Mortgage payment difficulties.

What we will do.
If you have not contacted us in advance and fail to make your mortgage payment in full and on time, we will contact you at an early stage to discuss your problem, in writing and by phone so we can agree how we can help you.

We will give you details of organisations who can give you debt advice (for example, Citizens Advice), and we will talk to them if you want us to.

We will always give you reasonable time to pay back any missing payments and would only start proceedings to repossess your home as a last resort, when all other reasonable options have been exhausted.

How we might be able to help you.

We are signatories of the Mortgage Charter, a set of measures agreed between the government, major mortgage lenders, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – designed to ease the concerns of residential mortgage customers.

We can have a discussion with you about your possible options under the Mortgage Charter, and other ways we can help too.

1. Change the way you make your payments, or the date you make them during the month.
2. Extend your mortgage term to reduce your monthly payments, with the option to revert to your original term within six months (this would reduce your monthly payments, but increase the overall cost of the mortgage).
3. Allow you to pay just the interest payments for up to six months (which would reduce your monthly payments, but increase the overall cost of the mortgage).

We would normally expect to be able to agree an appropriate arrangement with you. If we can make one of these arrangements with you, we will explain how it would work and give you time to consider it. We might agree to you remaining in the property to sell the property yourself, depending on your circumstances.

You should be aware that any missed or late payments will be registered on your credit file.

What you can do to help yourself.

1. Tell us as soon as possible if you are having problems repaying your mortgage or think that you might experience problems shortly.
2. Seek debt advice if you would like help with managing your finances.
3. Contact us quickly if we try to contact you.
4. Make sure you keep any other people paying the mortgage, and anyone guaranteeing the mortgage, up to date with what is happening.
5. Keep to the payment plan we agree with you, or tell us if there is a change in your circumstances which may affect the arrangement. If you do not make the agreed payments, we might have to go to court to get back any money you owe us, or to repossess your property.
6. Check whether you can get any state benefits or tax credits which could help to increase your income.
7. If you have an insurance policy, check whether it would help with your payments.
8. Tell us if you move to a new address.

You may also want to talk to a professional adviser, such as a debt counsellor or a solicitor, before you change your mortgage arrangements. We strongly advise that you seek independent, free debt advice – contacts for these are listed at the bottom of the page.

If you have a shared ownership mortgage.
You will also need to contact your housing association to discuss the situation with regards to paying your rent. Failure to pay your rent or service charges can result in forfeiture of lease.

Costs and charges.
If you are in arrears, we may charge you for reasonable administrative and legal costs. We will tell you if there are any charges or costs that you will have to pay in accordance with our Tariff of Charges.

If we cannot agree on a solution.

1. We may send a debt counsellor to see you to discuss your financial circumstances; the cost of the visit will be charged to your mortgage account.
2. We may go to court to start proceedings to repossess your home. If proceedings take place, we strongly recommend that you attend the court and that you seek independent debt and legal advice.

Starting court proceedings does not necessarily mean that we will repossess your home. We will keep trying to solve the problem with you. Possession is always a last resort. If, as a last resort, we repossess your home, we will give you advice about getting in touch with your local authority to see if they can find you somewhere else to live.

If we repossess your home.
We will sell it for the best price we can reasonably get. We will try to sell it as soon as possible.

We will give you reasonable time to take your possessions from your home.

We will use the money raised from selling your home to pay your mortgage and any other secured loans. If there is any money left over, we will pay it to you.

If selling your home does not raise enough money to pay off the mortgage.
If there is not enough money from the sale to pay the whole mortgage, you will still owe us the amount that is left (a shortfall debt). We will tell you what this is as soon as possible.

If you bought your home with other borrowers, each of you is responsible for all the money borrowed. This is true even if you normally only pay part of the mortgage.

We will contact you within six years of selling your property to arrange for you to pay back what you still owe.

We will take into account your income and outgoings when we arrange a payment plan for this shortfall debt with you. But if we cannot arrange a suitable plan, we may go to court to get our money back. You might have to pay additional court costs. If a shortfall debt is not paid, it could affect whether you are able to get credit in the future.

How to complain.
If you do not think we have treated you fairly, you can complain to us by post, telephone or by email. View our make a complaint page for full information about what you can expect from us. If your complaint is not dealt with to your satisfaction, you may then take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. A referral to the Financial Ombudsman must be made within six months of the date of our final response letter.

Other issues.
Some companies may offer you new loans or even invite you to sell your property to them and then lease it back as a way of resolving your short term financial difficulty. Please be careful, as such actions may not be in your long term interests. We would advise you to seek independent legal advice before entering into any arrangement of this type.

You may be thinking about handing your keys over to us. If you do this, you will still owe us any outstanding debt, and we would advise you to talk to us before taking such action.