Repossession fears soar

Hundreds of families fear they are in imminent danger of losing their home in the run- up to Christmas and in the New Year, The Belfast Telegraph has learned.

Despite the 3% cut in interest rates over the past two months and demands from the government for banks to be more lenient with defaulters, the number of homeowners seeking professional advice on avoiding repossession shot up by more than 400% in recent weeks, figures disclosed to The Belfast Telegraph show.

More than one thousand households stand to lose their home over the next few weeks, while many others will begin paying back substantial arrears on top of their monthly mortgage payments.

The government-funded debt charity Money Advice dealt with 123 mortgage and secured loan problems across Northern Ireland in the last quarter, amounting to almost £1m in arrears. This is a 434% increase on the same period in 2007, when the charity handled 23 cases to do with mortgages and secured loans amounting to under £100,000 in arrears.

Actions for repossession processed by the Northern Ireland Court Service have nearly doubled over the same period. The last quarter saw 1,006 homeowners issued with writs and summons through the Court Service compared with just 521 in the same quarter |of last year.

According to a forecast from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, repossession rates across the UK will increase by 67% on average next year and 4.4% of all mortgages will be in arrears by the end of 2009. Repossession rates in Northern Ireland are accelerating almost 30% faster — at around 93%, by the Court Service’s November estimate.

The figures follow urgent requests from Stormont for high street lenders to pass on interest rate cuts to mortgage |holders. read more