House repossession can be a scary prospect, and generally occurs if you’ve defaulted on your mortgage payments.
If you’re concerned about your Cardiff home being repossessed, you’ve come to the right place. In this help guide, we’ll talk you through all things home repossession, from what it means to how you can prevent it.
What Is Home Repossession?
In simple terms, house repossession is where a property is repossessed by your lender if mortgage payments are not paid. This is very much a last resort for a lender to make, and a repayment plan can usually be put in place to enable people to repay late payments.
Lenders must provide a list of all missed payments, the total level of arrears, and outstanding debt prior to applying for a court order to have the property repossessed.
What Happens When Your Home Is Repossessed?
When a property is repossessed, the lender will sell the property and use the funds to pay off what you owe them.
Other costs will also be covered by the sale of the property such as the lender’s legal costs, estate agent fees, and bills for repairs/maintenance.
Any money left over will be paid to you. If the sale does not cover the debt, you will still be liable for any money owed to your lender unless they decide to write this off.
What Is Repossession Like In Cardiff?
Property repossession is not common in Cardiff, however, as it’s a large city it unsurprisingly has more property repossessions than other areas of Wales.
In 2022, Cardiff recorded 30 repossessed properties, closely followed by 21 in Swansea, 19 in Rhondda Cynon Taf, 16 in Caerphilly, and 13 in Carmarthenshire.
How Can You Stop Repossession?
House repossession can be stopped, however, it does depend on how far in arrears you are as to the likelihood of the repossession being prevented.
If you’re one or two months in arrears, it’s unlikely that your house will be repossessed provided that you can find the financial means to pay back your late mortgage repayments.
Communicating with your mortgage lender is key at this stage, as if they know that you’re making efforts to pay outstanding payments they’ll likely give you more leeway as they’re aware of your position. Radio silence at this point is the worst thing you can do, as your mortgage lender won’t be aware of your situation and won’t be able to support you.
If you’re three or more months in arrears, your chances of having your Cardiff home repossessed increase significantly as court dates may have been sent to you informing you that your house is due to be repossessed.
You may still be able to prevent home repossession at this stage as you usually have between three – eight weeks before the court hearing to make late payments, so it’s not the end of the line if you are three months in arrears. However, we must stress that communicating with your lender to arrange a payment plan at this point is essential.
We’ve detailed below some methods for preventing house repossession, bear these in mind if you’re keen to prevent the repossession of your Cardiff home:
Prioritise Mortgage Payments
This tip may sound obvious, but prioritising your mortgage payments is the best way to prevent your home from being repossessed.
Speak to your other bill providers to see if there’s anything you can do to stagger payments, enabling you to focus on your mortgage payments until you’re out of arrears.
Seek Legal Advice
Seeking legal or financial advice can be really helpful in stopping your house from being repossessed.
Solicitors and financial advisors can help to establish payment plans with your mortgage lender, which can help you to manage payments and ultimately ensure late payments are paid off.
Communication
As mentioned previously, communication is key when it comes to stopping a house repossession. If your lender doesn’t hear from you and you’re in arrears, their tolerance is likely to be less as they will be unaware of what’s happening with your mortgage payments.
Contacting them regularly will also enable them to provide you with support in clearing any debts you may have with them. At the end of the day, your lender will want you to be meeting your payments; it’s not in their interest for your home to be repossessed, so keep them updated and they’re likely to be more lenient towards your case.
Check Insurance
In some scenarios, insurance policies can help to cover late mortgage payments. It’s well worth having a read through your insurance policies as they may include clauses that indicate mortgage payment protection.
Your insurance provider may be able to help particularly if one of the below reasons is affecting your ability to work and therefore generate enough income to meet your mortgage payments:
- Redundancy
- Disability
- Sickness
- Accidental injury
Sell Home
The last resort to prevent a home from being repossessed is to sell the property.
We appreciate that this may not be the route you wish to go down, but it could be the final option available to you if you’re over three months in arrears and unable to pay your late mortgage payments. It’s very much possible to sell a home that is undergoing repossession, so it’s worth bearing this in mind if the other options haven’t worked for you.
How We Buy Any Home Can Help
If you have a property in Cardiff that you’d like to sell, We Buy Any Home can help. Regardless of whether your home is likely to be repossessed, we can help you to sell your home quickly without affecting the sale price.
As the biggest online cash-buying property company in the UK, we have many years of experience purchasing homes in Cardiff. You simply need to submit an application online and you could receive your property funds in as little as 7 days!
We’ll cover the cost of your legal representation over the course of the sale, as well as instructing a surveyor to carry out a survey on your home at our expense.
To get the ball rolling on the sale of your Cardiff property, get a free cash offer via our website today.
