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This document explains the eviction process used to evict homeowners in the UK due to unpaid secured loans. It offers advice on how to prepare for the court hearing and how to deal with lenders.

Firstly it is important to know that your lender can not evict you without a court order. If you have been given a court order by your lender (received in the post) it usually means that other attempts made by you and the lender to overcome the arrears have failed. Some lenders are very sympathetic to borrowers who have got behind in their mortgage payments and may wait 6 months before applying for a court order. Some lenders (of the sub prime variety) will be all to quick to take late payers to court.

In order to start the eviction process the lender will apply to the local court to issue a possession claim which will give you a date and time for a hearing in the county
court. You should have at least 28 days notice of the hearing date. (Note; a court hearing does not mean you will automatically lose your home.) Even if the court decides you cannot afford to stay there, you will not be evicted from your home on the date of the hearing.

What you need to do before the hearing
A document called particulars of claim will be sent as well. This sets out your lenders case for taking possession of your home. You will also receive form N11M called a defence form which you should fill in and return to the court within 14 days or receiving it.

It is important you give as much information as possible in the defence form as this give the court a chance to see your side of the story. The court will not evict people unless they have to so give them a good reason why they should order the lender not to evict you. You need to ensure you:

* Check the details of your lenders claim to see if you agree with them. Say if you think that the information is wrong.
* You will be asked how much you can afford to pay off the arrears. Prepare a personal budget sheet to work out how much you can afford to offer and show this.
* Put down an amount which you can afford, even if your lender has already refused this offer.
* If you are hoping that your circumstances will improve in the future (i.e. the reason why you got in arrears will change or improve), or you want time to be able to sell you home, then say so in the space provided.

You should send this document back 14 days after receiving it. If you have missed this date it is still worth sending it if it will reach the court before the hearing date. Remember to keep a copy.

What you need to on the day of the court hearing

* Come prepared to the court with short noted about what you would like to say at the hearing. Do not be afraid to refer to them when you speak.
* If your financial circumstances have changed since you filled in the court form work out a new budget sheet and take it with you.
* Take 3 copies of your latest personal budget with you (one for you, one for the judge and one for the lenders representative).
* Try to answer questions clearly, calmly and fully. Remember you have as much right to put your case as the lender and the judge will be keen to get the full story.

What should you say?
If you think you can pay off some of the arrears in staged payment let the judge know your plan. If the judge agrees the lender can not evict you if you stick to these plans. If the judge does not agree with this plan you can ask for an adjournment or postponement to give you time to sell your property yourself.

If you plan to pay off the arrears in a short space of time (by remortgaging or selling your property ask for an adjournment). You should also ask for an adjournment if you don not agree with the lenders figures. This will give the lender time to get detailed accounts ready for the judge.

If the judge does not accept any of your plans they can the district judge can make a possession order, which allows you a set period, usually 28 days, before your lender can take any action.

What if I can not pay?
If you subsequently find you can not pay the amount which the court has ordered you to pay, you should go back to the court and ask for the order to be changed. Use the form N244, available from the court office. You should also contact your lender and try to make a new arrangement.

Carl Robinson is an experienced property consultant and investor from. If you want to consider sale and rent back visit Quick Homebuyers to obtain a Free no obligation sale and rent back offer. This site also has a Free comprehensive report on how to avoid repossession.

Do you want to make sure that you get to keep your house? If so, you need to start by learning How to Write a Hardship Letter. When we enter financial difficulties, we often find that we might be watching everything in our life fall over, as though they were stacked dominoes, and one of the things that we most fear falling is our mortgage payments.

When you look into getting a load modification or an reassessment of your mortgage payment, you’ll find that there are many courses of action that you can consider, but one of the first and most preferred choices in front of you is learning how to write a hardship letter.

A hardship letter is essentially a letter that you send to your loan institution that will let them know about your problems and open up negotiations for what you can do. When you learning how to write a hardship letter, keep the following in mind:

Communication
Offering to resolve the debt
Thanking them for their time and support
Current contact information and sending the letter off

Remember that when seeking to understand how to write a hardship letter that the thing that you most need to think about is communication. You need to let the lender know that you are suffering from some financial hardships at this time, but that you are not going to let it stop you from paying them the money that you owe them.

With that in mind, you need to offer alternatives as to how you are going to pay. This might sound a little bit complex, but the truth of the matter is that learning how to write a hardship letter is easy and straightforward.

What your lender really wants to hear about is what are you going to do to resolve the debt. Writing out your solutions makes sense and this will be the heart of your letter of hardship. When you are doing this, remember that you can offer options like finding out if they can reduce your monthly payment, telling them what you can afford to pay every month, asking about hardship programs or looking into loan refinancing. What this will do is that it will let them know that you are ready and willing to make the payments that you need to make.

Remember that you should end the hardship letter on a friendly note. The more well-disposed they are to you, the better off you will be. Remember that they are going to be interested in helping you get the solution that you need so they can be paid off in full.

When it comes to contact information, make sure your information is as current as possible. Take some time to make sure they can get in touch with you. When it comes to sending off the letter of hardship, remember you need to fax it or send it by certified mail.

When you are looking at how to write a hardship letter, remember that you are not alone. This is the first step toward getting your finances resolved and within your control, so take the time to do it properly!

Peter Baptiste is known as the Foreclosure Doctor Online. Feel free to visit his blog where he provides a wealth of information on a regular basis.The Foreclosure Doctor Online

If you have missed any payments on your loans you need to check if they are secured or unsecured on your home. If they are secured then they need to be dealt with urgently as the lender has the power to take possession of your property if they are not paid. We are going to discuss secured loans and what to do if you miss these payments.

Contact your lender
The first thing you do is you need to contact your lender to confirm the amount you owe and the steps you intend to take to pay them back. Many lenders would rather put in place a payment plan than repossess properties but there needs to be dialogue between the lender and the mortgage holder. It is very tempting (and common) for people in arrears to bury their heads in the sand rather than face up to the situation but the earlier steps are taken the better it will be.

Most UK lenders are regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who have rules saying lenders must deal fairly with any customer who is in arrears. In practical terms each lender must:

* have a written policy on how to deal with customers in arrears;
* allow customers to set up a payment plans which is realistic
* send out regular information about the arrears;
* Not put pressure on customers through too many calls or letters.

If you took out a mortgage before 31st October 2004 and you think you are being treated unfairly by a lender, you can complain to The Financial Ombudsman Service (0845 080 1800). If you took out a mortgage after this date, then FSA rules apply and it is best to contact them directly (0845 606 1234).

Help towards paying your mortgage
If you need help towards paying your mortgage then there are a number of options you can consider.

* Check that you are not entitled to income support, child benefit, pension credit, jobseekers allowance, working tax credit or child tax credit. Contact your local Department for Work and Pensions office or local advice centre for more information.
* Check to see if your mortgage has payment protection insurance. If it has but you are still refused this contact the national debt helpline.
* Check to see if your lender will buy your home and rent it back to you (these are pretty rare and known as mortgage rescue schemes).
* Check rent back schemes by private companies as they can buy your home and rent it back to you (similar to the mortgage rescue schemes). They can often offer you the option to buy back your home at a later date when you have overcome any debt problems. Please check below for links to one such specialist company.

Arranging to pay off the arrears.

Do not arrange to borrow more money to pay off your existing debts as this will make matters worse in the long term. Switching all loans to a cheaper interest rate may be a sensible solution but increasing your debts is not.

In order to pay off arrears on secured loans you will usually have to pay extra monthly amounts to your lender. Lenders will sometimes ask for the arrears to be cleared over 12 to 24 months. Ask for a longer time to pay the arrears if you cannot afford to do this. If you cannot manage to clear the arrears as quickly as your lender wants, start paying the amount you have offered anyway and explain why you can only afford this, particularly if there are special circumstances (i.e. long-term illness, birth of a child, relationship breakdown or unemployment).

Other options to consider

* Change from an endowment mortgage to repayment/interest only mortgage
* Change from repayment mortgage to interest only to reduce monthly payments.
* Try and move onto a cheaper rate with your existing lender or move to a different lender.

What if I still can not afford my mortgage or arrears payments?

* Look for ways to increase your income (i.e. by renting out a room in the property) or reduce your other outgoings.
* Sell and rent back your home from a specialist rent back firm. Often the rent charged is less than previous mortgage payments.
* Sell your home and move to a cheaper home that you can afford.

What if they threaten to evict me?

If you have been given a court order (via the post) you will normally have 28 days notice of the hearing date. This court order does not mean you will be evicted on the date of the court hearing. This is just so the court can hear the case for and against your eviction. In order to understand the court hearing and preparation required we suggest you contact your local citizens advice bureau or national debt helpline.

Being in mortgage arrears is an incredibly difficult time for those experiencing them but it is very important to take action at the first instance of arrears. Unfortunately, many people get evicted unnecessarily by ignoring their lenders threats due to the stress of facing up to the situation.

Carl Robinson is an experienced property consultant and investor. If f you are in mortgage arrears and want to achieve a quick home sale or selling and renting back check out www.quick-homebuyers.co.uk. This site can also provide you with a Free comprehensive report on how to avoid repossession.

The current mortgage system is designed to squeeze as much money out of you as possible…

WARNING: you’re at a severe disadvantage because mortgage companies charge as much interest as long as possible without informing you in a clear way all the steps you can take to change it.

The current system requires your payments follow an “amortization schedule”, which forces most of your money to go towards interest.

In the first five years, you could end up spending five times more in interest than in mortgage principal - and that’s a huge chunk out of your paycheck! So if you make $12,000 in principal payments, you end up spending $60,000 in interest. Unbelievable! For a simple calculation go to Bankrate.

And when you move, the bleeding starts all over again…

The banks know you’ll probably move again or refinance in 5 years, and then the cycle of paying more interest starts all over again.

It takes years before your loan balance is reduced by a small amount-how unfair is that?

How many years have you been paying off your mortgage and are you really further ahead?

But here’s how to fight back…

You’re going to love this…there’s an improved method you can use to reduce these interest payments.

The way to do this is simple. Apply more of your monthly mortgage repayment to principal rather than interest without changing your repayment or refinancing your mortgage.

For example, if you pay $1,200 towards your monthly mortgage repayments, $1,100 goes towards interest and $100 towards principal early in the life of the mortgage.

You can pay more to principal, less to interest…and it’s perfectly OK with the bank!

Hang onto your seat, because now there is a way to apply $900 towards interest and $300 towards principal without changing your lifestyle or paying more anything…and the best part is that the banks will gladly accept this!

This method has been around forever but nobody has figured out how to use it.

Until now.

Wouldn’t you like to shave 13 years off your mortgage? You can! Here’s how…

Your mortgage can be paid off in one-half to one-third of the time. Most of our clients shave at least 13 years of their mortgage without spending a cent more.

And no, you do NOT have to refinance or get another mortgage; just have an open mind and a willingness to tackle a common math problem!

The concept is really simple. All you have to do is use a mortgage checking account the right way. Once you set this up you begin immediately allocating more of your payments to principal rather than interest and end up paying your mortgage much faster. The best part of all, the banks happily accept this.

Here are the 7 basic steps you need to follow:

1. Calculate your personal “HELOC number.”

2. You set up a Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC) for the Heloc number.

3. You pay your bills and mortgage on time.

4. You transfer money to your HELOC at the right time.

5. Your bank takes care of the rest-and they’re happy to do it!

6. Create a spreadsheet to make sure you stay on track.

7. …and YOU PAY OFF YOUR MORTGAGE AS EARLY AS 13 YEARS SOONER THAN NORMAL, AND SAVE AN AVERAGE OF $67,636 CASH!

You will NOT have to change your day-to-day spending habits or your lifestyle to take advantage of this concept. It’s a sound, smart way to pay down your mortgage.

Go directly to href=http://www.eqxl.com, EquityExcel. You will find out the step by step method to pay off your mortgage and the risks to avoid so that you don’t lose your home in the process, and you will be on the path to financial success.

If ever there was a time to buy a house for the first time now would be a good time. However, with the prospects of a price crash looming ahead, it may well be more possible for first-timers to finally find their feet on the property ladder. Many people will know that to buy a house now is to be financially stable and preferably with a substantial amount of deposit up front. Taking the 100 percent mortgage rate route is a risky step therefore people will need to find a way to save for a deposit.

The best way to find a good mortgage rate is to compare mortgage prices through plenty of researching. This may seem like a job that would take up most of your time on the internet, but without prior knowledge of mortgage rates and repayment options you are more likely to encounter plenty of financial difficulties. The problem that many people have faced when applying for mortgages is that they have applied for more than they can pay off in a month.

When you compare mortgage rates, you will find that banks or lenders offer more than just the mortgage. Often they offer insurance, capital only repayments, interest only repayments, capital and interest (standard), fixed interest payments or flexible mortgage repayments. Each of which the borrower will need to have looked into before putting all of their eggs in one basket. The way to compare mortgage rates is not just look online but to talk with professionals who have experience within this field, such as estate agents, lenders or banks.

Other ways to do this without feeling the need to buy something or agree to something is to read up financial articles from experts in this field. This may include going onto specialised websites on mortgages, which allows people to gain tips and advice on the best approaches to choosing something that will benefit them and not compromise their repayment abilities. What first-time buyers must understand that the market is always changing, therefore, interest rates will fluctuate and relying solely on your income is not the only way to maintain your financial position.

In the good old days of saving for a deposit and applying for a mortgage to buy a house, all people would have to worry about was working to keep the mortgage payments coming for their house. These days it is not as simple as holding down a normal 9 to 5 job just to pay off your mortgage, a lot more emphasis is placed on watching the market and seeing how your money will grow. A home is not just a home; it becomes an investment opportunity or asset. Therefore, one would need to make a careful decision about the kind of house they buy, in what location and whether it will prove to be an investment to them.

For those who have a bad credit history, there is light at the end of each tunnel they travel down. When you compare mortgage prices for people with difficulties in gaining any credit help, a lot that is offered usually proves to be more stretching than what it was from the beginning. The best thing to do is to make savings for a deposit substantial enough for the lenders to feel that they will not make a complete loss in lending you the money. This will also provide you with good mortgage repayment offers and a smaller risk on losing out.

Anna Stenning is knowledgeable on the best way to compare mortgage rates and how to go about applying for mortgages without compromising your finances.

For the second week in a row 30 year mortgage rates held steady at 6.52. 15 year mortgages last week moved from 6.07 to 6.1. The week they returned to 6.07. So basically the fixed rates are holding steady. 5 Year Arms fell from 6.05 to 6.02 and 1 Year Arms fell from 5.22 to 5.18. So they didn’t move that much. But what is interesting is the overall trend. This week marks the 3rd week in a row that both 5 and 1 year arms have fallen. The 1 year arm has fallen from 5.49 to 5.18. This continues an overall trend of the difference between 30 Year Fixed mortgages and 1 Year growing. On May 1st 30 Year Arms were at 6.06 and 1 Year Arms were at 5.29. Mortgage rates since then have risen up to 6.52 while 1 Year arms have fallen to 5.18. The question of course is why banks are making arms (the mortgage product that is partly responsible for the high rate of foreclosures) more attractive. And I don’t have an answer on that. Below are the mortgage rates for the last few weeks.

August 14,2008
30-yr 6.52 15-yr 6.07 5-yr ARM 6.02 1-yr ARM 5.18

August 7,2008
30-yr 6.52 15-yr 6.1 5-yr ARM 6.05 1-yr ARM 5.22

July 31,2008
30-yr 6.52 15-yr 6.07 5-yr ARM 6.07 1-yr ARM 5.27

July 24,2008
30-yr 6.63 15-yr 6.18 5-yr ARM 6.16 1-yr ARM 5.49

July 17,2008
30-yr 6.26 15-yr 5.78 5-yr ARM 5.80 1-yr ARM 5.10

As always I like to translate the mortgage rates into an actual mortgage payment. So using our free mortgage calculator below are what today’s rates would translate into for a 200k mortgage. I also run the numbers based on what mortgage rates were at on May 1st.

August 14th
30-yr $1266.76
15-yr $1695.28
5-yr ARM $1201.67
1-yr ARM $1095.75

May 1st, 2008
30-yr $1206.82
15-yr $1643.73
5-yr ARM $1164.60
1-yr ARM $1085.89

On the one hand in general I am against arms. They are generally dangerous so I don’t like to recommend them. But with such a wide gap between arms and traditional mortgages they are hard to ignore. If you do get an arm I would be prepared for your mortgage to jump substantially. For the most part I would consider an arm if you had enough money in savings to pay off the property if rates jumped up dramatically over the year.

The other factor to consider when getting a mortgage is credit scores. While for the first half of 2007 all one had to do to get a mortgage was show up at a bank over the last years banks have gotten a lot tighter. Additionally, interest rates now more than ever are tied to ones credit score. So if you are planning on buying a house sometime in the near future its a good idea to figure out what your credit score is now to make sure there are no outstanding debts or problems you need to fix.

Escapeso Realty provides current information on mortgage interest rates on their site. They also provide a free mortgage calculator and a mortgage rates widget.