‘MISS TWO MONTHS’ AND YOU COULD BE REPOSSESSED

The powers came to light as a result of a High Court ruling in support of lender GMAC-RFC which moved to repossess after one borrower fell into arrears.
At the hearing last October, Mr Justice Briggs reinforced a 1925 law whereby lenders were allowed to sell the homes of those two months in arrears.
This has political implications in that it bypasses Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s recent demand that mortgage companies only seize homes as a last resort.
Politicians and campaigners now have begun to lobby for a change in the law to prevent lenders using the ruling as a business practice to circumvent Mr Brown’s wishes.
John Gallagher, principal solicitor with homelessness charity Shelter, said that new laws were required to protect vulnerable homeowners.
Repossessions in the UK were up 71 per cent on the three months to last June to a more than 11,000 households .