If you’ve missed payments and built up mortgage arrears or secured loan arrears it’s important to act quickly. Not paying these could result in your home being repossessed.
You need to contact your lender to tell them why you’ve missed payments and arrange to repay the arrears. To do this you’ll need to pay your normal monthly payment plus something towards the arrears.
Repaying your mortgage arrears:
Step 1:
The first step in repaying your mortgage arrears is to create a household budget. Make sure that you list all of your income and expenditure. Don’t include any unsecured debts, such as personal loans, credit card debt or catalogues. This is because the consequences of not paying your secured loan or mortgage arrears are much worse than not paying your unsecured debts. Unlike your mortgage, not meeting the payments on unsecured debts doesn’t put your home at risk.
If you've got any money left over, once you’ve covered all of your household costs, this is the amount you can afford to pay towards your mortgage arrears.
Step 2:
Once you know how much you’ve got left each month you need to contact your lender to arrange repayment. You can also send them a copy of your budget to give them proof of your situation and show them you’re paying as much as you can afford.
Step 3:
You may find it useful to look into increasing your income or reducing your expenditure. This might give you extra money to put towards your arrears.
Free help and advice
We can help you create a budget and work out what you can afford to pay towards your secured loans or mortgage arrears. All you need to do is call our Helpline on 0800 138 1111 and our expert advisors can give you specialist and tailored advice to help you solve your mortgage problems.
You can also create a tailored budget using our online Debt Remedy tool. This will work out how much you can afford to pay towards your mortgage arrears and how to deal with them.
