Information and advice on having your house repossessed and how to prevent it.  Sell the house to a property trader who will rent it back to you so you can still live there.

Repossession can easily be stopped at any time. Always try to settle the matter with your lender first. If you haven't had written confirmation that the lender is taking no further action prior to the court date you should attend the court with evidence of all communication to date.

You can stop repossession in one of three ways:

• you can now afford to pay your mortgage each month
• you have a buyer for your house
• you can pay off your mortgage in full by selling other assets or taking out a new mortgage.

As soon as you have any evidence of the above e.g. an employer's letter, an offer from a buyer etc., you can start to halt the proceedings.

There are a number of steps you can take to stop or slow down the repossession process to give you more time to resolve and improve your financial situation. Here you can find out various ways of preventing a repossession and why it is so important that you do not get repossessed.

Selling Your House to Prevent Repossession

Just because the court has issued a Possession Order or an Eviction Notice, it doesn't mean that you will lose your home. Providing that there is sufficient equity in your property, you can:

• Sell the house yourself and move to another property - renting or downsizing
• Re-mortgage the house
• Sell the house to a property trader who will rent it back to you so you can still live there

By selling and downsizing or renting another house you will not only prevent repossession but may end up with some cash released from the equity in the house.

Re-mortgaging your property is an option to consider. House prices have risen dramatically in recent years and the opportunity to release equity at lower rates of interest to repay very expensive credit and store card debt and reduce monthly payments can be highly attractive. Make sure you take into account the future trend of interest rates to ensure that your ongoing repayments are affordable.

There are many organisations that can arrange finance to pay back your current lender inclusive of all mortgage arrears. This can be a fast track to stopping an eviction or possession order, even if the process has begun. Specialists can attend court with you to help arrange a suspension order, where this may be appropriate, and to satisfy the judge and court that new finance will soon be in place to discharge the arrears.

Some companies offer a service where they can buy your house and rent it back to you. This will mean that repossession is halted and although you will no longer own your home you can carry on living there. As long as there is equity in your house your monthly payments can be reduced and some cash may be freed up from the sale