[ Post New Message | Post Reply to this One | Send Private Email to One Angry Mother | Help ]

Response to Repossession Lists

from One Angry Mother (madcow678@hotmail.com)
Forrest,

Whilst I agree with your argument in essence, I think you fail to realise that nobody actually *chooses* to have their house repossessed and there are other factors involved rather than just not paying the mortgage coz you want your house, but don't want to pay for it. The factors may be illness,losing your job through business cutbacks or your partner leaving.

I would presume from your naive and limited mindset, that you are too young to fully remember the last recession which began in early 1990. Alot of people had been watching house prices rising by thousands of pounds a week, rather like they are now, and in order to get on the property ladder, lenders encouraged people to take out big mortgages that they could barely afford to repay, much like they are still doing these days, even with the gift of hindsight.

Then the bubble burst and redundancies were rife in every working sector, with record numbers of people being laid off each week. Even you, with your channel vision can appreciate that if industries are getting rid of jobs, there are no jobs to be had, and this is how many people ended up having their houses repossessed.

House prices dropped anyway, and I think you will find that what has annoyed most people who have been repossessed is that lenders sell the houses cheaper just to get rid of them quickly. Prices in the past have been anything from five upwards, the average being 30 grand, cheaper than market value.

In the end, lenders loose nothing. They recoup their money from interest. Then they expect repossessees to pay back the money that they undersold their houses for. This is why a lot of people say they got shafted by the building societies and banks. I think everyone would agree, if you borrow money, you pay it back, whatever the circumstances. I don't think many people would agree to paying back money that wouldn't have been due if the other party behaved in a professional and sympathetic manner.

Let's put it another way. Imagine you are old enough to have a mortgage, and a lender allows you to take 100 per cent mortgage, just to get your foot on the property ladder. Then you lose your job and your home is repossessed and sold for 30 grand less than it's market value. Would you feel justified in paying the 30 grand back to the lender, or would you feel they shouldn't have allowed somebody else to profit from your bad luck?

I sincerely hope you never find yourself in the situation.

(posted 7784 days ago)

[ Previous | Next ]