THOUSANDS more Brits than usual face home repossession this year as the credit crunch costs jobs.
One of them is IT consultant James Cousins, 41, from Sittingbourne, Kent, who lost his job with Lloyds TSB eight months ago.
As James, married to Bev, 48, struggled over the next few months to find work to pay his bills, his mortgage lender began the process of claiming back his three-bed house.
Here, CAROLINE IGGULDEN brings you his diary of the fight for his home…
February 1 2008: Negotiate a fixed-rate mortgage for two years at 5.99 per cent with Mortgage Express, owned by Bradford & Bingley.
Payments on the £190,000 loan will be £956 a month plus £100 to repay arrears from November 2007, when I was jobless for a month.
March 1: Start a new contract as an IT consultant with Lloyds TSB, on £40,000 a year.
September 1: Contract with Lloyds TSB ends but I have another job to go to.
September 5: New position withdrawn due to downturn. Gutted.
September 8: Phone Mortgage Express to explain I have lost my job. Pay £800 on mortgage.
October 1: Receive a standard letter from Mortgage Express highlighting my arrears, which means £30 monthly admin fee.
October 27: Start a new IT job.
December 1: Lose job after just five weeks. Can’t believe it.
December 2: Tell lender about losing my job but manage mortgage payment of £956.
April 3: Mortgage Express call to say the next stage of repossession will start soon as my arrears are now around £4,500.
April 6: My wife is doing double shifts at Sainsbury’s.
April 17: Receive a letter from Mortgage Express saying legal proceedings will begin to repossess my home. I mention Shelter said I should be eligible for the Mortgage Rescue Scheme announced in the Budget.
May 3: Fantastic news. My lender and I have an agreement: For five months they will suspend repossession as long as I pay £300 per month. If, after five months I still haven’t got a job, I would be eligible for the Government’s Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme for two years, where the Government pays 66 per cent of mortgage interest.
Not out of the woods yet but at least I can concentrate on my job search without worrying myself sick.
JAMES’S REPO TIPS
Talk to your lender, keep them informed of your situation
Pay whatever you can towards your mortgage, your lender will see you in a better light
Don’t be afraid to seek advice from organisations. Shelter have offered me brilliant advice
Don’t be ashamed. Talk to people, such as your local MP, who might be aware of help you are entitled to
December 5: Hear about a mortgage rescue scheme but can’t find details on Gov website.
December 15: Apply for dozens of jobs, like I do every day now.
January 3 2009: Make a £200 payment towards mortgage.
January 10: Start a part-time taxi-driving job for extra cash.
January 26: Wife Bev is made redundant by Clinton Cards.
February 13: Mortgage Express have told an agent from their pre-litigation team to visit me, which will cost me £94.
February 20: The pre-litigation agent arrives unannounced. He asks me to fill in an income/ expenditure form.
February 28: Stressed, so visit my doctor, who prescribes anti-depressants. I’ve worked for 20 years and never thought I could fall in to such a desperate situation as I am in now.
March 10: Call the UK’s leading debt charity, CCCS, for advice. They say I could file for full bankruptcy to release me from all debt but I would lose everything.
March 14: This month we managed to pay £600 to Mortgage Express because Beverley worked as many hours as possible before her job ended and my stepdaughters Sharrona, 24, and Chantelle, 21, paid extra housekeeping.
March 31: Job interview for the NHS in Cambridge (125 miles from home). They say no thanks.
Tags: Credit crunch, diary, family, OK Homebuyers, Repossession