Secondary loans could spell trouble for homeowners
Posted 2008-05-6
Housing charity Shelter has warned that the number of repossessions this year could come close to the record of 59,000 set in 1993, due to secondary loans being taken out by homeowners over the last few years.
The organisation claims that during high property inflation, many homeowners took out secondary loans to cover the cost of home improvements and to pay off debts such as credit cards.
Shelter claims that almost 20 per cent of repossession orders passing through the county courts are against people who have secondary loans secured against their homes and up to 53,000 properties could be reclaimed.
Adam Sampson, chief executive of Shelter, said that the actual number of repossessions could are likely to be much higher than previous estimates.
"We are finding lots of cases where lenders of other financial products are taking action themselves. And those ones, by and large, are not counted in the statistics; but they will add substantially to the total number of people who lose their homes," he said.
Shelter helps tenants and homeowners fight for their rights concerning property by offering advice and campaigning.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:22 am
This is a very sad state of affairs that needs addressing by the Government sooner rather than later. It’s great that there are people like Adam, at Shelter, who offer free advice and pro-actively campaign, but surely if repossessions are at the 53,000 mark, then this needs some intervention by Government.