More effort needed to prevent U.K. home repossessions
August 17, 2009
Repossessions of U.K. homes fell in the second quarter of the year from a first quarter total of 12,700 to 11,400. This was due to pressure from the government upon lenders to show customers with money problems to be more lenient and low interest rates.
However, actions against troubled homeowners and business are expected to rise as unemployment figures grow due to the recession. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said that although figures for the first half of the year were below half of their predicted 65,000 repossessions for the whole year, they expected numbers to increase.
Ian Austin, the U.K.’s Housing Minister said: “Repossessions now have got to be the absolute last resort. There’s advice and help available right the way through the process, from the moment you are worried about paying your mortgage right up until the point you get to court.”
Homeless charity Shelter has said that more needs to be done in order to prevent a second wave of home repossessions. It is asking money lenders to allow their customers to change their fixed rate mortgages to mortgages with a variable rate. Kay Boycott, the charity’s director of policy and campaigns points out that: “Banks have been bailed out with billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, now it’s time to ensure they do everything they can to keep customers in their homes.”
Thanks to online.wsj.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
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