Once you have missed the 1st payment the lender will write to you confirming that you are in arrears. In the letter they will ask you to make a prompt payment within 7 days to clear the arrears or ask you to make a suitable proposal to avoid further action. The charge for missing a payment and writing to you will be added to your loan.

If you fail to contact your lender, pay them back or cannot offer a suitable repayment plan then they are legally entitled to commence legal proceedings as long as you are 2 months in arrears. This would be the beginning of the repossession process and you are then at risk of losing your home. Your lender will normally write to you advising that a court order for possession has been applied for.

Actions Call your lender immediately, take a record of who you speak to and note the date and then follow this up in writing. You may be able to rely on these notes later in court, but should take independent legal advice over this. Before you attend the Court hearing sit down in a quiet room with some pen and paper or a computer if you have one. Calculate all of your essential monthly outgoings and income and work out how much you can afford to repay the lenders.

Stage 2 of Repossession Process: A Summons from the Court

If you have been unable to pay back the arrears and a possession order has been applied for by your lender, a judge will set a hearing date and the court will write to you requesting your attendance.

Actions As soon as you receive this court summons you are advised to obtain advice immediately about your options and what to do next. Be sure to reply to the court if you do not want to damage your case further. You should find a solicitor to represent you in court and to develop your defence for the hearing. Make sure you attend. Ask you local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) to check if the notices served on you are correct and also in your entitlement for any Housing benefits and Legal Aid. If there is an error with the notices served then there is a strong chance the case for repossession will be void. Click this link to find your Local CAB office and at bottom of the page enter your postcode and click enter http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm.

Stage 3 of Repossession Process: The Court Hearing

During the hearing the judge will hear from you and the lender and come to a decision about what should happen next. This decision will depend on whether you can repay the mortgage and if the terms and period to make the repayments are acceptable. The courts do not like to repossessing properties so will try all that is possible to find a solution for you and the lender.

Some of the options open to the judge include: allowing you to stay in the property provided you keep to certain conditions, such as repaying the arrears in instalments; giving you time to sell your property to avoid repossession or deciding that you should be evicted.

Actions remember your repayment plan and what you can comfortably afford. Hopefully you will be able to agree a suitable arrears repayment plan, so that the Judge can issue a suspension order, which means that the repossession order is on hold for the short term. If you do not maintain the re payment schedule, then the lender can obtain an eviction order without further court hearings.

For a first hearing it is more than likely that more information will be required to make a decision so the case may be adjourned with a new hearing date set.

During the next hearing a suspended order will not normally be given unless there is a clear change of circumstance i.e. you can clear the arrears or have found a buyer that can purchase your property in 4 weeks or have increased your income/changed employers.

Stage 4 of Repossession Process: The Possession Order

If the judge decides that you have to leave your home, the court order will set a date for you to leave. If you have not left by that date, your lender must apply for a warrant of execution so that a court bailiff can legally remove you from your home.

Stage 5 of Repossession Process: Eviction Order

The Judge will order that you be evicted from your home if you cannot repay the arrears and ongoing mortgage payments. This order will set a final date for when you are to vacate your premises and normally this is within 14 and 28 days. Up to 6 weeks may be given if there is special circumstances i.e.

• You are elderly
• Very young children living at home
• Suffering an illness

If you don’t leave, the landlord will return to court and ask can ask for a warrant (of execution). This will allow the court bailiffs will be able to evict you. Although they cannot use violence to remove you they can use reasonable force in order to be able to gain access to the property and even ask police to assist in maintaining a peaceful eviction. If you are still in the property, they will give you 10 minutes to collect some essential belongings, then they will accompany you from your home and a locksmith will change all the locks on your home. You will be entitled to a supervised visit approximately 14 days later to remove your belongings. All the costs including eviction and estate agent fees will be added onto your mortgage debt.

If you are in danger of losing your home in Ipswich, Property Buyers Ipswich can help. You can even sell your home and then rent it back so that you don’t have to move out!

“Recent market trends remain consistent with an unwinding of the supply-demand imbalance that drove up prices for much of last year,” commented Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s chief economist. “As more sellers have returned to the market, buyers have a greater selection of properties to choose from and more bargaining power with which to bid down asking prices.” On an annual basis, prices are still higher than they were 12 months ago, with the annual rate of inflation measuring 3.9%. However, it is down quite sharply from rates of 8.7% and 6.6% in June and July respectively. In addition, between the final three months of 2008 and the first quarter of this year, the proportion of mortgage balances on fixed rates fell from 48% to 36%.

Your home is overpriced

Optimistic home sellers love to parrot the old adage, “There’s a buyer for every home.” But they often leave off the qualifier: “at the buyer’s price.”



The fact is that property buyers, not sellers, ultimately determine the market value of a home in Ipswich. You can ask for the moon and set your listing price well above comparable properties in your part of town, but at some point it will be up to you, the seller, to accept what the buyer thinks your home is worth.



Overpricing is the most common reason homes don’t sell. When you ask an unrealistic price, it sets in motion a process that often works against you. Here’s why:



Most estate agents and hence most qualified buyers, will see your new listing within 30 days. If it is overpriced by as little as 5%, it will be duly noted and interest in your property will wane, especially if you show no intention of coming off your asking price. You likely already priced out buyers who might have qualified for financing at a more reasonable price. Even if you manage to find a buyer at your inflated asking price, the property may not appraise at that figure and the financing will fall apart.



Your estate agent may have approved or even suggested the inflated asking price to secure your listing. Conversely, other agents often use overpriced properties like yours to help sell their own listings. (“Here’s what they are asking. Now would you like to take a second look at that first house I showed you?”)



If you have a house that really should be priced at £100,000 and you’ve got it listed at £160,000, you are trying to compete against homes that really are worth close to £200,000 and all of a sudden your home really is not competing well.



If your home remains on the Ipswich market for too long, agents and property buyers may begin to wonder if there are other, perhaps more serious reasons why it isn’t selling.

Your home doesn’t ‘show’ well

Your home is competing against shiny new houses in those pristine new estates out in the suburbs with their attractive prices, incentives and community amenities.



Face it: Even the best old house needs a little makeover if it hopes to attract a qualified buyer.



The good news is most of the work will be cosmetic and relatively inexpensive: a new coat of paint, a few attractive window boxes, a thorough cleaning of floors and carpets. Voila! The place may look good enough to reconsider.



A good estate agent can advise you on where your time and money are best spent.



Price and condition are two things that the seller can do something about, paint is probably a seller’s best friend because it makes things smell fresh and look fresh. If it’s time to paint, it’s time to paint. It’s the best return on investment.”

You’re in a bad location

Nothing has a greater effect on your home’s value than its location. Your humble abode might be worth a king’s ransom were it located nearer to London or along the docks, It might even jump thousands in value just two streets over in the next school catchment area.



If you’re in one of the higher-ranked schools around here, you’re going to add £30,000 to £60,000 to the price of the same house.



The point is that location rules in Ipswich property.



If your home’s location is less than desirable, your options are somewhat limited. A good estate agent will do his best to help you accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative of your circumstances, say by using foliage to screen off offensive adjoining properties or dampen traffic noise.



The best way to compensate for a poor location is to reduce your asking price or offer attractive incentives such as seller financing or a lease option with rent credit.

You have a lousy estate agent in Ipswich

Yep, they exist: estate agents who mislead, misfire and misbehave.



Their bad advice can cost you plenty in time, money and the sheer hassle of keeping the place show-ready 24/7.



The agent from hell will allow you to overprice your home (“Here’s what I can get for you if you list with me!”), not market it properly, fail to screen for qualified buyers, be unresponsive to interest from other agents (if they sell their own listing, they don’t have to split the commission) and keep you totally in the dark throughout the process.



What’s more, if your agent is abrasive, arrogant or otherwise difficult to work with, other agents may not want the hassle of showing any of their listings to prospective buyers.

You are battling competition or market conditions

We’ve all heard the terms “buyer’s market” and “seller’s market.” In Ipswich property, market conditions are affected by any number of external forces, some of them predictable (the weather, sort of), some of them unpredictable (the local Ipswich economy, interest rates, public optimism or pessimism).



In a “hot” or seller’s market, homes go fast. Inventory (homes on the market) may be low, meaning less competition for you. Chances are better that you will get your asking price in a hot market; in fact, it is not uncommon to even be offered more than your listing price.



But in a “flat,” “cold” or buyer’s market, sales slow to a trickle, inventories grow and buyers can find bargains, especially when they know the seller is motivated (i.e., paying on two mortgages).



If you’re trying to sell in a flat market, you’re not only competing against all that vacant new construction, but against rentals as well. In this case, be prepared to settle for less than top money, or wait to sell until the pendulum swings once again in your favor.

You have ineffective marketing

Gone are the days when an agent could simply place your listing with the local multiple listing service, hold a halfhearted open house and wait for another agent to bring forth a buyer.



Today’s top performers launch a multilevel marketing plan that includes listing tours for area agents, newspaper and even TV ads, weekend open houses, listing fliers and placements in local property publications.



Computers and the Internet also have changed the face of real estate. Today, more than one-third of all home buyers use the Internet for house hunting. The best estate agents are computer-savvy. They have your listing in colour on their laptops to show clients and communicate frequently via e-mail, a particular boon when working with out-of-town buyers.



Suffice it to say that if your estate agent isn’t listing your home online through the company website, you may not be getting the exposure necessary to find a property buyer.



Top tips
• Drop the price“There is only one reason why a property does not sell in anything but the depths of a recession, and that is price,” says Trevor Abrahmsohn from Glentree International, the man who recently sold Britain’s most expensive new-build house, Toprak Mansion in London’s Bishops Avenue for £41m. “Price is the catalyst or inhibitor behind any sale. I brace my clients for a dose of the truth, but it is far better to know where they are in order for them to plan the next step. Overprice and you get lots of footfall but no offers.” To price a house correctly, Abrahmsohn advises, choose three of the most active agents in your area who have set price precedents in the past few weeks or months. Tell the agent you want honest, realistic figures, then apply whatever margin to the asking price in excess of this figure, depending how urgent the sale is.
• Curb appeal Don’t focus all your efforts on the inside; remember that first impressions are created as prospective buyers approach the building. “Tidy the garden, trim hedges, weed flower beds, plant a few conspicuous shrubs so that it looks well-kept and, above all, cut the lawn,” says Trevor Abrahmsohn.
• Declutter Ask a friend who has not seen your property for a while to advise on what to hide or throw, as their eyes aren’t clouded by familiarity. And we’re not just talking about inanimate possessions. Children and dogs don’t sell properties, so make them scarce.
• Don’t stuff everything into cupboards, says Rupert Sweeting from Knight Frank. “You will never find anything and lots of potential buyers like a good snoop around and will want to open every single cupboard they can see to get a sense of the storage space available.”
• Move out spare furniture from the bedroom and cover the bed with an attractive bedspread. But don’t turn rooms into a barren space as they can look surprisingly small when empty. It’s also harder for a buyer to imagine what the house will look like furnished
• Definition Make sure each room is kitted out for the purpose it is intended for – so bedrooms should look like bedrooms, not store rooms.
• Create an appealing social environment It’s not always about decluttering; sometimes the opposite is required, installing new furniture to give prospective buyers an impression of how they would live in the property.
• Bring in the professionals “We come in and give a place a quick fix – a good clear out, facelift and blitz,” says Suzy Maas from The Final Touch. “We’re seeing a lot of desperate people coming to us because they’ve already reduced the price and just can’t sell. Most people opt for smaller jobs, which take a couple of weeks from meeting the client to finishing.”
• Do basic repairs Go through each room and do any minor jobs you can see would improve the finish at little expense, such as touching up paintwork, filling cracks, regrouting, straightening cupboard doors, replacing/polishing door handles. Clean the windows. Reseal around the bath, sinks and shower and remove any mould. It’s important to complete all running repairs – mend dripping taps, cracked panes of glass and peeling wallpaper.
• Clean, then clean again. Make sure everywhere is spotless, particularly bathrooms and kitchens.
• When to redecorate? If the property is being sold for development or as a shell, there is no point tidying or painting. But if it is a potential family home that is looking a little shabby, then clean thoroughly and air the house – especially when there are pets – paint tired areas and replace carpet where necessary. Bright, neutral, clean and uncluttered properties are most appealing to the broadest range of prospective buyers.
• Don’t spend money on expensive improvements – new carpets throughout, new bathroom or kitchen. Don’t redecorate any room using strong colours – and don’t redecorate one room splendidly and leave the rest looking tired. Kerrie Keeling, who runs the all-female building/decorating company A Woman’s Touch, says she is receiving a lot of pre-spring requests for redecorating properties in order to put them on the market. “People are rapidly trying to make their properties more palatable to a broader range of sellers without having to drop the price. The most common request among sellers at the moment is to replace carpets with laminate floors.”
• Don’t overdo it Too colourful is bad – but so is too bland, says Simon Buhl-Davis. “People tend to personalise their properties too much, thinking that everyone will share their taste, but they often won’t. So try to tone down the excesses where possible.”
• Don’t apologise for your home’s appearance to viewers – you have lived there happily (presumably), so there is no reason to make excuses. Leave the agent to handle any objections from potential buyers.
• And finally… Be patient, don’t panic and don’t give up. Accept that the time taken to sell properties in Ipswich has increased – Hometrack puts the figure at 8.5 weeks – and persistence will pay off.

However, it is not all doom and gloom! If nothing else, Property Buyers Ipswich can help. We personally feel that if anyone is to blame it is the creditors lending irresponsibly to those who simply cannot afford the payments. They don’t care if you get into debt – they make money from you in the way of interest and late payment charges. Add on to that the (unlawful) charges made by banks as a result of you having insufficient funds in your account when direct debits fail to come out and on top of the original debt, you can end up in a right old mess in a very short space of time!

It’s a win-win situation for the creditors really! They cannot loose. In fact, the last thing they want you to do is pay the balance of your credit cards every month, paying no interest to them. They WANT you to get into debt!

It can take months at least to sell a property in today’s market, “my bankruptcy hearing is next week and even if a miracle was to happen and I could find a buyer, it would never complete on time”. This is why estate agents in Ipswich can’t help.
Property Buyers Ipswich can and WILL help you out of this mess, you CAN recover from this. Let Property Buyers Ipswich lay your concerns to rest one by one;

1. It will not take Property Buyers Ipswich months to purchase your property, when we say a fast sale, we mean a fast sale! Typically, we complete within 28 days.

2. If your bankruptcy hearing is next week, or even in a day or 2, it is still well worth contacting Property Buyers Ipswich, as we can halt your repossession hearing by confirming that we are to purchase your property from you, which will enable you to pay your debts off and avoid repossession. Even if you are in negative equity.

3. Most companies will generally offer you 30 % below the current market value, the chance to rent back your property from them, Some then offer a chance to buy the property back at a set price at some point in the future.

This is not fair, and it’s not right. Property Buyers Ipswich will only make an offer if we think it is in your best interests. Ideally, you should be left in a position where you can repay your debts and either break even or have a little cash left over to spare. Obviously, this all depends on how much debt you have and how much equity you have in the property, but ultimately, you should come out of the other side in a better position than you were previously!

Although we can’t speak for every company, Property Buyers Ipswich doesn’t charge any fees for our service, and we also pay up to £500 of your solicitor’s fees for you. This helps those in financial difficulty and is a great alternative to paying out thousands of pounds in estate agents fees to get a slow sale of your property instead!

No matter how imminent your eviction is, we would highly recommend giving this option a go, you literally have nothing to loose. If you don’t like what you hear, you can always say ‘No thanks’! You may be pleasantly surprised to hear a friendly, non judgmental and calming voice on the end of the line offering to help you, as opposed to the horrible green ogre that is the bailiff!

www.propertybuyersipswich.co.uk

If you are going to find out how to stop repossession, it’s important to understand the process. Your mortgage is essentially a loan secured on your home. If you fall behind with the payments, then it’s likely that your lender will ask you to try to make an arrangement to keep up with current payments and with the arrears. Many people find it hard to deal with this situation and avoid talking to their lenders. This is a mistake.

Whether you talk to financial advisers and mortgage brokers, or read the mortgage contracts, the information is the same. If we don’t pay our mortgage on time and in full, then we put our homes at risk. It may not seem important to miss a couple of payments, but it is. With people now able to borrow up to five times their salary, finances are stretched thin. When interest rates go up, then it’s difficult to meet financial commitments. That’s why there are more repossessions in Ipswich and throughout the UK.

If negotiations with your lender break down, then they will approach the county court for a possession order. Even now, you can stop repossession with a quick house sale buy contacting Property Buyers Ipswich. If you are wondering how to stop repossession, then all you need to know is that you can stop repossession with a quick house sale.

I Need To Stop Repossession Now

Your lender has to fill out claim forms and follow a defined legal process, so it can take months to get to court. That means you have some time to take control of your financial life. Let Property Buyers Ipswich help you. We can show you how to stop repossession.

Property Buyers Ipswich can:

• Purchase your house fast
• Arrange a guaranteed, discreet sale
• Finish the sale process within four weeks
• Buy even if you have little or no equity

Buy if you have negative equity

You won’t find a better way to avoid repossession than a quick house sale Ipswich. When you’ve repaid your debts, you may have some spare cash so that you can start over. As professional house buyers, we can purchase your home and help you to avoid the debt trap.

www.propertybuyersipswich.co.uk

In short, if your house is currently worth less than your outstanding mortgage balance then you are in negative equity. Say you bought a house for £250,000 six months ago using a 100% “interest-only” mortgage, so your repayments only cover the mortgage interest each month rather than reducing the original loan. If today the market value of the house has dropped to £225,000 then you are in negative equity to the tune of £25,000 (the property is worth £25,000 less than the loan that finances it).

By contrast, if you bought a £250,000 home today but only took out, say, an 85% mortgage, then the value of the property would have to drop below £212,500 (the loan being 85% of £250,000) before you would fall into negative equity.

So, the people who are most exposed as property prices fall are those who took full advantage of the 100%+ mortgage deals that were becoming commonplace up until last summer’s credit crunch – a 120% mortgage on a £100,000 property created immediate negative equity of £20,000 even had prices stood still, let alone fallen. Trouble is also brewing for anyone who has been decreasing the equity in their home, by remortgaging or second-mortgaging.

So what are the consequences? In short, owing your bank or building society more than your house is worth makes it nigh on impossible to move since you are unlikely to be lent any more money for a bigger home and you may not even be able to transfer your existing loan from one home to another.

If you contact Property Buyers Ipswich then we can help with situations regarding no equity or even negative equity.

Negative equity also creates a headache for those seeking to remortgage. Last year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, nearly 90% of new UK mortgages were taken out on fixed-rate terms and when those terms end, as 2.5 million will over the next 18 months says the CML, the trouble begins. Those in negative equity won’t be able to simply shop around for a new deal since all the 100%+ deals will have long-since disappeared. This means they will be automatically transferred onto standard variable rates, which – at an average of around 7.5%  – are guaranteed to create big “mortgage payment shocks”. And for those who suddenly can’t fund their new repayments, repossession beckons – the CML expects a 50% rise this year.

The best way to avoid all this is to contact Property Buyers Ipswich and we will prioritise paying the mortgage and easing the stress of mortgage payments. With property values crumbling, one of the best investments you can make is getting rid of debt.

Contact www.PropertyBuyersIpswich.co.uk

Call Karl on 01473 740127 or 07814 708 313

First thing to do is Phone Property Buyers Ipswich for advice

Help from your lender

• Contact your lender and ask if there are any schemes they run to help with negative equity. Some lenders may have packages for their existing borrowers but usually only if you have a good payment record. For example, you may be allowed to borrow up to 125% of the value of your new home when you move. There may be a maximum amount of debt on your old mortgage that can be included in your new mortgage.
  Also, you may have to pay off the old mortgage debt over a shorter time period than a usual mortgage, such as 10 years rather than 25 years.

This is not necessarily a cheap option as the interest rate may be higher and there may be a fee. You are also putting your new home at risk if you cannot keep up the total mortgage payments on the new home. Payments will be larger than normal because of the shortfall having been included.

Remember, you will need to pay solicitors, estate agent fees and the costs of moving as well.

Renting out your home

Another option is renting out your house with your lender’s permission. Property Buyers Ipswich can rent your property for terms of between 1 and 10 years. Some lenders add an extra percentage on to the mortgage interest rate for allowing you to rent out the property. You could ask them to waive this if it will cause you hardship. You also need to check if your buildings and contents insurance will be affected by renting the house out.

If you do rent out your house to Property Buyers Ipswich, we take care of all the maintenance so you have no worries or concerns about paying for the upkeep of the property. We will then purchase the property off you at todays market value within the next 1 – 10 years.

Selling your home

You may be able to sell your house with permission from your lender. (if you contact us we can give you advise on this)You will need their agreement as they can stop a sale going through if the sale price will not cover the outstanding mortgage. ( it will if Property Buyers Ipswich buy your property) You will need to persuade them that you have obtained the best possible price for the property. Point out that if the house was sold by your lender they would be likely to get a much lower price as the property would be empty and could fall into disrepair.

The Mortgage Conduct of Business Rules says that a lender must “deal fairly” with anyone in arrears. It also says the lender must: “give consideration to the customer being allowed to remain in possession to affect a sale”. This means that if you cannot afford to stay in the house, the lender must look seriously at allowing you to sell the house yourself whilst you are still living there.

If your lender refuses to let you sell the house it is possible to apply to the county court for an order for sale under the Trusts of Land & Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. The court can order a sale on whatever terms it thinks are reasonable, even if your lender objects.

Contact www.PropertyBuyersIpswich.co.uk

Call Karl on 01473 740127 or 07814 708 313

Can’t sell using Ipswich Estate Agents, because you have no equity?

Is your property not even on the market with estate agents in Ipswich because you believe that negative equity prevents it from being sold?

If you were told that Property Buyers Ipswich would offer to buy your house at market value, even though the property was in negative equity, would you be interested?

As a result of over willingness by Banks and Building Societies to lend money secured on property and the recent recession, a BBC report in June 2009 stated that negative equity was affecting between 700,000 and 1.1m households in the UK and 13.1% of households in Ipswich.

The reality for people caught in this situation is that they are ‘stuck’ in their home, unable to move on because the money owing on their mortgage is higher than the value of their property. If they do decide to sell or to hand the keys back to their lender, they are often left in a position where they still owe thousands of pounds on that property.
Property Buyers Ipswich has extensive experience of working with people who find themselves with little or negative equity. We understand your situation and work with you in complete confidence and with discretion to tailor a solution suited to your needs.

Does this sound too good to be true? Give us a call, and see for yourself

Contact www.PropertyBuyersIpswich.co.uk

Call Karl on 01473 740127 or 07814 708 313

Ten worst-off towns or cities by percentage of buyers in negative equity: Northampton (16.9); Nottingham (16.2); Derby (15.1); Cardiff (14.7); Wigan (14.5); Manchester (14.5); Peterborough (14.1); Lincoln (13.8); Hull (13.4); Ipswich (13.1).

Contact www.PropertyBuyersIpswich.co.uk

Call Karl on 01473 740127 or 07814 708 313