Mortgage Express - Outright Repossession Order - help!

[Lea_HTH]

If you think you can genuinely afford the payments, and can prove that, then I suggest you contact your local authority and ask about their mortgage protection fund. It is public money that the local authority can use to help people clear or reduce their arrears IF they will not get into trouble with payment again in the future.

 

Your arrears are relatively low, so the LA may decide it is cheaper to pay the arrears for you than to get an application to rehouse you and your four kids.

 

Contact them and see what they say - if they agree to give (or lend at a low rate of interest or no interest) the money, then they can put that in writing and you will be able to make a stay application to the court on form N244 to stay any eviction once the warrant is executed on the PO you received today.

[Lea_HTH]

Can someone from SITE TEAM try and direct some help and guidance here or someone with expert reposession knowledge such as Ell-en?

 

WP

 

I think I pretty much fulfill the 'expert repossession knowledge' criteria. Or at least, I hope I do, since I not only do it for a living, but train others to do it too. If I fail that criteria, then the thousands of cases we have dealt with in our scheme have been mere figments of our imagination.

[Lea_HTH]

OP - all is not lost. Contact the local authority as I suggested, and then as Ell-enn suggested come back here for a bit more help. It is entirely possible for you to appeal the decision, however you will have to show proof of affordability, which the judge at your recent hearing clearly decided was an insurmountable issue.

[Lea_HTH]

You won't be entitled to housing benefit as that is for rented properties. You may, however, be entitled to claim the DWP statutory mortgage interest support IF you are entitled to claim JSA. But that is not payable until 13 weeks after you sign on and will only cover the interest rate on your mortgage up to a maximum interest rate of 3.67%. So in combination with that you will have to ask your mortgage company to put you on interest only if you have a repayment mortgage or find the shortfall between what the DWP will pay and what the monthly instalment is. If your interest rate is above the level indicated, then the money you can claim will not cover even the interest only element of your loan, so there may be a shortfall to find even if you are entitled to SMI.

 

That said, if you return to court with details of your applications to the local authority for financial assistance with the arrears, and your claims for benefit, the judge may decide to stay the eviction until it is clearer about what you will be able to afford. But the judge will take into consideration whether or not your property has any equity in it, as if it doesn't, then the mortgagee will be unduly prejudiced by a delay and their security will be at risk. If there is equity - even as little as 20-30k, it is arguable that a 13 week wait for SMI to come through won't make a massive difference to them.