Mortgage arrears. What to do if you can't pay your mortgage

Can my mortgage lender repossess my home?

Lenders only start court action to repossess your house as a last resort. If your lender contacts you about your mortgage arrears or secured loan arrears don’t ignore them.

The best thing you can do is speak to your lender. Let them know about your situation and the steps you’re taking to get your payments up to date. If your lender can’t contact you they're more likely to go to court or take further action against you.

Read our advice on what to do if you're facing house reposesssion for more information.

Help from your mortgage lender

If you're struggling with your mortgage payment or arrears, your lender will want to help you. They offer different types of help which is why it's so important to contact them directly as soon as possible. Here are some examples of how they might be able to help.

Interest only

If you’re on a repayment mortgage you may be able to switch to an interest only mortgage. This will reduce your monthly payment as you’ll only be paying the interest on the mortgage, rather than the interest and the capital. This isn’t a long term solution as this type of mortgage means you only ever repay the interest part of the mortgage. You need to make sure that you can repay the capital (the original amount borrowed) at some point before the end of the term.

Extending the term

Depending on your age and the amount of time left on your mortgage your lender might be able to increase the number of years left on your mortgage. This will reduce your monthly payment helping to make it more affordable. You should consider if you’ll be able to continue repaying the mortgage on an extended term, particularly if this means you’ll still be paying your mortgage after retirement.

Payment holiday

Your lender might be able to offer you a payment holiday. This means you’d have a break from paying your mortgage for a few months. You’ll need to catch up with these payments before your mortgage term ends. It’s possible that your lender will still charge interest in this period which means you'll pay back more overall.

Assisted voluntary sale schemes

Your lender may offer an assisted voluntary sale scheme. This means they will give you extra time and help if you decided to sell your property.

Government mortgage help

In some cases you can get government mortgage help to help you with your mortgage payments. This is called Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) and you can find out more on how the scheme works from Gov.uk.

SMI is normally paid directly to your mortagge lender. The payments will start 13 weeks after you've claimed the benefit. This means if you don't have enough money to pay the first 13 weeks you'll build up mortgage arrears which will need to repaid later.

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. Call our Helpline (free from all landlines and mobiles) 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.