Repossessions on the rise

Home repossessions have risen by 48% in the past year.

There were 18,900 repossessions in the six months to June, up from 12,800 in the same period last year.

The Financial Services Authority, has warned lenders to treat their customers "fairly" if they were running into financial difficulty.

BBC News website readers have been emailing about their experiences.

We had our home repossessed in April. Our mortgage lender never offered any help and constantly piled on arrears charges and other legal fees. We were with them for four years and they were intent on repossession from the moment we fell behind. Our house was worth 237K and they have dropped it to 173k after just 2 months on the market. We will probably end up in a negative situation after all of the charges have been added and our second loan paid off. I am appalled that they have the power to sell it for whatever they want to.
Anon, Merseyside

I am currently facing repossession in two weeks. Our house is valued at the maximum �95,000 we owe the mortgage company �90,000. We have a cash buyer waiting to pay �85,000 for the property, but they are not allowing the sale to go through. Even though the mortgage company are going to lose out if repossession happens they are still pushing it in this direction, forcing us soon to have to go bankrupt!!
Emma Wilson, Manchester

My wife and I are now facing repossession after a comedy of errors...our lender has refused to make any arrangements other than us paying an additional �200 a month which we can't afford. Because we are facing repossession our credit is low so no one is willing to rent to us so we will have to rely on the local council to house us who have said they will have to place us in temporary accommodation (namely one room shared by a family of four) if we do get evicted.
David Redman, Bognor Regis

My partner and I have been struggling for the last 6 months, we are constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul, we have secured loans also against the property, we have pressure all of the time and am now in the third month of not paying our mortgage along with other bills, we cannot get out of it and are getting deeper and deeper into debt.
Jennifer Radmall, Purfleet, Essex

Due to redundancy and the break up of my marriage in February this year, I am having difficulties in meeting my monthly mortgage repayments. I am currently �2,500 in arrears and can only afford to pay �650 a month. I have requested an interest only repayment, which has been agreed, but even so, my repayments should be in the region of �950. My house is on the market and I have reduced the sale price by �5,000 to try and attract a sale. I have a 16 year old son who is hoping to go onto sixth form at school, but of course I am worried sick that repossession proceedings may be instigated, despite the fact that I am paying at fair proportion of my mortgage.
Andrew Dunstone, Auckley Doncaster

I have worked in social housing for 30 years often dealing with applications from homeless households facing eviction for mortgage arrears. Most households under threat of eviction have mortgages from non high street lenders who sold mortgages to people on the basis of self certificating their income. It is very likely they were never able to afford to pay the monthly mortgage, however, people sign up to these deals because they have no other options. This coupled with the high interest charges 9%-10% or more that these lenders charge, make repossession very likely.
Tony Peak, London

I have worked in two major high street banks, and whenever people used to come in struggling with mortgage payments, we were always told by managers to 'put them on the phone' if we couldn't get any sales from them. No-one wanted to help them in branches as there was no money or sales targets involved. It's disgusting and I saw so many people becoming upset, confused and angry as they were simply pushed aside and fobbed off. How silly is it that major banks don't have debt help in their branches. I wanted to but was often told off by the manager and indeed his manager for 'staying too long' with people and not reaching my targets.
K A, Gwent, Wales

Not a problem at the moment but I know that as soon as I come out of my fixed rate (set quite low when we got it) we have no chance of getting a re-mortgage at anything like that value and I am worried what will happen then. Our repayments based on today's rates will go from �1,680 to nearly 2K a month. Where am I supposed to get the extra �300-�400 a month from? The government need to encourage lenders to start supplying the market with reasonable fixed term mortgages again. They also need to drop the interest rate a bit.
Gary Jones, Leeds

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