If you miss or are behind with payments on your motgage or any loan secured on your property then you are said to be “in arrears” or to have “mortgage arrears”.

Once you are in arrears you ae in danger of having your home repossessed if you do not act. Normally lenders wait for two payments to be missed before taking serious action. Repossession proceedings occur because your mortgage or loan provider, as part of the contract you have with them, has the right to take back control of the property and sell it to recover any arrears and outstanding balances due. This is , however, the last resort for the lender and there are several stages where you have the opportunity to prevet this.

Stage 1 - Lender chases for missed payments.

Initially your lender(s) will contact you in writing or by telephone to chase for missed payments.

Action you can take: Talk to your lender. Inform them of your situation and try to reach an agreement with them so that you can make additional monthly payments to pay off the arrears over a period of time.  Make notes about any conversations you have (including date, time, who you spoke to and the outcome of the conversation) and get details of any agreements reached sent to you in writing (such as a new schedule of  payments and any conditions).

Stage 2 – Lender’s solicitors contact you.

If the arrears remain unpaid for anything from 3 months or more, your lender will refer your case to their solicitors to deal with.The solicitors representing the lender will write to you and demand full payment of all missed payments. They will inform you that failure to make these payments and bring your account back up to date could result in repossession of your property.

Action you can take: Talk to the solicitors and follow the same process as above. The aim is to reach an agreement on how you can catch up with the missed payments over a period of time in addition to meeting the regular monthly payment. Again, make notes about any conversations you have (including date, time, who you spoke to and the outcome of the conversation) and get details of any agreements reached sent to you in writing (such as a new schedule of  payments and any conditions).

If you have a possession hearing at the County Court, or have already had one, then you are into the repossession process. For information and help on teh next stage, see th Repossession Proceeings article (stage 3).