Costs and charges
If you are in arrears, we may charge you for reasonable administrative and legal costs. We will tell you the amount you will have to pay.
If we cannot agree on a solution
- We may send a debt counsellor to see you to discuss your financial circumstances, and the cost of the visit may be charged to your mortgage account.
- We may go to court to start proceedings to repossess your home. If proceedings take place, we strongly recommend that you attend the court and that you seek independent debt advice.
- Starting court proceedings does not necessarily mean that we will repossess your home. We will keep trying to solve the problem with you. Possession is a last resort.
- Before we repossess your home, we will give you advice about getting in touch with your local authority to see if they can find you somewhere else to live.
If we repossess your home
- We will sell it for the best price we can reasonably get. We will try to sell it as soon as possible.
- We will give you reasonable time to take your possessions from your home.
- We will use the money raised from selling your home to pay your mortgage and any other loans or charges.
- If there is any money left over, we will pay it to you.
If selling your home does not raise enough money to pay off the mortgage
- If there is not enough money from the sale to pay the whole mortgage, you will still owe us the amount that is left (a shortfall debt). We will tell you what this is as soon as possible.
- If you bought your home with other borrowers, each of you is responsible for all the money borrowed. This is true even if you normally only pay part of the mortgage.
- We will contact you within six years of selling your property (five years in Scotland) to arrange for you to pay back what you still owe.
- We will take account of your income and outgoings when we arrange a payment plan for this shortfall debt with you. But if we cannot arrange a suitable plan, we may go to court to get our money back. You might have to pay additional court costs.
- If a shortfall debt is not paid, it could affect whether you are able to get credit in future.
