Additional Information on Payment Diffculties

 

If you are having trouble paying your mortgage, we will try to help you. These sections explain how we will treat you fairly, and what steps you should take to help yourself.

We will

• Contact you as soon as possible to discuss your problem – so please respond to our calls or correspondence.
• Talk to an agency which gives debt advice (for example, Citizens' Advice), if you want us to.
• Give you reasonable time to pay back the debt.
• Only start proceedings to repossess your home if we cannot solve the problem with you.

We might be able to

• Arrange a new payment plan with you, taking your and our interests into account.
• Change the way you make your payments, or the date you make them.
• Allow you to pay back your mortgage over a longer period of time (which would reduce your monthly payments).
• Change the type of mortgage.

If we cannot offer you any of these options, we will tell you why. If we can make one of these arrangements with you, we will explain how it would work and give you time to consider it. If we cannot offer any of these options, we might agree to you remaining in the property to sell it yourself depending on your circumstances.

What you can do to help us

• Tell us as soon as possible if you are having problems repaying your mortgage or think that you might experience problems shortly.
• Seek debt advice if you would like help with managing your finances.
• Contact us quickly, if we try to contact you.
• Make sure you keep any other people paying the mortgage, and anyone guaranteeing the mortgage, up to date with what is happening.
• Keep to the payment plan we agree with you, or tell us if there is a change in your circumstances which may affect the arrangement. If you do not make the agreed payments, we might have to go to court to get back any money you owe us, or to repossess your property.
• Check whether you can get any state benefits or tax credits which could help to increase your income.
• If you have an insurance policy, check whether it would help with your payments.
• Tell us if you move to a new address.

Getting advice

You may want to talk to a professional adviser, such as a debt counsellor or a lawyer, before you change your mortgage arrangements. We would strongly advise that you seek independent, free, debt advice.

You can get advice from:

Citizens Advice Bureaux Citizens Advice Bureaux provide free, confidential and independent advice from over 3,000 locations including in bureaux, GP surgeries, hospitals, colleges and courts . Advice to help people resolve debt problems is available face-to-face and by telephone. Most bureaux offer home visits and some also provide email advice. Go to www.citizensadvice.org.uk to find your nearest bureaux

National Debtline National Debtline is a national telephone helpline for people with debt problems in England, Wales and Scotland. Their service is free, confidential and independent. National Debtline is committed to answering your call and then discussing your debt problems with you and the options available to you. The specialist advice given over the telephone is backed up with written self-help materials which can be send out to you free of charge. Phone 0808 808 4000 or go to www.nationaldebtline.co.uk

Costs and charges

If you fail to make your payments as agreed by direct debit or 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 agree to 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 and legal 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 we repossess your home this information is recorded with various credit reference agencies and this is likely to result in you having difficulty obtaining in obtaining a mortgage in the future.

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.

Buy to Let mortgages

• Our approach to customers having payment difficulties with Buy to Let mortgages is slightly different compared to customers who are owner occupiers. These are considered to be loans to assist with the investment objectives of customers and not for the purpose of using the property as their own primary residence.
• Therefore the Bank will treat any such cases with a more commercial approach than in the case of owner-occupiers, while at the same time we will still work sympathetically and fairly with any of our Buy to Let customers who are experiencing difficulty in making their mortgage payments and will try to develop a schedule for repayment of the debt that is acceptable to both you and us.
• In addition to the above, where we cannot agree a solution, this may result in the Bank seeking collection of the rents directly from the tenants, in some circumstances via a receiver in accordance with the Law of Property Act 1925.

Complaints

If you do not think we have treated you fairly, you can complain to our complaints officer who is:

Christopher E Tregenza Director Compliance and Legal Heritable Bank Plc 8 Hill Street Berkeley Square London W1J 5NG T: 020 7518 4247 E: chris.tregenza@heritable.co.uk

If your complaint is not dealt with to your satisfaction, you may be eligible to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman. The Financial Ombudsman Service provides a free and independent service for consumers, and can be contacted at:

The Financial Ombudsman Service South Quay Plaza 183 Marsh Wall London E14 9SR T: 0845 080 1800

Other issues

• Some companies may offer you new loans or even invite you to sell your property to them and then lease it back as a way of resolving your short term financial difficulty. Please be careful, as such actions may not be in your long term best interests. We would advise you to seek independent advice before entering into any arrangement of this type.
• You may be thinking about handing your keys over to us. If you do this, you will still owe us any outstanding debt, and we would advise you to discuss this option with us before taking such action.

You can call us on 0333 200 4551 and ask to speak to one of our experienced team