Well how to you like that! Mr Turner has 3 young kids, it's 3 weeks until Christmas and his lender decides to resort to bullying tactics to get him out of his property - that's right, REPOSSESSION ! There is no season of goodwill with lenders like this!
Mr Turner had a heart attack 18 months ago. He didn't have any form of accident & sickness insurance (and given the recent press and TV coverage there's no guarantee they would have paid out even if he did have some). Around the same time Mrs Turner gave birth to their daughter, also a cut in income as she was now on basic statutory maternity pay.
In their desperation for meeting bills and catching up with mortgage payments they turned to some financial institutions for help, where they found many willing lenders only too happy to provide them with a secured loan at a staggering 8% interest rate and various conditions, fees, charges and penalties attached.
Inevitably the reprieve was relatively short lived and they missed a payment on the new loan too. Mr & Mrs Turner did everything right in these circumstances. They sought help and advice, attended court hearings and spoke to their lender to reschedule payments (for outstanding arrears). All was going well until Mr & Mrs Turner moved banks and their standing order payments got a bit messed up. Despite proof to their lender of the circumstances causing late payment in this instance - and a promise to catch up, the lenders goodwill and Christmas cheer seemed to have departed them and they were no longer willing to negotiate. In fact, they were going full stream ahead for repossession - so potentially another repossessed property to add to the staggering numbers already recorded in 2006 (and set to rise in 2007).
I actually believe if they had gone to court and explained this to the judge with accompanying documentation the judge would have found in their favour. As it was they just didn't have the energy to bother with mortgages and secured loans anymore. They had lost complete confidence in the banking system, lenders and all that went with it. Owning their own home was more hassle than it was worth.
So they called me and to cut a very long story short prevented their eviction, bought their property and rented it back to them. They are now an incredible £500 better off per month, paying £800 per month in rent for their 3 bed semi instead of £1300 per month to 4 lenders (all of whom were piling on the fees, interest and penalty charges).
They are going to enjoy this Christmas, I just hope that the case manager at the lender pressing for eviction enjoys his Christmas too. Don't you?
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