The number of people in the UK whose homes are being repossessed is on the increase. Recent (October 2005) figures show that nearly 20,000 mortgage repossession orders were issued during the past three months in England and Wales. This represents a 66% increase since last year.

Repossession orders have been on the increase since early 2004 and mortgage lenders have blamed rising repossessions on the five interest rate rises that took place in the UK between November 2003 and August 2004.

There are various reasons why repossessions are on the increase.

In many cases, as rising interest rates have pushed up the cost of mortgage repayments, people have started to struggle to keep up.

In other cases, people who have been made redundant or who have been unable to work due to long-term sickness or injury have found themselves unable to pay their mortgage each month.

Once you start to fall behind with your mortgage repayments and build up mortgage arrears (often through no fault of your own), there is a risk that the mortgage company may try to repossess your home.

The threat of repossession can be extremely worrying and is something that you certainly shouldn't ignore. But because of the stigma surrounding repossession, many people try to avoid facing up to the fact that their home may be repossessed and so put off talking to anyone about it.

However, in a lot of cases, if your mortgage lender is threatening you with repossession there may be steps you can take to prevent the loss of your home.

So long as you have some equity in your property and that equity is worth more than the amount you owe the mortgage company, then a remortgage could allow you to free up sufficient funds to pay off the lender and avoid your property being repossessed.

Because not many banks and building societies will be willing to offer a remortgage to someone who has existing arrears or is facing repossession, it is important to seek specialist advice right away so as you don't waste valuable time approaching lenders who can't or won't help you.

To find out more, visit http://www.cleanslatemortgages.co.uk/repossessions.shtml for information on how you could stop repossession.

About the Author

David Miles is the webmaster of Clean Slate Mortgages, a website which includes information on how to stop repossession.

Copyright 2005. You may reproduce this article free of charge, so long as this author bio and all links remain intact.

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