A not for profit community interest company says recently reported regional trends in the repossessions market mirrors its own experiences.
Revival Repossession Solutions is urging intermediaries to become aware of all the support options available to their clients who are facing repossession.
The firm, which recently launched a broker proposition, provides urgently needed advice and instructs legal representation for borrowers facing repossession proceedings in court. Revival has helped over 1000 people stay in their homes over the last two years.
“Recent research broadly reflects what we are seeing in terms of enquiries,” said Luke Memory, Revival Repossession Solutions’s chief executive. “We have many clients from the south of the country who generally have more to protect in terms of equity. It’s far from an exact science but usually when we get a call from a southern client the equity is higher, their earnings are normally higher and conversely their arrears are higher, so the pressure is greater all round. Moreover, if people have a good degree of equity, this could be massively diminished should they get repossessed.
“There is more of a tendency with enquiries from the north for clients to have low or negative equity and to be experiencing significant affordability issues in relation to their mortgage payment. This certainly isn’t the case for all our northern clients, and we see a wide range of cases across all geographies, but it’s more of a trend in the north than the south.”
Memory believes this all means the adviser market needs to prepare itself to support clients who may find themselves in a repossession situation:
He said: “Recently we have seen a real shift in lender attitude towards forbearance. These changes are having a major impact on borrowers. It is clear that many lenders are simply not prepared to consider all the remedies available under PAP (Pre Action Protocol).
“Advisers need to be in a position to direct people to the right information as quickly as possible and understand what options their clients have from organisations such as the CAB, Shelter and Revival.”