Wednesday 22nd February 2012
Homeowners facing financial difficulty may have been cheered by the recent announcement from Housing Minister Grant Shapps about the introduction of the Preventing Repossessions Fund.
This new £20 million safety net to help homeowners who are struggling with mortgage arrears allows councils to offer small interest-free loans and ensure that court desks can offer on-the-day advice for those facing the prospect of repossession.
The Housing Minister said: “Repossession should only ever be the last resort. No one in financial difficulty should be embarrassed to seek help if they need it. Today’s cash ensures that no matter where you are in the country the advice and the financial support is on hand to help people get on top of their finances and keep them in their hard earned homes.
“Getting advice early is important but even for people facing a court hearing repossession is not a foregone conclusion. By extending the reach of the Court Desk scheme we are ensuring that no one is left stranded without the support of the free on-the-day legal advice that has already saved thousands of families from repossession.”
Kevin Still, Director of Atlantic Financial Management, commented on the initiative: "With the CML predicting increased repossessions in 2012 and the disappearance of the Sale and Rent Back market this may provide some welcome respite to indebted homeowners, but we will want to see how it operates in practice. What is clear is that millions of homeowners continue to see an erosion in their disposable income and quantitative easing measures only support these to a limited extent. We would expect to see more families seeking help in 2012 as the recession continues to bite."
The Preventing Repossessions Fund gives every local housing authority the ability to take out small interest-free loans of less than £5,000 or grants to help them get their finances back under control.
£1 million of the fund is allocated to making sure that free legal advice is available on the day for any homeowners in danger of losing their homes. A further £19 million has been designated to ensuring that the council can offer local people financial support to counteract the threat of repossession.
Lee Schofield, Broker Account Manager at Ashley Park Debt Solutions, said, “We at Ashley Park welcome any help for people who are facing repossession. One of our key aims is to ensure our clients remain in their family home.
“Whilst the interest-free element to the loan means it is a great initiative, in reality this becomes another commitment to meet each month and as such the person taking the loan would still have to deal with the issue of how to reduce overall outgoings to prevent this from happening again. A Debt Management Plan allows them to deal with these debts and help put them in a more stable position moving forward.”
Alasdair Warwood of APDSI said: "We would expect to see financial intermediaries increasingly coming across homeowner clients, who are unable to remortgage or sell their property, requiring financial assistance."
Unique technology platform offers 'market-changing' solution
Wednesday 4th January 2012
2012: A difficult year ahead?
Wednesday 4th January 2012
England footballer facing bankruptcy battle
Wednesday 14th December 2011
DMT Insider - Debt management in 2012
Wednesday 14th December 2011
Are back book buy-outs the future?
Wednesday 23rd November 2011
Send To Friend Print
RSS Feed News Archive If you have any queries about this news story or our news section, please contact us
Posted in: 
0 comments:
Post a Comment