof for you to take to court on the day.

 

Ell-enn

[megthemog]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

Wow! How fast was I in and out of court yesterday! I think it was around 7 mins in all!

 

Firstly, may i say a big huge thank you for your letter that we submitted to the court in-time for the hearing!

 

Secondly, anyone out there that is going to court for the first repossession order. Don't panic! (Easier said than done i know, and my stomach was doing somersaults prior to going in).

 

In our case, we were hoping that we would be able to spread the costs of 3 missed mortgage payments over a 60 month period and offer this to the judge.

When we had turned up, there was a gentleman acting on behalf of the claimant and he had already been instructed to accept our offer. So when we confronted the judge, we basically had to say that both sides were accepting the offer and the judge agreed.! 7 minutes, it was that simple.!

 

In our case, we are not happy regarding the help, support and advice we had received from out mortgage lenders (or should i say lack of) prior to it going to Litigations and to the court. Therefore, we spoke to the duty solicitor after the hearing who is very much in agree-ance with us to complain to the lenders complaints dept directly to try and remove the court costs and litigation fees that have been added onto the mortgage.

 

I will keep you all posted, try not to panic, be calm and i'm sure from our own experience, you'll be fine.

 

Ell-enn, your a star.

 

A big huge, thank you to you and your team.

 

Regards,

Steve

[Ell-enn]

Brilliant news! and well done for being so brave. Hope you can relax a bit now:)

 

 

Ellx (knew you'd be ok;))

[megthemog]

Hi Ell,

 

Have a good week-end, if you haven't left already!

Thanks for all your help, you deserve a medal!

 

Steve

xx

[OLIVE.FAMILY]

Just catching up on all the news. WELL DONE that is fantastic. Keep us posted on getting the fees knocked off.

 

olives xx