THIS is the £11million luxury home lost by a former banker and tycoon in what is believed to be the biggest ever repossession in Britain.

Robert Bonnier, 38, splashed out £3million more than the property’s asking price last year.

 He and wife Irene had planned to redevelop the home in West London’s exclusive Holland Park with a huge extension, an indoor swimming pool and cinema.

But the credit crunch has wiped 20 per cent off its value.

Bonnier - who made and lost a £150million fortune on a dotcom enterprise before going into banking - has racked up debts said to be around £15million.

His agent said: “You only have to look to see what’s happened to him to understand why the house has been repossessed.”

The Council of Mortgage Lenders said it had never heard of repossession of such an expensive property.

www.thesun.co.uk

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September 5: New position withdrawn due to downturn.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

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.

www.thesun.co.uk

Despite Government promises to help keep people in their homes in the downturn, repossessions are soaring. More than 100 homes a day are being seized by lenders - that’s a massive 50 per cent up on last year and the highest level since the early Nineties.

But as RICHARD DYSON explains, not everyone is a loser.

The investors - making a killing

The dinner-jacketed staff are welcoming, the sales patter slick, the surroundings plush. Welcome to the first auction of repossessed homes by American firm REDC (Real Estate Disposition Corporation).
Tempted by the growing number of home repossessions in Britain, REDC launched its UK arm, auctiontoday.co.uk, last month to offer a ‘wide selection of properties at auction prices’. More than 400 homes are listed on its website - all repossessions.
The function room at the Hilton Hotel in Gateshead near Newcastle upon Tyne is packed with eager bidders keen to pick up a bargain.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

A report by the Centre for Policy Studies has called on the British Government to learn the lessons of the 1990s and save the ‘tsunami’ of repossessions expected for this year.
The think tank, which was established by Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher in 1974, stands to promote the principles of a free society and free market economics.

Their call comes a few weeks after church leaders in the UK wrote to the Prime Minister calling for an economic recovery plan to be launched in the midst of the global recession.

Entitled ‘Save 100,000s homes from repossession’ the report from the CPS welcomes the limited steps taken by the Government – such as changes to stamp duty – but argues that these would only help a few households.

The think tank warns that if the Government does not act, repossession orders could exceed those in the 1990s.

Report author Natalie Elphicke, said: “The Courts have huge discretion in determining civil claims and can postpone, adjourn, stay or suspend a claim for repossession. If we are to stop the tsunami of repossessions then the Government must recognise the role of Civil Courts rather than ignore them.”

She added: “Court guidance for dealing with repossession hearings should be improved to assist those in need. There is a growing amount of case law that will help people stay in their home, but no clear guidance.”

Such reforms would be practical and would take account of each individual’s unique circumstances, she said.

For more information, http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=3863

Some 137 homes were repossessed in Bath in just nine months last year, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice. But there are hopes that the number of repossessions will fall in this year following new Government guidelines to banks.
Forty homes had mortgage possession claims issued from July-September, a rise of eight per cent on the same period the previous year. This took the figure for mortgage possession claims to 137 in nine months, a rise of 20 per cent on the previous year.
But experts say it is hard to determine the actual figure as the statistics do not take into account people who voluntarily give the keys back to lenders, or who managed to hang on to their homes.

This fact was found at: www.thisisbath.co.uk/news

For every 500,000 people becoming unemployed there will be a further 20,000 repossessions, says a new report from CB Richard Ellis.

‘Loss of income through unemployment is the major contributory factor towards arrears and repossessions,’ says the report.

The Government support for mortgage interest payment kicks in 13 weeks after being made unemployed.

The report highlights the most groups most vulnerable to repossession being the sub-prime market and the buy-to-let borrowers. ‘High mortgage rates are a particular problem for borrowers coming to the end of their current mortgage deal. These homeowners are finding it difficult to obtain a mortgage on comparable terms and may not be able to afford the higher rates,’ it says.

‘There are a large tranche of vulnerable borrowers which could increase the severity of the problem,’ the report concludes.

This report was found at: www.countrylife.co.uk/news/property

It has been revealed in a recent report that a mortgage rescue scheme that aims to try and reduce the number of repossessions taking place is to be rolled out across England. The scheme involves social landlords, which are housing associations, buying up homes from homeowners that are struggling to meet the repayments and could otherwise face repossession, and then allowing the former homeowners to continue living in the property on a rented basis.

The scheme is costing the government around £200 million, and it is estimated that around six thousand repossessions could be halted through the scheme. There are similar initiatives in place or planned in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, according to industry officials. This latest scheme is one of a number of measures that have been put into place to try and reduce the number of repossessions across the country, with some industry groups predicting that repossession numbers could soar as high as 90,000 over the course of the year.

This latest scheme was put into place last year, with an agreement being drawn up by the agency that represents the housing associations in England, the National Housing Federation, and the Council of Mortgage Lenders. So far the scheme has been adopted by around eighty local authorities across the country, but will now be extended across the rest of England. In Scotland a similar scheme has been in place for around five years, and it is thought that so far around seven hundred homeowners have benefited from the program.

Housing associations in England will buy up qualifying homes based on an independently assessed market value, and the homeowners will then either be allowed to stay on at the property as a rent paying tenant or may qualify to receive a loan from the housing association so that they can stay on as owners. The homeowners can then repay the loan in part or in full as their financial circumstances improve.

The scheme will be mainly aimed at more vulnerable households, such as those with children, those with disabled family members living in the household, and pensioners.

For more about this subject: www.loans4.co.uk

Stamp duty is to be suspended for a year on properties that cost up to £175,000 in a bid to boost the ailing housing market.

The long-awaited freeze on the unpopular levy is to take place from Wednesday.

It forms part of an emergency rescue package for hard-pressed home buyers and owners.

Gordon Brown has unveiled the flagship scheme to help people who are facing repossession stay in their homes.

The Prime Minister will hope it can tackle spiralling repossession figures and bolster his approval ratings, after Alistair Darling admitted the economy had hit a 60-year low.

Under the scheme, which will cost £1bn, vulnerable families will be offered the chance to sell their home and rent it back at a cheaper price.

They can sell the property to a registered social landlord who will clear the mortgage and then offer them a cheaper price in rent.

Read The Full Story Here
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Housing-Stamp-Duty-Exemption-Announced-By-Government/Article/200809115091112?lpos=Business_8&lid=ARTICLE_15091112_Housing%253A%2BStamp%2BDuty%2BExemption%2BAnnounced%2BBy%2BGovernment

1bn aid for struggling families facing repossession

Struggling families threatened with repossession will be able to sell part of their home to the council to stop them losing it under plans out today.

The £1billion Mortgage Rescue Plan is one of a raft of measures to be unveiled by Gordon Brown in a bid to prop up the slumping property market.

Government and property developers’ cash will be pumped into the scheme to help up to 9,000 families at risk of having their home repossessed. The plan will allow them to sell all or a percentage of their home to their local council or housing association and then rent it back at a more affordable level.

Up to £300million out of the pot is also going to be used to give 10,000 struggling first-time buyers help to get on the property ladder - which will also help building firms who face going bust in the wake of the credit crunch.

First-time buyers with a joint income under £60,000 will be able to get a 30 per cent loan towards a new-build property, which will only have to be paid back after five years. A senior Government source said: “Our plans are designed to help first-time buyers enter the market, support vulnerable families at risk from repossession and deliver more affordable homes sooner.”

Councils will get money to build 5,500 new homes over the next 18 months, while inner-city regeneration schemes which have stalled in the slump will also get a £200million kick-start.

However there was still no decision on a stamp duty “holiday”.

And, despite calls by the housing industry for a cut in interest rates, the Bank of England is expected to hold them at five per cent.

£300m to help first time buyers get on the property ladder

10,000 poor families to get chance to buy their first homes

£200m for schemes to regenerate hard hit inner cities

5, 500 council homes to be built over the next 18 months

Read The Full Story
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/09/02/right-to-sell-scheme-to-save-your-home-115875-20721072/

Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders has revealed there were an astonishing 18,900 cases, during the first half of 2008, where lenders had to repossess borrower’s properties, compared with 12,800 during the first six months of 2007.

The CML claims the data shows no surprises and maintains its forecast of 45,000 total possessions and 170,000 mortgages in arrears of more than three months by the end of the year, although it says these numbers remain extremely small when seen in the context of the 11.74 million mortgages in the UK.

The above figures relate to first mortgages, not to other consumer loans secured on people’s homes. Michael Coogan, director-general of the CML, says: “The number of people facing difficulty needs to be kept in perspective. The good news is that most people are coping well and continuing to pay their mortgages in full.”